Back in Town again

We're back for a few days, taking a little Anchorage vacation. Betsy and I worked hard, with the help of a few friends, from the 11th to the 20th of November. An unusually early and consistent winter has made working before 9:30am or after 5 pm a cold affair, but we've managed to get all of our posts in, the beams on and the floor joists framed up. As we get further off the ground the work becomes much less difficult, we had to sledgehammer our piles of dirt in order to backfill the holes around the posts. Who said digging holes in the winter was hard? At least now it's all sawing and measuring, and making marks with the special construction pencils, and not working with the rock bar, pickaxe or sledge.
We both had a few days of work in Anchorage come available and I definitely needed a break from the routine, so we laid down the mousetraps, bungee-d the front door shut and went to Anchorage-town. It is strange going to Anchorage knowing I'm just visiting and will be leaving soon; I've lived there since '99. Betsy went right to work driving Thai camera crews around and I ran errands and tried to keep the dog entertained. Now it is time to drive the minivan north again and make the walk up to the site. I want snow so the snowmachining and skiing will come in, but only after I get the floor on.
Betsy recently got a great job as a marine observer; she'll be working that through the spring, so during that time I'll act as the caretaker keeping bears and wolf packs away from the Yurt as she roams the oceans around Alaska on a fishing trawler.
On Monday I'll begin getting the foam insulation in between the joists and the floor on. Once the floor is finished I get to cut it all into a circle, and the footprint for the Yurt will be finished.
Bill