Moose camp and cabin building

Well so far it’s a mooseless year and an empty freezer. Had a good time in base camp and we did see a few bulls and some cows, but nothing that anyone could get a decent shot at, so moosies your safe for another year, or at least those living in the valley we usually hunt. I drew a late season draw tag, so starting Sept 22 I have 6 weeks to try and fill the freezer and plan to do so before the middle of Nov.

I cut my time in camp short and only stayed about 8 days instead of my normal 15. My priorities changed this year and pointed more towards working on the cabin platform for the Indian River property. With Dean’s help we got the platform done and 99% of the porch deck finished. I sort of mis calculated on my materials list and ran out deck boards, Ooops, hopefully I’ll get back down there one more time before the snow flies to finish it up.

It did go good, friend Scott helped out and drove my truck towing the car hauler with both the truck and trailer loaded down with lumber and I drove the RV also towing a trailer with ATV’s and more lumber. It was a heck of a load of wood we hauled down, but that was the easy part. Scott and I arrived at our camp site on Thursday and Dean showed up Friday with his ATV to help build and haul material into the cabin site.

From the parking area to the cabin site is about a two and half mile ride through mud and hard pack trail, depending on the weather. Our first load was bridging material to build, well, a bridge over a small creek we had to cross. After we got the bridge up Scott and Dean went back and got more material while I drove into the cabin site and started on finishing up the last beam and then work on the floor joist for the platform and porch deck.

It took them all day Friday to haul all the material in and about as long for me to finish up the beams. Of course getting a flat and having a tire come off the rim on the trailer they were hauling behind the ATV’s didn’t help. By the end of the day we had all the materials in and made it back to camp for a well deserved steak dinner. Saturday morning Scott headed back home to spend time with the wife and Dean and I started to get serious on hammering down the floor joist and platform decking.

By Sunday afternoon we had the joist and decking down and nailed and then finished up on the hangers for the porch deck. It sure was hard keeping our mind set into nailing down boards when we had this excellent view of the valley in front of us. Being as it was still hunting season we did take a fair amount of breaks to watch the valley, just to make sure no legal sized moose tried to sneak by us :<) Dean left Sunday afternoon to head home and get ready for work on Monday and mentioned how nice a shower was going to feel and though I agreed with him on the shower, I’m betting I had a nicer day working on the cabin, even if I did stink from 3 days of sweet and grime. Hey it wasn’t like there was anyone around to notice anyway. By the end of Monday I had 50% of the porch deck down and done and planned to finish it up Tuesday, apply a coat of wood preservative and call it good. Hah, nice plan until I realized I goofed on my material calculation and was short by 3 runs of 2x6’s. Dang nabit, oh well, I’ll have to come back next week with more material and finish it up. So Wednesday morning I pack up and head for home with plans to bring back more material and another can of wood preservative. It was a nice and uneventful drive to Fairbanks, sunny and warm and all was going good until I got to town. Decided to stop and gas up the RV and see just what kind of mileage I was getting these days. So a quick and easy off the Parks, hit safeway 2 blocks away and back on the road home… Not. As I’m getting on the off-ramp I hear a grinding sound, hum, not good, better stop, so I look out the passenger side window and see my axle and passenger side rear tires, all of the tires. Now dangit, aren’t those things suppose to be under the vehicle…. So I stop as fast as the brakes will let me and watch the two rear tires and half of my axle roll past me on fire and burning. If it wasn't so shocking it’d be funny, kind of like the movie Vacation….. I won’t bore you with all the wonderful details of not being able to get a wrecker out and when after calling everyone in town I was charged $500.00 by the only one that would tow a 27 foot RV that day 4 miles… So ends another wonderful week of my vacation :<)

Building the cabin