The big kitchen has been completed. Here we have the left end of the kitchen with the 2nd sink and you can just see the nook seating. This part was under construction on the prior page.

You may notice that the cabinets on the left most 8 feet of lowers and the upper 4 feet were previously installed on the other side of this same wall. See Page 25

Here is a photo of the right or south side of our kitchen. You can see more of it on the prior page.

In July Brad took time off for a trip to Alaska with son Jason. Here we are at Dawson Creek, BC, Canada. Mile 0 of the historic Alcan Highway.

Another thousand miles north, and a couple hundred miles north of Fairbanks, AK, we crossed the Arctic Circle.

In the land of the midnight sun, this photo was taken at midnight in front of the Prudhoe Bay Hotel. Across the street is the Prudhoe Bay terminal of Carlile Trucking which is featured on the TV show "Ice Road Truckers." The term "hotel" is not quite what it is elsewhere. They are lodging for employees and one of them will rent bunk rooms to tourists in summer if no oil field workers fill them up. Cafeteria food is included in the hotel price. No regular food or drink service is available in town. One little convenience store sells chips and snacks along with souvenir shirts and jackets.

Prudhoe Bay or the town of Deadhorse as the Post Office calls it is a spread out collection of oil drilling sites and temporary housing for 5,000 or more oil field workers. They actually have no permanent residents. They only drill in winter when permafrost prevents oil spills soaking into the land.

In summer they take tours out to the Arctic Ocean about 5 miles from our hotel. On the horizon ten miles farther north is an artifical island made of gravel fill. The Ice Road Truckers ran out there across the ice on one program. Nothing else between here and the north pole but water and ice. It was cold and windy the day we were there at about 70 degrees north.

Here is a sign at the north end of the Dalton Highway heading back south. I've seen this sign on the TV Show, "Ice Road Truckers." About 1/2 of the road is now paved.

The tankless water heater instructions says that its supposed to be flushed with vinegar or some acid every year to remove calcium deposits and clean the heat exchanger. This is a pump I got at Harbor Freight and 5 gallons of vinegar. I circulate vinegar through the water heater for 4 or 5 hours. The vinegar turns black. Then I shut off the pump and flush it out before turning it on again. I've been doing it every year. I hope it does some good.

I bought a hydraulic log splitter from Sears this summer. I've got about 10 cords of wood under a tarp here. We have a lot of dead trees apparently killed by bark beetles. Chopping wood keeps me busy in September and October.

I bought one of those hidden trail cameras and set it out on the western property near Rock Lake Road. These two bucks came by early in the summer of 2012.

I looked out the window one afternoon and saw this goat. At first I thought it might be a yak, but its some kind of goat. Apparently it lives down the road where a new neighbor put in goats and chickens. This picture is near our satellite dishes.

We found this Caterpillar D4 diesel dozer for sale near Cheney. This one has a 2 cylinder gas "pony" engine that starts in winter. The pony turns the big diesel engine until it starts. I used it to clear my driveway once in December 2012 when we got snowed on. It sure beats spending 3 days with a shovel.

I wanted to put a tarp over the dozer so I invented this plastic pipe assembly. the front cross part has 2 holes in its bottom so it sits over the 2 steering clutch levers. The back cross was run through a table saw so it has a slot in its bottom. It sits over the steel plate seat back. It holds up the middle of the tarp and forms the peak of a slope. It's round so it doesn't poke holes in the tarp like the steering levers would have done.

On December 31, 2012 we are having bitter cold and snow. I took some photos of the trees. This little tree is between the driveway and the house.

More year end snow. These trees are NE of our house. This photo is taken from the driveway.

This is the year end snow seen from our back door. Snow is sliding off the roof in mid afternoon. Single digit temps tonight. Happy New Year.

Well, that's all the photos for now. When we get something else done I may get around to posting again.