Bear Mountain hike

You may remember this mountain from some of my early blog posts; its name is Bear Mountain. This weekend I joined a couple of friends for a hike to the very top. We had great weather. When we got above the Alpine tree line it got pretty windy and we had to trek through some snow. The snow was the hardest part for me. We hiked some pretty steep spots with rocks but on the snow I really had trouble staying balanced and thought I was going to slip and rocket down the snow covered side of the mountain.

We reached the very peak and stayed up there for a bit, telling stories and just enjoying the view. On the way down we took a different route and walked quite a ways along the ridge of the mountain. One spot we had to descend one at a time because we were knocking down rocks as we went. We talked about what kind of food we were going to eat that night most of the way down. Actually, I was probably the one that kept bringing that subject back up. When we got back to town we had a nice steak dinner. Thanks, Arlo! :)

Blue Lake

Mt. Edgecumbe in the background and Mt. Verstovia on the right

Some lichen

Water droplets on the lichen

This is a part where it was hard to stay upright walking on the snow

There's a glacier in the background

Patrick, Ben, and I looking at stuff

A crevasse

Getting close to the peak

Self-portrait

Pretty little blue pond

The peak after we started our descent

Walking along the ridge

We were talking about food and this looked like a dish my mother used to make. It was something like cheesy potatoes and I can't quite remember what was sprinkled on top but all I could think of was bacon bits.

A Super-Mario mushroom!

Juneau trip number two

This time my trip to Juneau was for a SAGA orientation. In SAGA's program YABAH (Southeast Alaska Guidance Association and Young Alaskans Building Affordable Housing) there are only two Americorps Connections members: David and I. Since SAGA is based in Juneau and we work and live in Sitka, there was never an opportune time for an introduction to the SAGA team. Many Americorps members began their term the beginning of September and therefore it seemed ideal to invite David and I to Juneau for the induction. We stayed at a resort quite a ways out of town called the Eagle Valley Center. The center's water was supplied by a creek nearby. Everyone was advised not to drink the tap water and not to shower too often because the water was so limited.

It was a joy to meet all the people that were going serve in Alaska as a SAGA member. On Tuesday, we were all sworn in by Alaska's commissioner of education, Larry LeDoux, at Alaska's state capitol building. The rest of the week was filled with kayaking, downtown touring, glacier sight-seeing, and games and movies at the center. We played a lot of chess and a lot of cards.

On the way to Juneau

A little trail by the Eagle Valley Center

Getting sworn in at the state capitol building

A picture of Mt. Roberts and downtown Juneau

After taking the tram.

Mendenhall glacier.  Much different than when I saw it in April because the snow melted into a big lake!

Kayaking.

Out front of the Eagle Valley Center

The Eagle Valley Center

It's been a while!

Here's the progress on the YABAH house starting with a photo from the 5th of July.

Everything is going well on it so far. This week we've been framing the garage in back and hoping the trusses come in soon.

Russian Bishop's House

I drew the Russian Bishop's house and it is now on Google Earth.  The Russian Bishop's house is a registered landmark of the National Historical Park.  A quote from the website on the Bishop's house: "The Bishop's House was completed in 1842 and was the center of Russian Orthodox Church authority in a diocese that stretched from California to Siberian Kamchatka." The house is the oldest of four surviving structures from the Russian American times; they are scattered about and I'm having trouble finding where they are located.

Here is a photo of the drawing I made compared to a photo of the real thing.

Here are some photos of the interior of the house.

Here is a 3D view of the drawing.  (Because I love the 3D link thing)

Salmon berries, fireweed, and a canoe project

Hello! Soon I hope to be starting a project that may take a while. A few weeks ago I was thinking it would be a lot of fun to do a big project, something like building a canoe. Well, I bought a book on Amazon (sold by the Idaho Youth Ranch) and it turns out building a canoe is exactly what I want to do.

Currently, I'm in a quandary finding the best place to build a 16 foot canoe. In a dormitory building close by me, there is a spacious room that is rarely used, save for me to play the grand piano which it contains. The room has ample space to build, but getting the canoe out may be a problem.

Other than that, I've been getting ready to build by tracing out the forms onto plywood and buying some of the tools the task will require. Hopefully, this project will be underway soon!

In the meantime, enjoy some pictures of some salmon berries and fireweed. The fireweed is a good indicator of how much summer is left. As the blooming makes its way up the stalk, the summer approaches its end. (That could probably be better worded.)

Also, there is a picture of a totem pole depicting a man from Japan that took many photos of Sitka and took the story and photos back to his people in Japan. You can pick him out on the bottom of the pole with a camera lens in the middle. There are also two flags carved into either side of the pole: Alaska's flag and Japan's.

The house is underway

The new shed: (I found out if I move my pictures it breaks the link. I usually retype them, but I've been waiting on photos to upload. Anyway, read up! :)

This is the spot I was taking pictures from, but now I realize it's not going to suffice. I need to have a better angle on the front of the house. I'll have newer pictures to show soon.

The past few weeks have been pretty good out on the job site. We got a very late start on the house this year and we are wondering if we will be able to finish in time. We are going on it now, though, as best we can. After the excavation was finished, we put the forms around the perimeter of the house to make the footing for the foundation. We had to use the transit level to make sure it was even in all spots. We had quite a bit of adjusting to do, which means lots of shoveling. We cut all the rebar and tied it inside the forms. By last Thursday we were all ready to pour and this morning we finally poured the concrete for the footing.

We also started on building a new storage shed. We are almost all done with the shed. I was pretty sick this weekend and so on Saturday I drew the shed. I drew it in the same fashion that we built it, as opposed to just drawing the exterior, i.e. it is very detailed. I went by the job site on Sunday to take measurements of the shed and make sure I did everything accurately. I did pretty well! I had to change my roof from a 6:12 pitch to a 4:12 and that was about it. There's this new thing SketchUp allows you to do now which is linking to a 3d view of an object; I've wanted to post something in this blog again to try it out.

Here is the shed without any plywood or roofing:

Here is the shed with the exterior shell: