First Work Day in Alaska

Sometimes it sounds as if Alaska is this romantic, fun, faraway place where you can fish for humongous fish all day, see grizzly bears at Denali Park, and enjoy life.

The truth is that Alaska is a lot of work, and this year there has been rain and rain and rain,

and therefore mud and mud and mud on the driveway to the house we were working on. 

And don't forget the constant attacks by mosquitoes every time you go out the door.

I dropped Jonathan at this house and then Danny and I had to go back to get our boots.

Thankfully, we'd thought to bring boots along.

The missionaries had lived in this basement all during last year's long Alaskan winter.

The "roof" of flooring and plastic had leaked, and now there were puddles and ponds of water all over the top of it.

The rest of the crew wasn't going to be arriving till that evening, and Jonathan did not know where to begin.

"I don't know what to do," he said. Most of both missionary families in the area were busy at school, and the father of the family who lived in this house was gone all the way to Fairbanks to get material. 

He'd had trouble with his brake caliper two days earlier, burning it up and nearly burning his truck up in the process. He had to repair that and stay overnight because he hadn't been able to get to Home Depot in time before it closed.

Gingerly, Jonathan started untacking lath strips holding the plastic down. 

Gingerly, Danny and I started shoveling water off the roof.

I also drove back to where we were staying to get a broom to sweep the water off.

 Jonathan unscrewing the lath.

Another way to do it!

Uncertain whether to pull the plastic off yet in case it started to rain, we waited until after lunch when the weather cleared, and Jonathan peeled back half the plastic and began the task of unsrewing all the temporary and borrowed plywood that was too thin for flooring anyway, in preparation for putting down the new, thicker, permanent flooring on top of the basement.

The wall panels lying all over the "roof" of the basement were there, ready to be set up. 

They were called SIPs panels, (Structural Insulated Panels) with 8 inches of insulation between the plywood sides. Each panel was heavy!

Finally we had reinforcements!

Keith Lavery of Society of Indian Missions is the one who called Jonathan about joining a crew he was putting together to help another missionary family in Alaska. 

Sam was flying up from Denver with ten of the crew, with more to arrive on Monday of the next week.

We were so grateful when the rest of the crew showed up that evening!

They didn't even wait for supper. They just fell right to work, determined to get as much done as they could in the week they were there!

Not a lazy bones among them.

That crew was one motivated crew!

And I was so proud of our 13-year-old Danny! He was such a big helper to Jonathan that first day or two. He's helping roll a log underneath the wall panels that had to be taken off the "roof" and stacked ready to set up the next morning.

He also helped with moving the plywood flooring pieces.

And putting beads of glue on the joists before the guys put down the flooring. 

Taking our children with us on these trips is wonderful!

Sam arrived that evening as well.

Back at the house where the crew was staying, I had spent most of the afternoon unloading and organizing groceries that had been bought for the crew, and making pies and jellos ahead.

The crew chose to pay for all their own food except for the meat the missionaries were supplying. 

One of the missionaries had gone hunting for caribou a couple weeks earlier, on purpose to have caribou sausage and roasts for the crew!

Here is a moose stew meat for stew!