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This is Page 1 of 3 - the best of August 2016!
posted: August 31st, 2016
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There were no real true adventures at all this month due to a car accident and therefore our rig being in the shop for the entire month. We have learned the best time and methods to hitchhike into Fairbanks and then how to ride the metropolitan area buses, get everything completed that we need to do and then how to hitchhike home. Fairbanks is a pretty friendly place and we have seldom had to wait much more than five minutes to get a ride. Sometimes we get a ride in the first vehicle that comes along. It's a nice place to live. So, this page begins with August, 15th and some photos of the exterior of our house. Then we jump to August 18th and several photos of the interior. After that go to August 19th and show you a few more photos of the interior, mostly the cleaned and polished Cawley 800 woodstove.   Click on any thumbnail to begin.

Begin August 15th
  This image, a 2-shot panorama, is composed of photos taken while standing on the front porch step (see next photo). Our chainsaw is not working and we have not been able to get in enough firewood for the winter. We hope to have a working chainsaw quite soon and then we will begin to get firewood by cutting down the dead and dying trees on our own property. Notice that in all photos which show what may be considered our "yard" that it is just raked, bare ground. I was gone from this house for some 25 years and what little lawn there had been when I left was not maintained by the several folks who rented the place over the years and I told my friend who managed the house and land for me to just forget about the "yard" and let the renter's do what they wanted to do. So, the "yard" had probably not even been raked once in 25 years and as you can easily see, the land is relatively thick forest, so the "yard" was several inches thick in partially decomposed leaves, wild rose and aspen suckers attempting to take over. It was not a pretty site! It took several sessions to get the wild rose, aspen suckers, high weeds and etc. cut off and then several more sessions to get it all raked. In most places the decomposing leaves are still not all raked away. It is not raked down to bare soil hardly anywhere at all.
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Aug15_1_2
_HouseRC

  The first shot in this row shows the west side of the house and the second photo shows the front of the house and the full length porch. In the second photo you can also see our small garden. We have rhubarb, snap peas and basil growing.
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Aug15_4_House_AdjRC
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  The first shot in this row shows the east side of the house. The upstairs loft is the bedroom, so the morning sun comes in the bedroom window, nice. The small downstairs window is opposite the dining table, which is also nice for morning sun. The second photo shows the back, or north side, of the house. The window is in the bathroom.
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Aug15_6_HouseRC
Aug15_6_
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End August 15th, Begin August 18th
  Now let's move to the inside of the house. The first shot in this row shows the north wall of the kitchen area and the second shot was taken looking northeast into the kitchen area. Kazuya is there preparing dinner.
Aug18_04_HouseInteriorRC
Aug18_04_
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Aug18_05_HouseInteriorRC
Aug18_05_
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  The first shot in this row was taken looking east into the kitchen and dining area. You can see that we have most of our pots and pans hanging, similar to what some restaurants do. Kazuya is still preparing dinner. The second image is a 2-shot panorama of the two photos in the previous row, which of course, explains why there are some weird curves. The third shot was taken looking into the southeast corner, the dining area. Note our microwave there in the corner. Can you get a feel for all of the counter space and work space that is available to one for working on meals or other projects?
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HouseInteriorRC
Aug18_04_05_HouseInterior_AutoPanoRC
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Aug18_09_HouseInteriorRC
Aug18_09_
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  The first shot here shows the front door, the coat rack, the shoes shelf, the nice rocking chair and the ottoman. The second image is another 2-shot panorama which shows from the front door, on the left to just past our "office" area. The panorama is composed of the first and third photos in this row. The third shot shows the right portion of the previous panorama. All of these near distance panoramas show weird curves and that is the reason that I want to show you the actual shots that make up the panoramas.
Aug18_10_HouseInteriorRC
Aug18_10_
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Aug18_10_11_HouseInterior_CylPanoRC
Aug18_10_11_House
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Aug18_11_HouseInteriorRC
Aug18_11_
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  In this row we kind of move on to the north wall. The first show shows the northwest corner. You can also see my notebook computer on the "office" table, a KLH Model 21 FM Radio in the windowsill, some of our backpacks, the stairway into the loft and the handrail. The second shot shows more of the north wall. Under the stairway is the wood box and quite a lot of closet space. You can also see the bathroom door. The third shot shows the bathroom door, a curtain which says "Yu" (=bath) in Japanese and if you look closely you can see that the toilet and bathroom vanity are raised up above the level of the remainder of the house. We have our own well and the pressure tank is hidden in the corner behind the open bathroom door which you can see in the second and third photos.
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Aug18_14_HouseInteriorRC
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  The first shot in this row shows the porcelain throne, and as befits a throne, it is raised! Ha! The real reason is so that the U-shaped drain trap does not have to be under the house, where it would freeze. The shower has no U-trap as it would have to be under the house, where it would freeze solid when it gets down to minus 40°. Therefore when we are not actually taking a shower we keep the drain covered. The second shot shows the bathroom sink, vanity and medicine cabinet. The hot water heater is under the sink. We have a solid core door on the bathroom and backup electric baseboard heat in the bathroom so that if we want or need to travel in the winter we can close the bathroom door, turn on the electric heat and things will not freeze up at minus 40°.
Aug18_16_HouseInteriorRC
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Aug18_18_HouseInteriorRC
Aug18_18_
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  Now I am standing in the "office" area and looking up at the loft. The first shot is on the south side of the loft, the second shot is about the center and the third shot shows the northern-most portion. I attempted to create a panorama with all three of these shots and it would not work. I tried again with only two shots and not even that would work. The subject was too close and in the short distance the perspective changes too much.
Aug18_19_HouseInteriorRC
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Aug18_21_HouseInteriorRC
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  The first shot in this row was taken while sitting in my "office" chair and looking east into the kitchen area. This shot was taken using 16 x 9 mode on my camera. The second shot is an iPhone panorama of the entire kitchen and dining area all the way to the coat rack.
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Aug18_27__iPhonePano_HouseInteriorRC
Aug18_27__iPhonePano
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End August 18th, Begin August 19th
  On this date Kazuya and I worked like crazy to finish cleaning and polishing the woodstove, so the next three rows basically show comparison photos of the woodstove between the 18th and the 19th. The first photo in this row shows the left side of the woodstove and the west wall and was taken while standing up. The center image is a comparison of the front of the stove before and after cleaning and polishing. The third photo shows the left side of the woodstove again, but this one was taken while on my knees.
Aug19_02_Woodstove_CleanedRC
Aug19_02_
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Aug18_23_Aug19_11_WoodStoveComparisonRC
Aug18_23_Aug19_11_Wood
StoveComparisonRC
Aug19_03_Woodstove_CleanedRC
Aug19_03_Woodstove
_CleanedRC

