"And the beat goes on" (cudos to Sonny & Cher)

  Wow, have we ever been busy!  Mike left on 8/9 and we had one week to ourselves before our youngest son and his wife arrived for a visit.

  We put them to work too!  Our new motto, "Do not turn down free help when it is offered."
  This past week, on Tuesday, we (with Steve's help) were able to get the skirting on the RV finished and get the deck for the arctic entry built.  It just keeps getting better.

  On Wednesday, we tackled putting in the new window.  Our readers will recall that somewhere prior to Grande Prairie, Alberta, CA we had a window break due to rocks/vibrations/ whatever breaks expensive windows.  The temporary repair was the plastic that comes in large poster frames and lots of Duck tape.

The new window was a special order item and it arrived (finally) on 8/22.  Never having replaced a window in our lives, we tuned to the DIY life savers on YouTube.  There, the pros made it look easy enough that we felt we could do it.

  The land outside the window slopes downhill, and is not safe for a ladder.  Green Goblin to the rescue!  Backed him up beneath the window, and with John standing in the bed of goblin, and me sitting on the bed in the RV, we were able to get the job done.  The pros were right.  It was "easy peasy".  The hardest part of the entire operation was finding the butyl tape the pros recommended instead of putty, but that is another story.

  Friday was a day of R&R.  We met Stephen and Michele at the Alaska State Fair.  All the years we lived in Texas, we never attended that fair probably due to the heat of the Texas summer, and the crowds.  This state fair is a refreshing change of pace.  There are crowds, but not very dense, you can actually move!

  The highlight for me has always been the livestock on display by the various 4-H groups in the area. 

 This day was no exception.  They were a treat to behold.

  The biggest attraction at the Alaska State Fair is the giant vegetables grown locally.  They are really, really, really big.  the champion pumpkin weighed in at a whopping 1283.5 pounds.  The prize cabbage named "Marmaduke" weighed 117.5 pounds.  the growth is attributable to the long Alaskan summer days.

The day started out bright, sunny, and 62 degrees, but as we watched, the clouds moved in and the rain started.  Luckily it last only about 1 hour and we were off to explore some more.

  

  Saturday and Sunday were spent building walls for the arctic entry.  The days are getting cooler now with lows getting into the mid 30's, so we need to make haste.  The walls went up easily enough, the window, door, and artificial turf were put into place.  Two more walls and a roof, and we will almost be ready for winter.  I still need to insulate the windows, but that should only take a day.

  And that sloppy siding job has been replaced with something more cosmetically pleasing.  We will paint everything when we are done.

    

   Today is Labor Day, and we are waiting for the sun to come up over the yardarms, and warm the air enough that we can do some more work.  Labor is work, right?  

  Until next time, please continue to enjoy the blog.  Comment on what you would like to see, or hear about, and I will try my best to accommodate you.