Bryan uses small Muskrat stretches to board the big legs too.
This is a trap swivel that Bryan has snipped off the tag. As the hide dries it becomes hard to get the animal off the stretcher. He just twists the swivel and out it comes.
He uses a piece of cardboard to smooth out the lower jaw. He does not want it to dry sticking out.
After drying in the shop for 5 hours the toes were just about dry but still shiny so he put it out side overnight. Outside drying is totally different than inside. It is a moister air. The 12 hours outside dried the rest of the toes and it was ready to turn. It was so easy to turn inside out. No problem. If it is left in a semi warm shop all night it hardens too much.
Hard work.... Ever time Vikki comes back from getting more building supplies in Whitehorse she is amazed at how quickly they are getting it done.
Working on the front wall.
Vikki is busy painting all the souffets with Cetol Log Paint Natural. The second coat seals.
All the souffet boards have holes drilled in them and a small piece of cut screen will be stapled to the back.
Bryan and Henri are working long hours and getting it up. Our friend Anne and Frank were heading into Whitehorse and they picked up our new order of chickens. They come from Alberta and are 1 day old.
Henri nailed up a funny sign.
The De Havilland Beaver is coming back with Bryan, Henri, Reto, and Hempi (two friends of Henri's from Switzerland) from the trip out to the lake. The plane had been full of supplies and Bryan had to check on the chickens and cats. They found one dead chicken in the yard. They didn't think anymore about it. Thought it had just died. The other 5 chickens were fine. No sign of Vikki's 4 cats.
Atlin is a small town. About 300 people in the winter and about 1200 in summer months. It is called Switzerland of the North. Lots of Swiss, Austrian, German come here in the summer.
Over the right wing of the Beaver you can see the white house that is in front of our lots.
Third Wall is made and ready to go up.
The next day the loft went up with stairs leading up to it. Vikki headed to Whitehorse which is a 200 km trip each way to get a truck load of supplies and needed building material.
Bryan used to be a professional builder when he was younger, so this is old hat to him. Henri is being paid to help Bryan. That is Atlin Mountain in the background. The white house is on the lakeshore.
The backhoe raises the wall.
Bryan raised the wall with the backhoe and placed it over the ree bar imbedded in the cement. Then he jumped out and climbed the wall to nail the wall to the standing wall.
Our friends (Henri, Chris, Paul, and Norm) showed up in force to help, armed with rubber boots, rakes and shovels. Bryan and Vikki have helped pour lots of cement floors over the years. It's hard work but lots of fun. Everyone was assigned a job. Three Cement loads have been ordered. Bryan is in the backhoe placing the cement in the far corners.
Ree bar is laid through out the pad and tied with clips. The ree bar is raised with small rocks so that it is suspended over the gravel. The stakes that you see are to act as guides for the cement level.. The cement comes to the top of the stake. You place the stakes using string as a level.
We were able to rent a cement finisher from Pine Tree Service in Atlin. That is Paul finishing the edges and Bryan on the electric vibrator. Notice the small pieces of ree bar inserted into the wet concrete. The walls will have holes drilled in the bottom and will drop down on to these bars.
Henri going for more water to splash on the setting concrete. Note the quickly built small pads to use up the extra cement. We'll use those for walk ways.
This is the little house across from the lots. It used to be a house of women who made the life of a gold miner more fun.
The tall building is on the south side of our little lots. It used to be a Restaurant way back when.
Bryan and Henri have laid the cement forms out making sure that there are lots of stakes on the outside of the form. Three loads of coarse gravel where dumped into the pad and leveled out. Around the edges the gravel has to be removed so the the cement pad has more strength.
Chris who owns Atlin Air and flies us in and out of our trap line area is also a member of the Atlin Fire department. He came with the loaded fire truck and helped us water down the gravel good. The cement is ordered for 9 am tomorrow morning.
We'd bought two little lots on the main street of Atlin last year. Each lot is 30' x 100' . We paid 32,500 for each lot.
