Life in Alaska

[Wes806]

Nice pics thanks for taking time and posting them.

[NY1468]

Great pictures, glad you had good trip. Your hat in the pictures is my favorite hat that have. ?

[hardtail]

Just seeing this now, could have grabbed a coffee around Edmonton, looks like hammer down, glad it was a safe trip

[mike newman]

..lovely    pictures . AK.   thanks     for sharing.....

...that is quite a hike...in that relatively short time....something we have planned with a Brother of mine in Edmonton...however...the gook flu and its financial  ramifications  may well sink that plan...and....I believe    we would have/will extend the elapsed  trip time out.........take a few more coffee and comfort stops........

Great pictures........and Brother is a pilot for Canadian  Helicopters ....thus is very familiar with the terrain....the aerial view...that is.....!!

Mike

[AKwelder]

2 hours ago, NY1468 said:

Great pictures, glad you had good trip. Your hat in the pictures is my favorite hat that have. ?

Yeah, I like it and was thinking I needed to buy a few spares??

[poor farmer/logger]

Nice pics all thanks for posting. Someday I’ll make that same trek from here. Have a friend that did it a couple years ago with his 02 dodge diesel he had bought that spring from the states and his fifth wheel camper. All was going well till he got into Alaska a ways and the whole front frame above the fith wheel on the camper itself cracked out. Had to hire a portable welder to come out weld it up and reinforce it so he could make the trek all the way back to Saskatoon.  He made it safely. Said it was well worth it though even with the added excitement lol. 

[AKwelder]

15 minutes ago, poor farmer/logger said:

Nice pics all thanks for posting. Someday I’ll make that same trek from here. Have a friend that did it a couple years ago with his 02 dodge diesel he had bought that spring from the states and his fifth wheel camper. All was going well till he got into Alaska a ways and the whole front frame above the ditch wheel on the camper itself cracked out. Had to hire a portable welder to come out weld it up and reinforce it so he could make the trek all the way back to Saskatoon.  He made it safely. Said it was well worth it though even with the added excitement lol. 

Wow, that would definitely make the trip more expensive. 
 

I have done the drive three times now, and the road is really a lot better than my first trip in the fall of 92. This time we never hit gravel, lots of chip seal and repairs but there is no gravel roads anymore.  Much better

[yellowrosefarm]

I remember when my brother and I drove up to Fairbanks in 1982, it was thousands of miles of gravel. Had to put a windshield in the truck when we got back to Virginia. In total we drove just under 11,000 miles in 3 weeks.

[AKwelder]

2 hours ago, yellowrosefarm said:

I remember when my brother and I drove up to Fairbanks in 1982, it was thousands of miles of gravel. Had to put a windshield in the truck when we got back to Virginia. In total we drove just under 11,000 miles in 3 weeks.

That is some serious driving.  Uff da 

 

I really expected to chip the new windshield on the way and maybe the paint.  Only got dusted on time on a chip seal repair. Very surprising to me.  And the dust he’s have been cut back a long ways on each side so you can see if Bullwinkle is about to jump out in front of you

[yellowrosefarm]

I remember driving from Fairbanks to Anchorage and seeing a lot of moose standing in the water off the road a bit. Finally, one of them decided to cross the road up ahead a ways so I slowed down. We were driving a 78 Chevy pickup. As I came up to the bull moose standing in the road I realized I could probably drive under his belly and not touch a hair. They sure didn't look that big standing in the water, haha. We were there in July, actually followed the 4th parade down the main street of Tok. Camped in gravel pits along the way to get away from the mosquitoes. Had to clean the blood off the windshield pretty often as the wiper fluid wouldn't cut it. I bought a gold pan and tried panning some tailings but the skeeters drove me off after about 15 minutes.  Went to McKinley and rode the bus out to the point. It was a picture perfect clear day and I got some pictures of a grizzly and cubs before the rangers shooed us back onto the bus. We stayed a few days with my brothers friend in Anchorage and slept in his basement. I think that was the only decent sleep I got up there because of the "midnight sun". I remember the fireweed and all the other amazing flowers everywhere. Also Athabasca falls and varoius hot springs. It was still pretty wild even then and you could go hours on the Al-Can without seeing another vehicle.

[AKwelder]

On 7/23/2020 at 6:32 AM, yellowrosefarm said:

I remember driving from Fairbanks to Anchorage and seeing a lot of moose standing in the water off the road a bit. Finally, one of them decided to cross the road up ahead a ways so I slowed down. We were driving a 78 Chevy pickup. As I came up to the bull moose standing in the road I realized I could probably drive under his belly and not touch a hair. They sure didn't look that big standing in the water, haha. We were there in July, actually followed the 4th parade down the main street of Tok. Camped in gravel pits along the way to get away from the mosquitoes. Had to clean the blood off the windshield pretty often as the wiper fluid wouldn't cut it. I bought a gold pan and tried panning some tailings but the skeeters drove me off after about 15 minutes.  Went to McKinley and rode the bus out to the point. It was a picture perfect clear day and I got some pictures of a grizzly and cubs before the rangers shooed us back onto the bus. We stayed a few days with my brothers friend in Anchorage and slept in his basement. I think that was the only decent sleep I got up there because of the "midnight sun". I remember the fireweed and all the other amazing flowers everywhere. Also Athabasca falls and varoius hot springs. It was still pretty wild even then and you could go hours on the Al-Can without seeing another vehicle.