  The first photo in this row shows the top of the stove after cleaning and polishing, there are no "before" photos. The top really looked bad before cleaning though. It had been painted black several times and the paint had chipped off here and there and then another coat of paint had been put on it. What we used is not paint, it is just simple graphite and carbon black mixture that is kind of a paste that one rubs on with a rag, or toothbrush for the hard to reach areas, waits for it to dry and then rubs it off and polishes it. I have read that one can use black shoe polish too, I wonder?! By the way, the cook lids were originally silver. The small cook lid on the right side has been worked on with sandpaper for about 30 minutes. You can see that it is somewhat of a different color than the large cook lid that it is a part of, but even that much sandpaper work would not change it back to silver color. I'm going to try and have the cook lids sand blasted if it doesn't cost too much. The second image compares the left side of the woodstove before and after cleaning and polishing.
Aug19_06_Woodstove_CleanedRC
Aug19_06_Woodstove
_CleanedRC
Aug18_05_Aug19_04_Woodstove_RightSideRC
Aug18_05_Aug19_04_Woodstove
_RightSideRC

  The first image in this row compares the front of the woodstove before and after cleaning and polishing. The second image compares the right side before and after cleaning and polishing.
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Aug18_06_Aug19_05_Woodstove
_CompareRC
Aug18_08_Aug19_08_WoodstoveCompareRC
Aug18_08_Aug19_08_Woodstove
CompareRC

  Here are two iPhone panoramic images. For the first image I was standing on my "office" chair and took this photo of the loft from about level with its floor. The second image is a full 270° panorama. On the left side you can see the door frame and on the right side you can just see the edge of the calendar, which shows up near the right side in the third image in Row 5. You can also find this calendar in both images in Row 10.
Aug19_1_iPhonePano_HouseInterior_AdjRC
Aug19_1_iPhonePano
_HouseInterior_AdjRC
Aug19_2_iPhonePano_HouseInteriorAdjRC
Aug19_2_iPhonePano
_HouseInteriorAdjRC

End August 19th, End Page 1
Thanks so much for taking the time to look at this page. Now, please go on to Page 2 for the continuation of photos around the house and property. Go To Page:


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