The Clayton Clan: Our place phases I II and III

Phase I

We went down over the long Easter weekend... and our good friends the Herbert's came the same weekend. They had things to do to open their cabin from over the winter. We stayed with them in the evenings and went to church on Sunday in Homer. On Sunday, we also had a nice Easter dinner together at their cabin with another friend from Ninilchik, Gene. They helped us so much that weekend with various things and we had a fun time together.

It was a beautiful drive down

having fun... the three of us :)

When we got there we found that a huge wind storm had knocked our outhouse over, it had also broken some limbs off trees around the area, and the saddest thing of all was that the eagle's nest in our good friends, the Mauger's lot... 2 lots over ....blew out of the tree and had crashed to the ground. The 2 eagles were still there in other trees nearby ... it seemed like they were saying... I thought this is where we lived ??... what has happened ??... it was actually so sad to see them in the trees near by over looking their nest on the ground.

Mike helped Bob lift the outhouse back up and they tied it down temporarily, but Bob secured it a better way the second time we came out.

Our goals this first trip were to:

1. water seal the outside of the cabin

2 clean the cabin out.

(It had a bunk bed, an old love seat, and lots of trash and junk around the outside.)

3. paint the inside walls, and the front door

4. scrub the carpet... it has cream colored carpet (I know, who chose that color?)

5. put locks on the door of the cabin and outhouse

here is dad water sealing the outside

We cleaned it all out and laid plastic down to paint

We just got at it...

front door- green, we are going to sand it and distress it in future trips

Mike and Bonnie had walked over to see how we were doing and we gave them a ride back to their cabin for the evening

Here are these two sad eagles wondering where their nest is...

we can't get enough of them as they fly by

we also saw these guys

We played cards until very late Saturday night.

Sunday morning...the Easter bunny came by

we saw some very cool things on the way home .. can you believe these swans?

and these guys

Kodiak is checking it all out, ears flapping in the breeze

beautiful sunset

Phase II

We went down again over spring break. It was a beautiful trip down. We did not bring Kodiak this time.

We saw lots of wild life this trip

I know they are kind of blurry, but can you see those 2 eagles in the top of the trees below?

another 2 moose walking by

Our goals this second trip were to:

1.work on the outhouse, and the little path to the outhouse

2. hang the shelves and paint them

3. wire the lighting and hang the new light fixture

4. hang the curtains I made :)

5. get the queen size cot up and made

6. set up shelves

7. build a front deck

Dad is securing the outhouse and taking down the temporary holds

rewiring the light

painting those shelves

new toilet seat and linoleum around it

dad started laying out the deck

dad worked into the night on the deck, we finally had to close it all up and leave with it just a bit unfinished and needing one more day to finish up a few things before our Memorial day weekend trip.

We've had a great day. We have worked hard and have gotten a lot done.

Now, dad came back by himself the next Friday he had off and Saturday and he got lots of things done. He didn't take pictures of all that he did, but he did a lot. He finished the decks, and stained them, and built up the floor of the outhouse, and a small deck as you step out of the outhouse, and cleaned up around the cabin. He also cut down a tree or two that were threatening to fall, and cleaned up broken limbs and chopped up some wood to stack around the sides of the cabin with his new chain saw. :/ (he just wanted to come and play around) j/k

By memorial day weekend, which is the weekend lots and lots of our friends come and camp up at Ninilchik... we were ready to actually use our little new cabin and show it off to our friends.

Phase III

So here is the final phase for now... of our cabin
This is us heading up for our Memorial day weekend

Kodiak... when are we going to get there....

Alaska had some severe fires raging in and around the Kenai area. We were blessed. While we drove there, the winds carried the smoke into the Anchorage air, and when we returned, the smoke was far away and blowing another way. But we did see the huge plume in the distance. It looked ginormous.

Our little place... dad sitting on the deck

I love how we cut the welcome mat for each step... do you see Kodiak in the lawn chair?..... I know...

Just to the side. We didn't have time to sand and paint our picnic table, so we just covered it with a table cloth and called it good.

Here is the little path to the outhouse

the outhouse

up close at the little flowers I planted right to the side of the outhouse :)

this is the view to head back over to the cabin

Saturday morning the guys went halibut fishing and each caught their limit

Just clowning around in Herbert's cabin me, Cisalee, Julie Oldham, Stacie Keller, and Bonnie

Clamming

Julie Oldham (Cisalee's mom), me and Cisalee out clamming

the guys, Marriner Oldham, President Chadwick, Brian Keller and dad

just us :)

dad just getting it done (I don't even know what he is reaching for, but it was a good shot :) )

me making clam chowder.... the hard (long) way. Good grief, I should have just gone over to Bonnie's....no sink to rinse the potatoes in...chopping a bazillion tiny sized celery onions potatoes... cooking on the coleman stove. I had to borrow flour ... I was making a double batch too.... ok I'm done... it was scrumptious... completely scrumptious