Day #1

Had a great day at the Hole In the Wall, temperatures in the 60's and everything is so nice an dry, if I had enough "blue tarps", I would tarp it over like they do the baseball fields when it rains. Got an early start, accomplished allot and drank three tall Coors - that is a lot of beer for me! Somehow, one of my maintenance workers snuck away from me and ended up in Homer, supposedly doing his laundry and blogging! As if we did not have a washer, dryer, and Internet connection for his lap top at the Eagle Nest. That was o.k., I had plenty of work laid out for him, I knew he would return around supper time. When he did show back up, he was amazed the number of times that the Golden Granny ran up and down the hill from the HITW to the Eagle Nest. But it got even better a little later in the day, it even amazed me. You can thank Golden Granny for installing electricity and water into the HITW! Ranger was amazed when he saw her laying out the extension cords down the hillside but both of us were shocked to see what followed! Did you know we have enough garden hoses to run from the Eagle Nest to the HITW, it was such fun seeing her pulling those hoses down the hill. Her reason, "that way they will not have to haul water, just yell at us to turn on the faucet".
The first person to yell at me at 3:00 a.m. is going to see just the flash of my shotgun going off. We are going to operate it much like we had to on the aircraft carriers I was on, we will have water hours! Water will be turned on twice a day for one hour - get it then or go without!
Went to clean out the fire pit, even though the Moose had a hot dog roast a couple of weeks ago at the HITW, he must have had a small fire, all the ashes were still frozen. I tried a pick on it, two much work so I burnt up a lot of wood and hopefully I will be able to shovel it out tomorrow so I can build the new hearth.
Unfortunately, the glacier is gone so there goes the concept of using it as a beer cooler. However, I have come up with a new concept for cooling beer. The "Duck House" depository is still frozen solid with ice - why can't the Plumma and Homer use that to cool their beer? After a half dozen loads of sand and a roll of anti water plastic, the "Duck House" is now well banked and we will not have that problem in the future. I did take the tarp off today, with the warm sun shining through the sky lights, it won't long for it to thaw. A much beer as I drank today, I think I helped it thaw a little faster.
Everyone can thank the Golden Granny for removing all the tarps from your seasonal homes, although she refuses to enter and clean the Wolf Den until someone cleans up the murder scene. Don't know what happened in there, but it is ugly!
When the Ranger did show back up, I demonstrated my ability with a chain saw. He is one good skidder, loader (wheelbarrow) and wood stacker! We cut up about three cords of "dimensional lumber" this afternoon, now it is time to go see our source again for more supplies. In his desire to please, he did make one small error, unknown to me he discovered another source of wood and before I realized what had happened, we had cut up the stock of dunnage that was almost neatly stowed away under a camper.
Going to move the "cook tent" this year, slightly to the south to give us a little more room at the fire pit. Did a lot of raking and clean up today, things are looking pretty good but still have some major chores to do. The "B" Wolf will be happy to know that her "beach flowers" are all up about four inches and looking good. The "Hammer Plant" is looking a little sad like it may be lacking some type of mineral. Somewhere I read that some people drink their own urine for the mineral content, so I have been helping out the "hammer" by donating some on mine each time I pass it. Looking forward to the arrival of everyone, hopefully the majority of the work will be finished prior to your arrival so you can kick back and relax. Oh, I forgot, we still have ten yards of gravel to spread - I guess there will be no kicking back to relax - I don't do gravel!!!!