9.10.2012

September Update!

So here's a quick run down:

September 4th was Jen and my first wedding anniversary! Some of our closest friends and family visited us from Pennsylvania and New York City and we were so thrilled to have them all "upta camp" with us again!

To ring in our first anniversary Jennifer's parents, sister Lynn and her three and a half year old son Joey visited us for just a few days but it was great to see all of them. They didn't have much time last year when they came up for the wedding so it was nice that they could explore the area more and it was a good excuse to take them to a few of our favorite places to eat! My Mother and her fiance Henry joined us at 66 Steak & Seafood in Blue Hill for a big feast with everyone. 66 catered our wedding last year and the food was just as good this week as it was the day we were married.

Our friends Jon and Amber brought their amazing four year old daughter Aida and their new baby boy Riley! They also brought their awesome dogs Taboo, Denali and Matilda. They are expert campers and do all sorts of cool stuff like rock climb and raise chickens and ducks. And while they brought the same tent they had used last year when they last visited, we set them up with a great tent we had just recently acquired from a neighbor that had been damaged by wind a few months ago. It only required minor repairs and we soon had it assembled and ready for the family of four (plus three dogs) to move in for the week. It was funny to us that the tent, at 225 square feet, is larger than one of our containers (160 sq. ft.). Amber and Aida spent a few days collecting blackberries and made a few jars worth of jam from their modest haul. It is delicious!

Another old friend of ours, Dahlia, went to college with Jen in NYC and is visiting us for two and a half weeks, working out on the island for a pottery studio. Like Jen, she is an amazingly talented artist and has really been learning a lot working alongside this master potter in Bar Harbor as his apprentice. She also brought her own tent but on cold damp or rainy nights we have insisted she stay indoors on our guest bed/futon. She made us a beautiful wild flower wreath that is now hanging on the one side of the container and is helping Jen paint a banner for the first annual "Happytown Hootenanny".

We were also visited one evening this week by our neighbors and friends, the Fox girls! Nikki and her two lovely daughters Willa and Netti. Aida, Willa and Netti had lots of fun running around our camp, painting rocks, and dancing with sparklers in the cool night air.

With the generous help of our friends we have begun building an alaskan slab that will be the eventual resting place for the containers where they will then be joined together. Possibly as early as next week if all goes well. After three years living in and working on the containers we have learned so much and now we feel we are ready to make some fundamental changes and improvements to the interior design and the overall layout and composition of the shelter these two containers have afforded us. The final design layout for the two boxes in conjunction with this monolithic alaskan slab is going to be a game changer here and I am sure it will garner attention world wide among container house enthusiasts and fans of The Arkhaven and our Arkhaus Initiative!

We hired our friend and trusted excavator operator, Andy, to do the site prep work. He did an amazing job as always! Carving a ditch along the north side of the pad for run off, leveling off the pad itself, digging a perimeter trench for the footing, plus he extended our driveway out another 75 yards or so to meet the pad. We will be bringing him back over the next few weeks to build a pond (more on that in another post). Jon and I built the form for the slab and placed all the rebar and mesh so now it is ready for concrete.

Stay tuned for more updates!

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