Another stealth operation in the night (except it’s light all night)–an amphibious  assault on Kupreanof Island with 26,000 pounds of masonry, tools and 6 pallets (that’s about 500 80 pound bags) of concrete–all hand carried off the barge down a ramp and stacked on this Mat-track:

This is the coolest little rig–like ones we had in Antarctica (see the archives) except the sides fold down and you can schlep stuff right up the beach on two rubber tracks.  This saves us a lot of work!  I hired 5 guys to help–what a day–it rained and rained and I’m just hoping this stuff doesn’t turn hard before next week when we start the foundation to the fireplace.  Below is the “RB” which is the landing craft and some of the crew. 

I’ve got to get one of these rigs–and no haulouts–you can pressure wash the hull right on the beach.  Thursday, we unloaded the Tulikivi masonry heater–each soapstone is prefit in Finland and pallitized–then onto a ship to New York, then railed to Oregon, trucked to Seattle, barged to Petersburg, trucked to the boat launch, loaded on the RB (above) and hand carried, stone by stone up to the house.  About 12,000 lbs and I’m guessing more than a thousand pieces, some weighing 200 lbs.  After all this, we spent the afternoon filling the same container with garbage from the property–down to all 15 oil barrels.  I can hardly recognize the place, it’s so clean–two days of rain left muddy Mat-tracks all over but it will regrow very quickly here with all the rain.  Stay tuned for the Tulikivi soapstone heater construction…..