Sunday, July 16, 2006

Rude awakening


So this morning at about, oh I don't know, 4:30, I was jolted out of a deep slumber by Strider and Sneaky Pete barking their arses off. It wasn't a play bark, it was an alarm bark (they have different barks for different occasions). So I reluctantly got up to investigate (Bull and Sam slept through the chaos) and found two (I thought there were three but that's really unlikely) moose munching on some greens to one side of the Nomad. The two boys were going crazy but the moose were like 'yeah, I hear ya, but I also see the fence' So they took their sweet-ass time moving on. Meanwhile, every dog in a 10-kilometre radius was up and barking. Ahhh, Alaska. The pics are of Bull at the site of our outhouse, which we almost finished today, and Sam and I last night. The weekend was consumed with building the outhouse so I have somewhere to, er, collect my thoughts. Friends Eric and Becky came over for dinner last night with their little one Eli. Becky and I picked out colours for the annual tie-dye party...should be fun.
Bull has developed a new habit of pretending he's sleeping to avoid doing something he doesn't really want to. For example, the other night he was hunkered down in my sleeping bag which I wanted to get into to go to bed. His eyes were open but as soon as I told him to get down, he shut his eyes really tight and ignored me. I even shook him a little and still, he faked being sound asleep. Funny.

2 comments:

... said...

I know everybody does the outhouse like that but it's going to jack out of the ground in a few short years. Mine's already tipping over and it's only like 3 years old... For a bit more longevity (if it's not to late) put visqueen around the outside of the culvert. Alternately, design the outhouse building part so that you can relevel it as time goes on and the culvert jacks out. I know, it's not a problem everywhere but probably more of an issue in the spot where you're living. Otherwise, ignore the hell out of me. Went to a pretty sweet place this weekend, the coal lakes just south of Donelly dome on the Richardson. Gorgeous and stuff.

AKbushbaby said...

Outhouse construction:
Take a culvert (we call them sh***er holes)stick it in the ground. Then, build a little house around it. Decorate accordingly and voila, outhouse. We did a log front with 1x10 siding. The culvert is held in place with railroad ties that are anchored into the ground. We didn't actually dig a hole into the ground because, well, the ground is frozen six inches from the surface. So, we dug into the building pad and backfilled around it. Bob, you should talk to Sam about the engineering. I think he made it so it can be releveled or moved if need be. I guess we'll see...As long as it doesn't tip over while I'm in it...