This is the Year of Appearance! Last Year was the Year of Function. Last year we were more concerned about getting things working in and around the house. This year we are working on putting in the final touch to make things look better. We are also here to build a garage with an apartment on top.
We flew in to Ketchikan as usual and spent most of the day shopping for things we needed. Glenn stayed at the ferry terminal with our luggage while I ran to do the shopping. I had a taxi take me to the ferry terminal in between stores. While I was shopping, Glenn was getting things ready to take onto the ferry.
We picked up our truck at the ferry terminal. We left it at the home of one of the ferry workers who lives in Hollis (where the ferry comes in). They drove it to the parking lot and left the keys at the ticket desk for us.
We arrived in Whale Pass on the evening of March 21 and found lots of snow! We had been watching the weather reports for the area while we were still at home and talked to the builder a number of times concerning the weather. We knew it had snowed on and off for a little while, but was told that the snow had melted fairly quickly. We did not expect to find about four inches of snow when we arrived. It continued to snow for the next three days. It was beautiful but of course cold. We stayed in our house with the heater going and enjoyed ourselves very much.
We had a number of projects that needed to be done in the house, so this gave us time to work on them. The snow storms eventually stopped and then the rain storms came in, which slowly melted the snow.
Last year we set up a large metal water tank and lined it with a silver tarp. When we left about mid July there was about a foot of water in the tank. When we arrive in March of this year the tank was almost full. Glenn brought a pond net up with us so that we could cover the tank to keep pine needles, leaves, and twigs from falling into it.
This year we purchased another water tank and had it delivered to our house. This water tank holds 1100 gallons and is completely enclosed. We now have the ability to store 3000 gallons of water.
A couple of days after arriving in Whale Pass, we had a satelite dish installed. This is for the television and internet.
This was a picture that was taken last year at the end of our time in Alaska. We had the rocks brought in, dumped, and smoothed out in the area where we wanted the garage to be built. At the time we had not purchased the plans for the garage and apartment so we did not know how big the pad needed to be. After purchasing the plans we found that we needed to make it much bigger. 
As you can see in the picture above, the trees are right up against the pad with no room to expand. We had the gentleman who built the pad last year, bring in his front loader again and clear out some of the trees around the pad. We also had him take down a couple of trees on the hill above our house that we were concerned about.
He then hauled in eight more loads of rock, smoothed it out, and leveled it. This built the pad up higher than the ground in front of it.
Our builder and Glenn put up markers and string to help them determine if the pad was level. They then moved the "fines" from the pile (which is in front and to the right of the pad, shown in the picture) over to the low spots on the pad. The builder had a laser light that he used to determine when the pad was level. 
We rented a compacter from a shop in Craig and compacted the "fines". The pad was very smooth when they completed the compacting.
We were now ready to have the materials for the building to be delivered. The gentleman with the front loader drove his dump truck and trailer to Thorne Bay to pick up the lumber, which is the place where it was milled. He picked up 16,000 lbs of lumber. His truck and trailer was the only thing in Whale Pass that could haul that much weight. When he returned from Thorne Bay, he used his front loader to move the lumber from the trailer to the ground.
That next day we had a container full of materials from Home Deport in Seattle delivered. It had come in by barge to Thorne Bay and was being held until we called for it. We requested that the barge company deliver the container and wait for us to unload it. We had about six men here to help. In no time they had the container unloaded and everything stacked and covered with tarps. Our yard was now a supply yard.
This is a picture of the library here in Whale Pass. We didn't use it last year, but have really come to enjoy it this year. They have a nice selection of books and DVDs. They also have a couple of computers that patrons can use. Last year we did park outside the library so we could use our laptops on their wireless network. We have not had to do that this year, but we may if we ever need a faster network.
This is a picture of the float plane that delivers our mail from Ketchikan, where the Whale Pass Post Office Box is located. All mail coming to Whale Pass is put in that P.O. Box and then delivered by float plane. We receive mail and have our outgoing mail picked up on Tuesday and Saturday mornings. We can hear the float plane as it comes in because it will circle the bay once to warn boats it is coming in and then it will land. When either Glenn or I hear the plane we will repeat that famous phase: "The plane! The plane!"
