THE "FROSTY" PAGE
Photo taken winter, 2002 (still our favorite) Once we finally decided on and painted the house a lovely light gray, we consider it finally "finished". What a project! Work on the house was continously ongoing for the first four years in spite
of setbacks. Jerry discovered the "joys" of plumbing and has actually gotten quite good
at it (he's now even had some experiece at repairing it). We have functional toilets Our 48" Viking range top shares cooking duties with a brand new oven and microwave. Heaven!
All we are lacking in the kitchen at this point is a little trim paint in the
storage area under the range top. Procrastination . . . The curtains look great though. I'll try to get new pics of the kitchen up soon. It looks a LOT better now that it is [nearly] finished and fully usable. :)
The oil fired hot-water boiler/furnace has worked out great and is functioning up to our fullest expectation. Being able to vent it directly
outside through the basement wall saved us a bunch and is quite effective. It sure adds a good feeling of security.
It's also nice NOT to have to depend on wood heat any longer, although we still like to sit
in front of a toasty woodstove fire - and using wood sure helps with the fuel bill.
*Note: As of Fall 2005, we are depending MORE on the wood stove once again. The furnace works great - but the fuel prices are through the roof! Thank goodness we HAVE a wood stove and 15 acres of good wood to stoke it with.
Jerry and I found putting up and grouting the natural slate under and
behind the woodstove to be a real challenge. We completed it with the
encouragement and help of one of Jer's good friends; metal artist, Gene
Olsen of MN. He came up and spent an entire week in 2000 helping us with the house.
Boy, that's what I call above and beyond the call of duty but we were sure
glad to have him! His payment was continuous meals of moose, halibut,
salmon, bear . . . Jer and I were having a ball with the new range and oven
and I do think Gene enjoyed every bite!
Believe it or not, as of January 2003, the entire house was sheet rocked, painted
and only awaiting a few last touches of varnish and paint on the finish carpentry (window sills,
bookcase molding, etc.) What a change! The house is fully carpeted, has linoleum, curtains,
furniture, heat, water (both hot and cold Two 12'x20' decks now grace the back of the house, matching
the two we built on the front several summers ago. Doesn't it look great? We finally added the long planned for hot tub to the upper rear deck (off the master bedroom) in October '04. Ohhh, how good that hot, bubbly water feels on sore and aching muscles. It has been a God send, helping with my fibromyalgia and just plain enjoyable. The view from the tub faces North so we can sit out there on dark, cold winter nights and watch the Northern Lights. It's something we had planned from the very beginning and we are both so pleased to have finally accomplished this final goal.
Building this house has been a never ending challenge. Work continues (Jer has started construction of his forge/metal shop now), although everything seems to go a little slower since Jer was diagnosed with type 2 adult onset diabetes early in the summer of 2000. Cross your fingers and wish us luck!
Jerry's shop is finally under construction. We'll post pictures as it grows and gains shape and substance. For now . . . well, the concrete is poured and the first pieces of metal framing are up! Progress!
The past seven years have also seen the addition of an entirely new family
of dogs, slowly filling the empty space left by our much missed Border Collie,
Bonnie.
The first to join our motley crew, in September '98, was Buran . . .
Buran is our Livestock Guardian Dog. At nine months, this Great Pyrenees
Mountain Dog weighed well over 100 pounds. At 7 years, he is
full grown . . . and a good thing, since he is over 140 pounds!
Our little Pygmies (his charges) lost the weight contest LONG ago!
The next addition to the family was a rescue Aussie/Shepherd cross, Isaac.
After being part of our family for three short years, we lost Isaac last year to a seizure ailment we could not get under control with medication. Jer misses his "truck dog". We won't forget you, Isaac.
Next and smallest, but certainly not least . . . well, I guess she IS least as well Now full grown, Pocket is an 8 pound bundle of energy! Her mom is a
very small, copper penny red Miniature Dachhund and dad is a black and tan
Chihuahua, both purebred. She obviously got her coloring from her daddy, but
other than that she's pretty much all doxie!
We tell people Pocket is a "Dahuahua" (pronounced "DA-Wow-Wa") Although no
bigger than a minute, she is surely the most courageous little dog we've ever
met. Just TINY!
Pocket really missed Isaac, which was only one of a lot of reasons we didn't wait too long to search out a new medium size companion and "watch" dog. In February of '04, we answered an ad in the paper and found what we knew right away was the pup to complete our little family. Meet Patch, our new Border Collie!
Patch was a handful his first year, but we expected no less from a Border Collie. Jer loves to remind me (regularly) I HAD to pick the most active pup in the litter - but he was the "right" one. Jer is finding out the joys (which I already knew about) of being "owned" by a dog who may very well be smarter than either of us. *Update 10/05: Patch has been diagnosed with PRD (Progressive Retinal Degeneration). He is going to be completely blind soon. He doesn't seem to be bothered by this at all . . . Jer and I are grateful it's been a fairly slow (2 years - we noticed the failing night vision first over a year ago) and are working on adapting the house and yard for Patch's ease in movement. His days of agility fields and off leash romps in the woods ended WAY too soon, but he is happy and we love him. He'll be fine. He can still chase his tennis balls - he follows the sound of the bouncing ball - and if he loses track of it, we have taught him to locate it by directing him with "yep" and "nope" - when he gets near the ball, we say "Yes! Get it!" and he noses happily around until he finds it. Then we do it again.
We THOUGHT Patch was going to be our last new dog for a while, but life does have a way of messing with one's plans. An ad in the local paper led us to yet another canine family member. She will work for a living here, but seems perfectly happy with the arrangement. Meet "Liberty Belle" (we call her "Libby"), an AKC registered female (spayed now) Great Pyrenees. She was 3 1/2 years old when we adopted her from a family who was giving up and giving away ALL their Pyrs. Their loss - our gain. She's a sweetheart! She is living with and protecting our Pygmy bucks now, leaving the "girls" for Buran to care for. As you can see, she even gets along with the barn cat. It's good to know there is a Pyr in each pen now.
Our three house cats, House Mouse (age 21), Whiskey (age 15) and Puhka
(age 10) just grumble and stay out of the way when the dogs
get to playing! We also added (out of absolute necessity!) an adorable as well
as very effective barn cat -
a milk chocolate colored Maine Coon mix named Snicker Doodle. We are pleased
at how seriously this mischief maker is taking the job, in spite of being
loved, hugged, well fed and generally spoiled rotten. She has her own "nest" in
the hay loft, not far from the heat lamp in winter, but Snicker actually prefers sleeping
in the hay rack, as you can see if you look closely in this picture.
Until next time,
Background: We began building our house in September of 1997 after
purchasing 30 acres of beautifully forested land just outside of Wasilla,
Alaska. Jerry is an equipment operator for the State of Alaska DOT and did
all the land clearing and site preparation himself. We had to stop during
that first winter because the work was all outdoors at that point, but we went
back to work on it in May of 1998. We moved everybody into our new house and
barn in November of 1998; cats, dogs, goats and all Cheers, Deb & Jer
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