Merry Christmas!

 Just thought I'd do a quick Christmas post since it has been awhile since I've done one.  Kaya ventured out for the first time on skis.

 I'm coaching for Eagle River's Junior Nordic Program, but when not teaching Leo and I still enjoy getting out for some parentjouring.

 My buddy will and I built this adjustable ski waxing bench. 

 We tricked out the trailer for dog and sled transportation.

 Here is Nicki hoping for more snow on the trails, but taking what she can get on the local lakes.

 Even though there hasn't been much snow this year the ice and frost formations have been amazing.

 I thought this was appropriate for Christmas.  I've been working on my pancake art lately and Leo wanted a Jesus pancake.  I was up for the challenge!

Happy holidays everyone.

Halloween and Yurt Work

 The kids were diligent pumpkin carvers this year.

 Check out the Siamese pumpkin in the middle!

It's dark (until daylights savings) on the walk to school.  Getting to sled to school makes the trip a bit more fun.

There was  little teaser of snow last week.  We are hoping for a big dump to get the winter activities started.

While waiting for that dump, I have had lots of time to get things done on the inside of the yurt.  Here is the wall dividing the closets and workshop from the living area of the yurt.

 The stove is installed so we can actually get some warmth in there for working.

 A view from inside the work shop.

 Unfortunately,  this is what the living area of the yurt looks like.  We'll get it cleaned up.

Wecome Back Yurt

This Alaskan family has a yurt again.  We have been working on the permitting since April and it has all finally come together.  Here are some photos of the set up.
Raising the ring and rafters.

All the rafters in.

 

The wind came up at just the wrong time but we still managed to get it all down.

The finished the yurt.  Now we just need to work on the inside for the next who knows how long.

In dog news, we have our 5th.  His name is Hank and he is super good with kids and a super good puller.

 We have the yurt up, a fifth dog, and a muddy Kaya........

 

 .....bring on the snow.

A New Yurt Deck

  I was lucky enough to have my parents come out for a week and in that time we had lots of rain, 80 mile an hour winds, and somehow managed to get a yurt deck built.  Here are a few images of the progression of building it. 
Here are the pier blocks and the beams that hold up the floor joists.

 Next we added blocking between the supports and built the base for a small deck out the front.

 

 Since I knew it was going to be rainy, I bought this gigantic tarp to cover the deck when we were not working on it.

 We laid down a 30 foot diameter sub-deck to hold in the insulation from below the floor joists.

 

 Here are the floor joists.

 Putting in the insulation and laying the floor boards.

 My mom even got into it helping trim the floor boards

 Team Schneider on the almost finished deck.

 The drip edge was the final touch to the completed it.

Now we have to wait for good weather and a weekend to coincide to put the yurt up.  Hopefully that happens before it starts snowing.  Keep you fingers crossed!

Gravel Pads and Permits

The big job this past weekend was to get the gravel pad that makes up the foundation of the yurt laid.  The first step we did was to lay down landscaping fabric.

 

The fabric does 2 things.  I keeps weeds from popping up under the yurt and it keeps gravel from sinking down into the ground and disappearing forever.  The plywood you see in the photo was used to make a path for the skid steer to drive on without tearing the fabric.
Our gravel arrived and made a great play place for awhile.

 

 Leo helped move the gravel around.

 And here is the pad.

 We had enough gravel left over to re gravel the driveway and make a path from the house to the yurt

All the permits are now in order so we can start building as soon as time allows.  Let's hope we get it done before the snow flies.

A New Yurt begins

 We've been working hard all summer long and are finally making steps towards putting up the yurt.  The permitting process took a lot of time and work, but we are just about done.  While figuring out the paper work we were able to tackle some construction tasks.  The land has been mowed, stumps removed, yurt staked out, and trenches dug for electricity and gas (we have decided not to plumb it.)  Here is what it looks like now.  Not much to look at, I know.

The railroad ties are at about 16 feet off of the center stake of the yurt and held in place with re bar going through them and into the ground.  We will be filling the space inside of the ring with landscape fabric (to keep weed growth down) and about 6 inches of gravel as a pad for the pier blocks the yurt will be sitting on.
Here is the trencher I rented to help me dig our utility lines

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It had a mechanical failure about 10 minutes into the dig and I hand dug the rest of the 60 feet worth of 18 inch deep trenches.  I'm really glad I did, (after the fact) because I unearthed a few treasures.  Both the pickle jar the old soda can were found about 6 inches down.  The pickle jar still had pickles in it.  The can screams 1970's.

 

While the last place the yurt was set up was beautiful, it was also pretty exposed.  The exterior wood of the door frame had quite a number done to it by the wind, sun, rain, and ice.  We've lucked out with some really nice weather here lately, so I took advantage and refinished the doors.

 

 Next projects: laying the gravel pad and building the deck.

In some non-yurt related news, the first blue berry harvest is in:

 Leo has decided to fly away.

 And, despite a 3 day stint in the hospital after poking a hole in herself, Kaya is up and running with new butterfly clothes.

Spencer Glacier

Spencer Glacier has been on our to do list for awhile.  There are no roads in so, in order to get to it you need to take the train which makes a whistle stop about a mile down stream from the glacier.  Here are Kaya and Leo enjoying the view from the train.

 

 After a buggy walk through the woods, you end up at the lake at the terminus of the glacier.  There are huge bits of ice floating around and some smaller ones too that the kids were able to play with.

Did I mention it was buggy?  With the aid of Oma and Opa power, we packed in all of our gear and spent the night.  Out in the open it wasn't bad but once you got into the trees the bugs were pretty ferocious.  Here is Kaya in full anti-mosquito gear.  By the next morning, that eye on the right was just about swollen shut from a mosquito bite.

 Here is a view of the glacier from camp.  We hiked out to it on the left side.

 Here is the whole family out on the glacier.

 

Cool blue ice.

The seagulls really liked perching on top of this ice chunk out in the lake.  It was the tallest one out there.

 Leo and I have been getting into rocket launching.  We made our own launch pad and ignition switch.  Here is Leo watching as one of the random kids watching gets a turn at the controls.

Good times.