My 15.75 x 30 Jemez Cabin

[glenn kangiser]

A SNOWMOBILE?  hmm

Sounds like fun.

You must be smokin' that money --  that's really fast.

[glenn kangiser]

Could you use this, Don?

Snowmobile Forum

http://bb.bbboy.net/alaskagoldforum-viewforum?forum=5

[MountainDon]

I dunno?    I'll see. Thanks.

I ordered a Clymer manual to help me figure out the innards of the beast.

The guy I bought it from had a slightly newer and very much hot rodded one that would be worthy of the Hot Rod Page.... ported polished, triple cylinder with three individual tuned pipes... droool. Way too much power for me at this stage of my learning curve.


You seem to have an "alaska" thing going on....

[glenn kangiser]

I joined the prospector forum, which is similar in quality to ours as far as helpfulness and etiquette goes.  I noticed other stuff we could use there and linked us to them in the building forum.

Here is a link to all of their forums in case you get an air boat or something.  They also have people from around the world on there.  Even Mongolia teaching us geology as it applies to gold mining...much of it is similar to my area and methods that can be used here.

[MountainDon]

Here is a link to

[glenn kangiser]

Brain flatulence.

http://bb.bbboy.net/alaskagoldforum

[MountainDon]

Two weeks ago I finalized the cabin plan, the layout, and started on the final construction drawings. 

So tonight we're sitting here and K. puts her book down. She's silent, just a little quiet throat clearing. Quiet. She's going to say something, I know it, but I remain quiet, studiously ignoring the indication that she has an idea about something.

Yep, there's a modification.  The cabin gained 32 sq. ft. of interior space and lost the small porch. There may be a larger porch to come.

The plan will not be done until the place is built. 

[glenn kangiser]

As soon as you said the "F" word... finalized, I knew what you were going to say next.  There is never any question.

[MountainDon]

I'll probably end up doing "as built" drawings, just in case I'm ever asked to produce the plans. 

[Sassy]

Two weeks ago I finalized the cabin plan, the layout, and started on the final construction drawings. 

So tonight we're sitting here and K. puts her book down. She's silent, just a little quiet throat clearing. Quiet. She's going to say something, I know it, but I remain quiet, studiously ignoring the indication that she has an idea about something.

Yep, there's a modification.  The cabin gained 32 sq. ft. of interior space and lost the small porch. There may be a larger porch to come.

The plan will not be done until the place is built. 

So what's wrong with that?   

[MountainDon]

So what's wrong with that?   

  I don't need any practice drawing.

I have to adjust my materials lists. Again.
It's a good thing I laid them out in an easy to modify spreadsheet. 

[John_C]

So over the last two weeks the cabin is growing a bit over 2 sq. ft. per day.  By this time next year it will be a house, sometime after that a McMansion.  It's a vicious cycle 

[MountainDon]

By this time next year it will be a house, sometime after that a McMansion.  It's a vicious cycle 

[John Raabe]

MountainDon:

When I was designing my house I was my own worst enemy. I would have everything laid out to scale and then walk my wife through the floor plan and elevations. Great, she would say, I love it!

Then I would go off, think awhile, and come up with another idea. I'd draw that one up... Great, she would say, I love it!

Finally, about the 4th or 5th redesign, she asked if we were really going to build a house or just keep redesigning.

If I'd married someone more "visionary", or "fussy"  - I might still be designing that house.

[Pritch]

Hi Don,

If I can distract from your adding on a bowling alley,    I have a couple of questions about your awesome gazeba.  First, did you end up using any kind of material to close it in for winter?  Second, does that chimenea warm up the area significantly? 

Thanks,

-- Pritch

[MountainDon]

Hi Pritch. Thanks for the kind words about our gazebo. We like it a lot too.

The chiminea has worked out quite well. It throws off a good amount of heat. The chimney draws well and never smokes back at us once it gets warmed. We're very pleased with the way it worked out.

