Highlights of Visits Before Moving Onto the Homestead
Haines, Alaska
The cabin's candlelight. This photo was
taken sometime after 11:00 p.m. June 2005. You can see the edge of our huge
rhubarb patch. The stake behind it is supporting one of the smaller cherry trees
growing in the yard. The upstairs window is Aly's room. We installed two picture windows in the front of the cabin. Photos are taken at different stages in that process.
Once installed, the windows made a huge difference, although we somewhat regret how quiet the cabin is now. Before, the double layer of visqueen acted like an amplifier, so we were very much in tune with what was happening outside. It was especially easy to hear whales blowing out front, and bird songs.
Improvements to the cabin are in addition to felling, hauling and splitting firewood, repairing sections of the trail, and washing clothes by hand every few days. It's idyllic, but you have to stay on top of everything that needs to be done.
We made plans for a new outhouse using the composting toilet. It'll be the first stages of a small complex that'll include a sauna and a larger deck than the current "veranda" where we ate a lot of our meals, watching whales and other wildlife. We plan to keep the benches, but the poor old log-round table is rotting away and will need to be replaced when we move the benches to the new deck.
Breakfast on the "veranda."
The birds left us a few cherries in the summer of 2005.
Grandma Harris tested the rope swing in August 2005.
This was before she slipped on a trail and broke her ankle. Still, she wants
to come back!
Time to recharge!
It helps to cuddle for warmth
while the wood stove heats the cabin! Mark's sister Beth, his brother David, and Dave's wife, Anke, first visited the property November 2005.