Sounds like you had a Good trip

[AKwelder]

Well since I am ho e from my drive it was back to garage construction 

slabs turned out fine, 

 

 

got the forms striped and the wood delivered 

 

Saturdays was a good day

[AKwelder]

Been working on the new garage.  Borrowed my favorite unrelated uncles mini excavator.  Was doing great putting in the power pole and trenching in the conduit.  And suddenly we had a small spray in the cab.  Yeah,  hose under the floor boards

 

got it back together after getting two new hoses

 

 

trusses are here. Putting them up with a material lift

 

bringing them to the site with the ole IH

 

getting to have a roof

 

i need to get it dried in so I can go moose hunting and harvest the honey from my hives.  Also need to get things cleaned up for fall, we had 45* last night 

[hardtail]

Always enjoy a new build, that pickup looks cherry and still earning its keep, dont see gin poles much anymore, used to be in every fab yard

[AKwelder]

3 hours ago, hardtail said:

Always enjoy a new build, that pickup looks cherry and still earning its keep, dont see gin poles much anymore, used to be in every fab yard

It’s a good truck, but well worn.  A few are still around.
 

The Gin poles allow me to not use my loader to lift things it shouldn’t, and are much better than getting up and down off the tractor to adjust or re-rig.  For old technology it sure works well, and it’s pretty nice on the back

[AKwelder]

Went to a job site the other day

Well, IH even makes stocking shingles easier!    Because I sure wasn’t going to throw them on my shoulder and go up a ladder,  the whole older and wiser deal

 

 

ran out of the underlayment material or we would have finished, it’s getting there

 

amazing how tired you are after shingling most of a day.  

[MarkG]

33 minutes ago, AKwelder said:

 

 

amazing how tired you are after shingling most of a day.  

Yea, roofing is a young mans job. It looks great. How will you deal with snow load. Will you put heat strips at the eve?

[AKwelder]

15 hours ago, MarkG said:

Yea, roofing is a young mans job. It looks great. How will you deal with snow load. Will you put heat strips at the eve?

you ain’t kidding, finished the last bit tonight.  

 

I put radiant floor heat in the slab, will plumb up a boiler (that makes three I have to get going in the next 6 weeks) to heat the building.  Add a unit heater for fast make up when the doors been open.  Next year I get to knock down the green abomination in the picture.  Will make a solarium type green house off the wall your looking at, add another unit heater so the wife can get an earlier start in the spring. I was toying with routering a groove in the facia and running some PEX from the boiler to keep the gutters free, but?

trusses are rated at 60# snow load so it should be fine, normally we never make it over 40#.  
 

 

[AKwelder]

Just got home from a trip north for work, a bit isolated

headed north

 

idiots cycling up the dalton , this is a major trucking highway and mostly dirt.  Not to mention the bears

 

crossing the Yukon

 

a bit of fall color is startingto show

 

they were flying one of Lorenzo’s gadgets 

[AKwelder]

Road pictures

[AKwelder]

Hunting season opened the 1st here, took a couple days off with a drawing tag,  

hunting the Tanana River upstream 20 miles from Fairbanks 

slept in the boat and woke up to fog. Later we prowled around and ran across a young bull

had to get him onto the beach and field dressed

my buddy wanted to check for Pike, his passion

so we spent time this weekend butchering, son still needs a haircut

 

I gave Dan 1/2 the ribs, and one of each quarter and we put nearly 200# of meat in the freezer with our share

[MarkG]

God put hair on us for a reason. If I lived up there I would be looking like the guys from ZZ Top. Great hunt. Did you shoot him in the water? Can people from the lower 48 go Moose hunting there?

[poor farmer/logger]

Had our first snow flakes yesterday. Nothing stuck of course but there was white stuff in the air and it sure wasn’t grain dust lol. Cranes and geese are all packing up and booting it outa here now too. Humming birds took off about 5days ago. Winters on its way wether we want it or not. 

[AKwelder]

9 hours ago, MarkG said:

God put hair on us for a reason. If I lived up there I would be looking like the guys from ZZ Top. Great hunt. Did you shoot him in the water? Can people from the lower 48 go Moose hunting there?

Yes.  Shot him as he was walking across the creek.  He never got to the bank. When we first saw him he was looking way from us.  Had to wait for him to move into a broad side before I shot.  
 

yes, people from the lower 48 and even other countries can hunt but there are different limits and restrictions.  This was an any bull drawing hunt that I got a tag for, otherwise we would of had a minimum width of 50 inches or 3 brow times requirement. Worked out very well.  We only were spent a little over 24 hours out hunting.  The bigger bulls have not been very active yet since the weather has been warm so far

[AKwelder]

9 hours ago, poor farmer/logger said:

Had our first snow flakes yesterday. Nothing stuck of course but there was white stuff in the air and it sure wasn’t grain dust lol. Cranes and geese are all packing up and booting it outa here now too. Humming birds took off about 5days ago. Winters on its way wether we want it or not. 

It’s been warm here, no frost at the house yet but it’s going fast and getting chilly more in the morning