No, we didn't do anything to enclose the gazebo over the winter. This is the first winter and we thought we'd just see how things went.  As it sits the aluminum screening  stood up to a couple good wind and rain squalls through the fall. We haven't been up since the snow in December. We got a snowmobile a short time ago to enable winter trips up there, but other things have conspired against us making us making the trip up.

We do have some roll down plastic "bamboo" shades on the south side and part of the east wall. They don't block out 100% of the wind but do cut down the drafts when it's cool out. They're also handy for shielding against the sun. You may not have noticed them but the below link has a view of the one on the east side. Scroll down to the first picture past the bear poo. 
http://countryplans.com/smf/index.php?topic=2335.msg35882#msg35882

Thanks for looking. Don

Dang! Looking back at my pictures makes me realize how much I miss being up there. 

[MountainDon]

Things came together today. We made a trip up to the property with the snowmobile. We drove the Jeep part way down the main forest road; about 2 miles south of the FS locked gate. The FS road was cleared by the pumice mine down the road. Ordinarily it's not easily passable in wintertime.

Our neighbor had made a pass down our road with his skid steer last week. We backed up the road a little ways and off loaded the Polaris.



We got our share of snow up there at 8700 feet 



The bird feeder sits on a 16 - 18" stump

[Redoverfarm]

Looks cold to me Don. You can keep the snow. This is the first year that I remember that we haven't had out fair share of it.  I know we decided to share it with people that don't normally get snow.

[Willy]

Things came together today. We made a trip up to the property with the snowmobile. We drove the Jeep part way down the main forest road; about 2 miles south of the FS locked gate. The FS road was cleared by the pumice mine down the road. Ordinarily it's not easily passable in wintertime.

Our neighbor had made a pass down our road with his skid steer last week. We backed up the road a little ways and off loaded the Polaris.

I hope I have a lot less at my place when I go up after the 14th of Mar. I will have the tractor with a snow blade to clear any if needed. Then I can get those posts in the ground to start building. Mark

[glenn kangiser]

How was the snowmobile, Don?

[MountainDon]

The snowmobile ran good.    Once I remembered how the gas tank, on-off valve worked.    backasswards from the ATV and motorcycles of the past.  Brain fade. Noisy sumbitch tho.

But that was okay, the faster we went the farther back behind the noise was. 

The snow was good, firm enough to hold us up. 4 foot drifts in a couple places. There were also a few spots where the sun had melted through enough to leave bare dirt, but we got over those in a big hurry.

The hardest part of the whole thing is getting it off the trailer. It's a '94, no reverse. I'm thinking of getting a small ATV winch and mounting it to the trailer front end. Then I could pull it on backwards and drive it off. Have to figure out something for the windshield though. I imagine that sitting backwards it would be quite a drag at 70 mph and MTL be ripped off.   

I could also try that with one of my come-a-longs, but I left them both in the RV and forgot to pick them up before leaving.    A dedicated snowmobile trailer might help as well. I have a plan in my head for one with a rotating bed; drive on, rotate, drive off. (I don't need another project.  )

Great news! The two small PV panels are working well enough that both batteries were as close to full charge as their age and previous abuse will allow!!

Also great news! The RV roof bracing works. There's enough snowload on top to compress the rear springs about an inch. Didn't mark/measure the front.

We couldn't see the trash trees, slash, etc. in the burn pile for all the snow on top.

[glenn kangiser]

Sounds good, Don.  Woodpile still looks like wall material to me.

[MountainDon]

Yeah, I agree it does look like a wall. Dunno if it'll ever be one though. The votes are split.


BTW, the temperature was 38 - 40 F

[MountainDon]

OK! This is it!! I have closed the book on plan changes!

I am going to begin making the materials lists. I told K this was it. No further changes will be allowed to the basic structure, size, window placement, etc. 



I'm going to wait a week or so before I actually begin compiling the list though. 

[glenn kangiser]

Whatsa matter, Don.  Getting out of touch with your feminine side? hmm

Closed to changes -- who ever heard of such a thing?