My little cabin in Fairbanks…

At the RV park where I was volunteering, the office manager and I discussed the possibility of me staying here in Fairbanks through the winter. There are several reasons I’d like to do that. The first is that I’ve always wanted to test myself in very cold weather…I have an internal furnace that really is spectacular…and over the years, I’ve applied to work at McMurdo Station in Antarctic many times. I’ve not gotten hired yet and the last time I applied was just last year. I’m very interested in doing something like that. I’m hopeful for my chances if I show up in person at their main office. Just sending in applications hasn’t done anything except get me a couple nibbles by HR. Fairbanks is my next choice as a cold place to live and work. It has a reputation as being one of the coldest cities on earth…getting down to -70 F in mid winter and staying at -20 F during the day for weeks at a time. Another reason I’d like to stay is I like the people here a lot, I like the community, and if I find a income property to buy here, I just might stay for years. Then there is the Ice Sculpture contest that will be running from Feb. 26th thru March 23rd. Art is cool, and this art will be downright cold…can’t wait to see the ice sculptures in person. Last year they ran over 45,000 visitors through the park to see nearly 40 sculptures, and those don’t count the kids park sculptures. And I’ll be putting pictures here of the whole thing since I’ll be volunteering to help out with the Web camera system. Meanwhile, you can check out last winters sculptures at Ice Alaska

Anyway, she (the office manager at the RV campground where I’m volunteering – her name is pronounced ‘Wa’) and her husband had bought a cabin about 2 miles from the RV park as a rental and she offered it to me to stay in over the winter. I’d given up on my plan of living in my RV as not workable, so the cabin was a good offer. I’ll have to pay rent but anywhere I’d be staying would cost something. During the summer I helped get it fixed up, I changed some bad plumbing and replaced the hot water tank. No more leaks.

So last Friday (Oct. 5th) I moved over here to the cabin. I drove my RV and one of the guys helping at the RV park followed in my car. As I was backing into a spot next to the cabin, I see I’m leaving a trail on the road. Jump out and inspect and find that I have a fuel leak from the engine. Now I have a new problem with the rig. Damn. This thing has cost me $10,000 in repairs in just 3 years. When is it going to end? When I sell it? Probably.

On Saturday morning, I wake up to find 2″ of snow on the ground. I timed that just right, I didn’t have to drive the RV in fresh snow. Now it’s the next Tuesday and I’m pretty well moved in, and the snow is still on the ground, with no signs it will be melting, until next spring.

I built a stand for the TV I bought at the local thrift store and made cushions for a hide-a-bed and sectional sofa I’d found at the dump, both in excellent condition, except they didn’t have cushions. Wa and I had spent a lot of time making the cushions with material I’d found on 1/2 price sale. It was worth the $60 for the material because the hide-a-bed was in such good shape. I’ll be sleeping on it and I appreciate the fact that the mattress looks brand new, as though never used.

We dump our own trash from the RV park at the public dumps and since we were there so often, we’d get a good chance at the usable items dropped off by the public. If you’re lucky enough to be there when it happens, you can get some good stuff. So far, I’ve gotten a nice stuffed chair, a computer table, 10 computers I’m fixing up to sell, the hide-a-bed and the sectional couch, and a few small items like pots-&-pans.

Here’s a look at the cabin before it snowed:

And a shot of the new to me car I bought…it’s a Subaru with 207,000 miles on it. Runs great, has all wheel drive, all power accessories, sun roof, etc., hopefully, it will give me good service into next year:

A look at my ‘rescued’ hide-a-bed, these things are $900 new and I needed something exactly like this in this 3 room cabin so I feel lucky to have found it at the dump in such good condition, it’s clean and the bed is in excellent condition…doesn’t seem like it was ever used:

Here’s the sectional piece:

And here’s what it looks like now that I’ve replaced the missing cushions. There weren’t any back cushions either but I was lucky enough to find three clean & large pillows at the dump that work fine, and one of the RV parks renters gave me her blanket when she found an apartment:

Here’s a few shots of inside the cabin after I’ve gotten a lot of stuff moved in-my computer station and the TV stand I built out of scrap lumber:

The cushy chair that was given to me:

The kitchen:

The only closet in the cabin:

Then the only corner in the cabin where I could fit a chest of drawers, it’s a little bigger then I need (there are two empty drawers), and it’s a loaner so if I find a smaller set, out it goes…:

And the bathroom, there’s the water tank, that seafoam colored thing, though you can’t see it here the pump is next to it on the left, and the hot water tank is on top of it:

A look out the front door, snows going to stay:

And a look at the neighborhood:

More of the kitchen, see the water jugs? This cabin doesn’t have city water, just the water tank and a pump setup in the bathroom, the tank holds about 200 gallons I think. You can pay a service to bring you out a couple hundred gallons of water, or you use a friends water tank, you see them all over Fairbanks in the beds of pickup trucks. Buy the water at a local supplier and pump it into your tank at home before it freezes:

And a shot looking at how everything will be for the next 6 months, except the snow will get deeper:

I’ve been living here a few days now and the neighborhood is nice and quiet, no barking dogs, no kids, no teenagers, or people speeding down the roadways nearby making a racket. Only complaint, and it’s a minor one, is the business right behind the cabin leaves a large parking lot light on all night, and it casts it’s light into my windows. I’ll need to get a bigger curtain to block it.