Goats on Cliff

goats 2016 from fred beal on Vimeo.

Exploring around the mining cabin

I did not make it up to the Emily C cabin too many times last summer since I was so busy working on the house.

I do have a few photos from a hike I took one day up there and thought I would post them here now. About a mile from the Emily C mine there was another mine called the Silver Lead mine. A WW1 vet mined it by hand for many years. His old cabin is still there along with some old mine equipment. It looks like someone used it for a hunting cabin 15 or 20 years ago. I did find a nice steel drum with lid that was clean on the inside. I took it back to the cabin to use as a bear/mouse proof storage container. (no picture of the drum)

And some newer pics of our cabin...

Happy New Year

November weather was very nice but December was unusually cold. Lots of sub zero weather- up to 24 below here. Elk Park, south of here, had 48 below one night!

I recently completed the wood stove chimney pipe installation so I can have a little heat while I work on the house. Without insulation, I can raise the temperature inside by about 15 degrees.

I still need to complete the chimney chase above the masonry alcove. It will be framed, sheeted with plywood then covered with stone veneer.

I finished placing the log joists over the kitchen and the barnwood ceiling boards.

The boards will be covered with flooring later. The bedroom above will be about 12x16.

 

I am almost finished with the electrical rough in and have a pretty good start on the plumbing. I set up a couple of temporary beams in the living room to set my scaffold boards on. This makes it easy to work on the high ceiling:

About a week after the winter solstice I was outside right at sunset and saw that the sun sets right in the bottom of the valley at this time of year. In the morning, the sun will not hit the solar panels until after 11:30 AM (in winter) since there is a mountain to the east. By having the good afternoon sun there should be plenty of exposure time for the solar panels. The solar shed is oriented to face southwest so it is ideal for winter sun.