Chapter 6

Thursday:

I was awoken by the arrival of a chopper again. They were bringing in the heaters and the required pipes and fittings to support them. They set the load down in front of the huts, and then the chopper flew off without landing. A short time later, the second chopper and load arrived; set the load down and departed also.

At breakfast, Junior interrupted my conversation with Jenn, to ask if I wanted to help connect the heaters in the huts. I agreed and after breakfast, Jenn ferried Junior and I across the river.

The first thing I noticed, was the concrete mixer was up and running. And the other thing was someone had built a ramp up to the input hopper of the gold separator, which allowed the diesel hopper to also dump loads there. I felt this was a great idea and asked Junior how much one of those diesel hoppers cost and Junior laughed and said two more were scheduled to arrive by Friday, along with another front-end loader.

Soon, another chopper arrived, but this one carried plywood and studs. When I questioned this, I was informed it was for building the interior of the first Quonset hut. So we would be starting on the second hut. The furnace was mounted against the rear right corner. Ducting already ran along the top of the hut with an opening half way down and one in front of the sliding doors.

Three men were mounting two by fours around the sliding front door and when I asked about this they told me it was for mounting the canvas cover to prevent heat from escaping through the door cracks. During the winter we would be entering through the side doors. Walking to the back, we found the furnace in place but lacking any connections.

Junior suggested we start with the flue pipe. Once we had fitted the flue up to the roof I could hear the men on the roof attaching the rest of it and securing it to the roof with guy wires so the wind could not blow it over. Next we ran new wires from the junction box to the furnace. Junior showed me how to connect in the battery back-up so the system would continue to work for a short time (one day) if we lost electrical power. Then we plumbed the fuel oil line out of the back side of the building putting a shut off valve where we could reach it with ease. The last thing we did was to run electrical wires out the back wall; Junior said that these would connect to heaters be used to keep the fuel oil from becoming so thick it would not flow.

After lunch, we started on the other hut. The front was to be the common room and two bedrooms had been built on the right side and one bedroom on the left side with the kitchen and bath room behind it. The furnace was located behind the two bedrooms.

Junior and I connected the furnace just like the other one, so there is not much to say about it. I noticed that the partitions for the walls did not reach the ceiling of the hut and also the ceilings were left off each room to allow heat to enter them. The duct work ran down the center of the hut again but this time it had a total of six extensions that led to vents. Two vents were over the common area. There was one vent over each bedroom and one vent over the kitchen.

While we had been working, I had heard two more choppers come and go. When I went outside to check, I found a new foundation and slab had been poured for the fuel tank stands. In fact an empty but new 750 gallon polyethylene fuel oil tank was sitting in place on the stand next to its future slab.

Along with the slabs for the fuel tanks, a walk way had been poured between the doors of the two huts. Another walkway ran between the huts towards the front of the huts. I was still inspecting the setup, when Art walked up and I asked "Why the long walkway?"

"We will enclose the walkways so you can move between the huts as well as exit the huts during the winter."

"How are we going to get enough fuel oil in here?"

"Not a problem. After the first heavy snow and good solid freeze we will sse snow cats to haul the fuel oil in with the rest of the winter supplies. Until then I figure we can fly in about 600 gallons, which should be enough to heat the three huts until the rest arrives. Remember, we only have to keep the huts at 40 degrees when no one is living in them."

"Okay, how many people will be staying here this winter?"

"I think that will be between seven and ten depending upon who you invite to live with you?"

"What do you mean depend on me?"

"I think Tommy is planning to spend the winter here and I sure as hell would insist he live in this hut. Tommy may want to invite a friend. Haven't you noticed when he leaves, it is always for overnight, no matter what time of day he leaves?"

Color me stupid! No, I hadn't observed that fact, nor had I been able to keep up with what was going on in the mining camp. "Look Art, I am having enough trouble keeping up with what is going on here, let alone keeping track of anyone else."

"Not to worry, Tommy and your Dad talked to Rob and me and said to take care of you. As for the status, the large Quonset hut will be ready to move by Thursday but we will wait a week to actually move it here. Rob said whoever had set it up, used it only during the summer months, so no insulation had been applied and taking it apart has been much easier."

Then Art continued, "To speed things up here, I have ordered another front-end loader with a back-hoe and two more diesel hoppers which should arrive Saturday. The front-end loader is leased and will be taken out by the snow cat when it leaves. Also, do you want a couple snowmobiles and quads to be brought in?"

"I guess that they would be handy to have but do we need them now?"

"No, I suggest we wait until later. The quads would be nice but with all the teenagers here, we would spend most of our time chasing them down or repairing them."

"Okay, I can see that. What about a small dump truck?"

"We could have ordered one, but I felt it had limited use, that being for the large Quonset hut slab. It would not be able to reach our cabins unless we cut down several trees and cut in roads too." then he continued, "With the four hoppers, we should be able to move the concrete as needed, and at a rate we can work with. I have found that the hoppers can take a pretty good grade if they are driven low gear so reaching our cabins should not be a problem."

"That's good to know. What are the plans for the next several days?"

"Tomorrow, I will put in the septic field for the small hut. Rob will be flying in tomorrow before you leave, with a nice bed and fuel oil so we can get this hut working, so your dad can stay here for a while. Tommy will fly Junior, Jenn and you out tomorrow morning. You can meet your Dad Saturday morning, and Jenn can do some shopping for the women that us men have been avoiding. Also, I hope you take Jenn out to a good restaurant. Unfortunately, Junior has to return to work, so will not be coming back with you."

"Saturday, Rob will use the bulldozer to start digging the plane basin. We want to raise the area of the hut another five feet which will put it a total of ten foot above the flood line. Once we have dug the basin down five feet we will run the rest of the material through the gold processor. Rob and I both think there may be some color down that far, from before the river changed course. Also we will need the extra amount of large rooks to raise the level of the levee up five foot to prevent the basin from being filled in with crap washed down the river during the spring floods. The additional sand and gravel will be needed to make concrete for the slab, ramp and our cabins."