We are continuing on with the construction season, this week we got the floor on the project we have been working on. It is at a dog kennel here in Willow called Snowhook Adventure Guides, and they do dog sled rides in the winter and dog tours in the summer along with ATV and snow machine rides to various locations. If you’re in Alaska, this is a great opportunity to get a taste of what the Iditarod and dog racing is all about. Every day we get to watch the dogs run out and back with their tours. Unfortunately we are always working when they go by so I never get a picture!

I absolutely love it when we get to the wood part of a building. Dirt work and foundations are my second least favorite part of construction (my first least favorite is sheetrock). I don’t like having dirt in my shoes all the time, but it’s usually inevitable when you’re constantly working in the dirt. This year I wore my cowboy boots and it made a huge difference.

I also dislike doing concrete as I can never keep it off me, my clothes, and my hands in particular. It tends to dry out any skin it touches, so my hands end up feeling very rough and tend to crack around the fingernails and knuckles. But, it is a necessary part, and fortunately it’s the first part of construction, so we can get that over quickly.

This week though, we got the sill plate on and bolted down to the foundation, this ties the wood part of the building to the foundation so that the building doesn’t blow away or fall off in an earthquake. Then we got the floor joists and rim joists on. We got everything nailed in and square as well as blocking down the center support beam of the building so the joists can’t roll.

After that is one of my favorite parts, sheeting for the floor. I don’t know why, maybe it’s because then we have a flat, clean work surface. Maybe it’s because then you really get a good idea of the size of the building. I don’t know, but it’s one of my favorite steps in any building.

Now that the floor is on, we will switch to a different job while the dirt contractor comes back in to backfill around the building as well as install the septic system and leach field. They figure it’ll take about a week, and that’s the perfect amount of time for a small job north of us in Talkeetna – a carport type addition to a garage we built about 8 or 10 years ago.

I will be gone later this week as a chaperone for a girl’s camp for my Church, so my husband has hired a friend to work with him for the week on this small job. I’m grateful he has help so I can go and enjoy the adults and youth going to this camp and not have to worry about him getting hurt when no one is around.

Along with all this building, I have been working in my spare time to get my garden in. We are at the end of May, the weather has finally started to somewhat cooperate and be warmer, and the leaves on the trees are finally all out in their beautiful spring green colors.

My husband added manure we got from a local farm last year. He then tilled the garden and got everything mixed in. I then went through and got our rows mounded up so the ground can be just a bit warmer, and then got 2 1/2 rows planted.

Our rows are a bit longer this year as we expanded the garden last year a little bit. Now I can fit all my veggies in just 5 rows with the other 14 rows being grown in potatoes. We eat a lot of potatoes, so we like to have 300-400 pounds in our root cellar to start the winter. I am grateful to have enough potatoes left from last year to use mostly my potatoes, as seed potatoes have gotten quite expensive.

Yesterday I got the broccoli, cabbage, peas, carrots, and half the onions planted. Tomorrow I will finish the onions, plant lettuce and beet seeds, and then hopefully tomorrow evening I will have help planting all the potatoes. This process doesn’t take a really long time, but there is a short window to get it done as our growing season is so short, so it always feels rushed.

This coming week should be a good one, I am looking forward to girl’s camp, and a little break from construction. I am also looking forward to the sun they are predicting, and hope to get warm clear to my bones finally!

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