Construction Begins! Kinda...
/First- Thank you to everyone who sent suggestions for puppy names! I'll be sure to keep you posted on the final name choices.
Now that I'm back in Two Rivers, I can finally get going on the preparation of our property at the Flying Mushers Raceway. We hope to move by the end of fall (yikes!), but we're well aware that usually nothing goes as planned. We're ready to be flexible.
Since purchasing this property a couple years ago, Derek and I have been so excited to build our dream home. However, as you can imagine, our priorities are slightly different than your average person. There was no road access to the property, so first things first, we put in a road. Our good friend Dave Greer (who's company Alaska Commercial Rentals has been a long time sponsor of Ryno Kennel) loaned us his D7 dozer. Something that size plows in a mile-long driveway in no time. We also used the dozer to put in an airstrip for Derek (one of the main priorities). All the dirt work was last summer's focus. Now it's time to build.
So what is on the to-do list?
1- Construct a platform dog yard- After battling holes, rock-eaters, and mud, I'm ready for the entire dog yard to be up on decks. Our new land is relatively low, so a normal dog yard would turn into quite a quagmire. Platforms are essential. I've been chatting with other mushers who have built platforms to learn more about the best design.
2- Build a handler duplex cabin- If you recall from this Spring, we harvested enough logs to build the handler cabins. While Derek primarily hauled them in by snowmachine, Tyler, Gunhild, and I had some fun hauling in logs by dog team. It definitely wasn't as efficient, but it was way more fun. Here's the video we posted from this spring.
3- Build our main cabin- We ran out of time to harvest logs ourselves, so we purchased 3-sided logs from a local manufacturer. The plan is to build a 20x20 cabin for our main house. Our long term goal is to construct a Hanger House (the downstairs will be a massive hanger for Derek's airplane and all my dog gear/dogs/sleds etc, and we would live upstairs), but for the time being, a 20x20 cabin will be perfect.
These are the main goals, but of course there's multiple steps involved in each one. Derek is still fighting fires (he's currently down in California), so while he's gone, I'm trying to do as much prep work as possible. The pups and I have been busy peeling the logs for the handler cabin (as you can see from the photo, they're not the best helpers).
I'll be writing posts about our progress over the next couple months. If you enjoy shows like House Hunter and Extreme Home Makeover, then these will be the posts for you! And while all this is going on, we'll still be training and preparing for the races, so not to worry, there will be plenty of doggie posts as well.
