Men's Hike

Here are just a couple photos of the Men's hike a couple days ago.

Nate is in the middle at the foot of the cave (below)

Now we go pack and move up at midnight!

Day 9 & 10

Yesterday was another long 14 hour day as I wanted to get as much done as I could before Nate got back from the hike. They got in at 9:00 pm and he has very cold and tired, and thoroughly enjoying a warm comfy bed. The first day for them was very wet and cold as was the night. The second day wasn't as wet and the trail was more enjoyable. By the third day it was quite warm. The trail was closed off near the end so they had to walk up highway six to get into tobermory which tires your feet out more with the repetative walking. We hope to have pictures of the hike for you tomorrow.

Here are some pictures from the last 2 days: This was the photo at the end of yesterday.

Our door was originally a hand-me-down from 3 previous years and therefore needed a bit of work. it was saging and wobbly so I rebuilt it while Nate was gone. I took it completely apart and braced it with the two bars across. Unfortunately I put the plastic on the wrong side of the door but it was a quick fix. Today nate remade the hinge with a dowel on either end stuck into holes hand drilled into the top and bottom of the door as well as into the threshold and door frame. It works quite well now and even has a scary squeak when we open it.

This is our shower floor. Luckily the grate was already made and so I just had to dig it into the ground a bit and put some tiles on top. In 3 hours I made this shelving unit. It is 3 shelves for toiletries, clothes, etc. and to the right

of it there is a hanging hanger bar.

So that was yesterday's progress and here are today's photos. We ended up staying until about 9:30 but I wanted to finish the clay on the oven so I was working by flashlight. And this is our prized possession that I found while looking around our lot for rocks. It is a raccoon skull we figure.

Nate did the electrical today and here is the light switch taped to the pole since we can't use nails or screws.

This is our table which is very handy to have somewhere flat to put stuff. Nate also did the chimney today and dug the slop pit. I got the counters fitted with cardboard and with covering and plastic. All we have left is a few small finishing touches so we are doing our fresh food shopping and a few odds and ends . Our last outing for a month! No more internet, phone music, or conveniences. So we won't be replying to emails after tomorrow. Good bye world!...

Day 8

Another long work day, although the hours seem to go by too quickly. Nate is gone on the men't hike until tomorrow night. Luckily everyone is in very close proximity so we don't get lonely. I realized yesterday that I didn't take pictures of a few of the jungle camp amenities. Above we have the washing machine. A blue barrel cut open at the top. The black handle is attached to bar going the length of the barrell to help stir up the soap and clothes. Next is the oven attached ontop and beside the stove unit. It's just a metal barrel cut into the main metal drum that is the firebox. On the other side of the unit is the hot water which works much the same as the oven only it is upward.

And last but not least, the fridge! A metal bucket in the ground with rocks all around and under it. The lid has styrofoam on the underside for added insulation. It's basically there for keeping food from not getting hot rather that cooling it right down, but it'll help.

And this is my masterpiece. I've been working on it for couple days and finally finished it today. Ok, so it's not straight but it'll hold food. I used a line level and everything. And the other huge project which Nate mostly worked on is the bench. Lots of tieing down and cutting. I also finished that today so it's ready for the foam and material over top.

And here is tomorrow's project. We got a door with the pile of wood on our lot, but it had been through 3 years so it was looking sad. Remembering that we can't use any hinges, nails, or screws, a door become very difficult. So I took it mosltly appart today and I'll rebuild it and keep the frame. Any ideas? =)

And so after today this is what I walked away looking at.

Day 6 & 7

Saturday or day 6 we worked very hard to get the plastic on the house. Sunday is 'day of rest' and today (monday) Nate went on the 3 day men's hike on the Bruce trail (Tobermory). So because of this we wanted plastic as it is a two person job. We worked until 9:30 when we could no longer see anything and had to quite. It was too dark to take pictures that day so I've got more today. It was a bit dark by today too. We only got 2 1/2 sides hung with plastic. So this morning I ended up finishing stapling the plastic on horizontal poles and finish hanging the rest of the plastic by myself. The picture above is of the kitchen; the stove is in the middle and too the right is counter and shelf space and to the left is the sink and counter space with shelving underneath. Below is the bedroom and storage room to the right in the background and in the foreground is the dinning room bench.

