Hawaii, Spring.....Psyche

The Schneiders lucked out this year and got to bring the whole family to Hawaii for a week.    Kaya was in her element.

 Leo collected coconuts and chased chickens.

Fun time for all.  Thanks Pressman Family!

 Upon returning to Alaska we were blessed with Mostly sunny weather and great skiing and dog sledding conditions.

 

 

 Sleds lined up for the Easter dog sled races at the local mushing trails.

 This is what it looks and sounds like at the start line of a race.

Nothing like a few extra feet of snow in April to extend the snow season:)

Dog Sledding Post

Nicki and Leo had a recent dog sledding adventure and you can hear it here because we convinced Nicki to tell the story in front of a couple hundred people.  Her's is the 5th Story.
Meet our new dog Ushi, the dog in the story who gets tired after a 100 miles.

  

Ushi and the other dogs are tied up behind a cabin that we mushed all of our camping gear into a few weeks ago.

 

We did our annual trip to Willow for the Iditarod restart.  Here's a friend of mine high-fiving Newton Marshall, the only Jamaican musher.

 

 Nicki thoroughly enjoying herself.

Party Central on Willow Lake.  We usually hang around for a couple hours after the last team has left to let traffic die down on the way back to Anchorage.

 Good luck to all the Mushers!!

New Duds and Workshop Progress

 The kids got some new duds from their grand parents.  Kaya is ready to hit the beach and stay afloat.

 

Leo is ready for the dog park.

And I'm a few steps closer to making some puzzles.

 

Though, now that we have some snow, priorities might be sifting a little and the building pace may slow.  Yeah for fluffy white stuff.

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!