The float plane lands on the water next to the dock where the post mistress is waiting to help unload the mail. You can see her white truck in the picture. She backs down the ramp, loads the mail in the back of her truck, and then drives it to the post office building.
This is a picture of our post office. I learned this year that we can order groceries and other items from a few stores in Ketchikan and have them delivered to us on the float plane with the mail. I was really excited to learn about this option because we may not be able to drive into Craig each week for groceries.
Another thing we discovered is that it is actually less expensive to order many items through Amazon.com and have them delivered through the mail rather than to purchase them on the island. Items we cannot find on the island we have been able to order through Amazon.com. For example, we needed two more twin mattresses. There is no place on the island to buy mattresses, so Glenn looked into purchasing them over the internet. He found some memory foam mattresses like we have on our bed and ordered them. They arrived within a week. They came rolled up in a box.
I have been having a very hard time finding greek yogurt here on the island, so I tried ordering it through one of the stores in Ketchikan that will mail your groceries to you. I faxed them the order on Monday morning and my groceries arrived here Tuesday morning. Wow, I am a fan!
This is our power station here in Whale Pass. Because we are so remote, we are not on the Alaska Power & Telephone (APT) grid. Instead, APT set up a power station here in Whale Pass to generate our electricity. It has been very reliable.
You can also see in the picture the big dish which is for our telephone.
Our builder and Glenn built the forms for the foundation. The plans were to pour the cement in the forms and then pour the floor for the garage all in the same day. We had two cement trucks come from Craig.
This is a picture of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints meeting house for the Craig Branch on the Prince of Wales Island. There are about 80 year-round members of the branch and about another 30 who attend for the summer months. It is a wonderful branch. Members drive from all over the island to attend church in Craig.Due to the fact that there are members who cannot make it very easily to church on Sunday, they provide a call in number where members can listen to Sacrament Meeting over their phone.
The Craig Branch is part of the Juneau Alaska Stake. Last Sunday we watched Stake Conference, which was being held in Juneau, on our television in our living room. This was a first for us, but we really enjoyed it!
Cement pouring day! It seemed like a long time coming. It was so fantastic! We had six men helping to lay the cement. Three of the men were neighbors here in Whale Pass who came to help. We also had a cement finisher, which we hired, come oversee the project and put his finishing touches on it.
After letting the cement cure for three days, they were ready to start building the garage. The builder, his assistant, and Glenn built the walls on the ground, nailed the OSB to the walls, and then stapled the Tyvek to the OSB. They used wall jacks to raise the walls into an upright position and then braced them until the front and back walls were built and jacked up.
Their next step was to build the floor for the second level. They had the floor and the opening for the stairs built in one day.
Our builder, his assistant, and Glenn built the side walls on the upstairs floor and then stood them up with the wall jacks just like they did for the garage walls.
And this . . . is our hot tub! Not! It is really the beginnings of another water storage tank.
Rafter building day! It is forecasted that we are going to have about five days of no rain--what a blessing that is! The day started out cloudy, but by the end of the day you can see the beautiful blue sky we had to enjoy. Our builder, his assistant, and Glenn were able to get lots of work done. In our part of Alaska, homes are built by men rather than by machines. The rafters were put together one board at a time.
This picture is taken from the road that goes past our property. You can see the apartment and garage on the left and the house on the right.
The interior walls were put in today. The apartment has two bedrooms, a bath, a kitchen and a living room. There is still a little bit more framing that needs to be done.
The windows were also installed today. The two windows at the front of the house are for the bedrooms. The window on this side of the house is located in the living room and looks out onto the beautiful trees.
The house is completely "dried in"! The garage door and the side entry door were installed today. The window on this side of the house is located in the kitchen.
We finished drying in the house just in time to take a month-long trip home. We were happy with what we were able to accomplish and results of our labor. As we stepped back and looked at it we said, "It is good!"