To the right is our house from the trail! It actually looks like a house! So the guys get back late Wednesday night and we have thursday friday to work on the table, bench cusions, counter tops, new door and shelving under the bed. Below is the front without the door =) it broke.

Day 5

The mornings are getting tougher and tougher to get up at 5:00am. This morning we didn't get up there until about 6:00am but accomplished a lot despite the later start. Nate finished building the counter with the sink and while I was lashing it down, Nate got the running water up! It was an exciting occasion as we haven't had running water for the year here. I also got the shelving for our food mostly done while Nate made the shower. He had to dig a hole twice the size of the amount of water we will be putting in at a time and then filling it with rocks. We bought a solar shower or just a black back that heats in the sun and so Nate had to pose with the cap that came with it... He's a little tired =) It's late and another early day tomorrow so until then, good bye.

PS We apologize for the lack of communication outside of this blog but the time just isn't there right now =)

Day 3 & 4

Yesterday the hard long days were catching up to us so we slept a bit longer and started around 7:30am. Half way down at the end of the day we realized we had not taken any pics for you guys, so we are catching up today. The work we did yesterday kinda took a long time with little

to show for it. The bed was the project of the day as we had 4 posts to dig in 2 feet deep and 5 more to dig in 1 foot deep. So the picture above is the pic from today but you can see the bed to the right. Yes, it's really high, but we really wanted a high bed as we've never had one and this way we have LOTS of storage space. It's so high we'll probably have to make a ladder or something to be able to get in. And we did little projects along the way, but the day just didn't feel as productive as usual.

So today We got a lot more done. The picture on the right is what we saw on our way up to jungle camp. It got down to 2 degrees celsius over night and was 3 at 6:00am. A very cold morning. I finished smoothing the top of the bed so it doesn't poke a hole in our air mattress, and the rest of my day was spent with my hands in clay covering the stove 2" thick. Nate got a lot more to show by the end of the day.

He put in the posts for our benches around the table, ....

and he made the frame for our one counter...

and he started on our sink counter and window frames. We've got friday and saturday to work, and Sunday is our day of rest. Then monday to wednesday the guys are on their hike around tobermory area. Then we have Thurday Friday of next week and Saturday is move up day! The week is going by really quick and so we are starting at 5:30 tomorrow to ensure we have walls up before Nate goes on the hike=)

On that note, good night to all!

Day 2

Today started a little later as we were a bit tired from the day before. We got up at 5:00 and made it up to jungle camp by 6:00am. Though we were productive today, things just don't seem to go as fast as the first day when you start with nothing and get to the entire frame. But we got our stove frame built as you can see below.

And this is the mostly finished product with dirt below and around the drum and clay on the top and sides. And below is the inside of the oven where Nate clayed and built up a hill for less draft.

And this is the door Nate worked tirelessly on. It was already made from last year and so he had to make a frame and threshold.

Jungle Camp! Day 1

Day 1 of 11!





This morning at 5:00 am Nate & I were heading up to Jungle camp to start a long process of building a house that we can live in for a month. For those of you who don't know about this program, we are given a lot and cedar poles, duck tape, plastic and we take 2 weeks to build ourselves a house to live in for 4 weeks. It's supposed to teach us to plan ahead as we cannot leave the bush for the full 4 weeks. This means lots of canned food and scratch cooking. No fridges, microwaves or fresh foods.


So this below is the ground breaking ceremony. Still a touch dark, but we got the holes dug.

This is what we started with this morning. We were allowed to square our lot and mark where our poles were going so that is all the little sticks in the ground. Bewlow Nate is taping up the rafters.

I did a lot of tamping the poles into the ground after Nate dug the 2 foot deep holes.

We've got the cross poles on and ready for the rafter's.

The rafters are on and nate's happy about it=) (below)

And the most exciting part of the day! We got our roof plastic on! Since it had been raining all morning we were very happy to get our plastic on by 2:30

That's our progress today, and needless to say we are ready for bed. I'll try and upload a few pics every day or two.