A few days ago, I said in a post that I am ready for the north but it may not be ready for me. For example, campgrounds may not be open. At the time I was referring to campgrounds in the lower northern U.S. states, like Idaho, Montana, and Washington, which usually open around Memorial Day. Last night, however, I started thinking (instead of sleeping) about this: what if the campground is not open at my first stop in Wrangell, AK? I double-checked my “Camping in Alaska” book, which said nothing about seasonal closures and spring opening dates. I checked the Tongass National Forest website and the individual campgrounds in Wrangell. Again, nothing about seasonal openings. In my experience, if a campground closes, that information is listed clearly on the NF site. I know this yet I still tossed and turned, wondering. Would a campground along the Inside Passage be open on May 2? I had previously read my “Camping in Alaska” book from cover-to-cover, and the matter never came up.
Did I make a super big goof in my planning? Do I need to push back my departure date another 30 miserable days?
I frantically searched the Internet, using fruitless search phrases like, When do Tongass National Forest Campgrounds open and Camping season along the Inside Passage, AK. Nothing. Nothing. No information. Finally, I went back to the Tongass NF website and searched again through the campground listings. Finally in the upper right hand corner of the page I saw, in small print, a link to Seasonal Information. Never ever have I seen seasonal information over there. ALWAYS, it is listed with the basic campground information in the center of the page. Here is the campground where I was host last year if you wish to compare. WTFooey? What a scare.
Yes, the little campgrounds around Wrangell are open. All year in fact, even when you can only access them on a snow-mobile.
Whew.
After 5 hours of sleep, it was time to get to my HFH gig for the day. I could not imagine, in my exhausted state, endless painting. I decided to set up a small can of paint and use a brush to do the edging around the door hinges. Much better. Then, when alert enough to tolerate Roller in the paint tray, Roller across the door, Dab the drip I went back to to the paint trailer. All the rollers were in use by then. Saved! I asked the construction manager for another job and he set me to work filling nail holes around all the door trim. The doorways have hall-facing trim, threshold trim, and bedroom-facing trim, meaning three surfaces that were nailed in place. Each of the three surfaces, in, out, inside, was left with around 2 dozen nail holes.
3 x 24 = 72 nail holes per door
17 doors per house x 72 nail holes = 1224 nail holes per house (doors only)
The floor and ceiling trim is also nailed in place. I watched some of the guys at this very task today.
3 bedrooms x 36 nail holes = 108 x 2 doors = 216
living/kitchen nail holes = 50
all closet and utility room nail holes = 100
Total, minimum nail holes per house
1224 + 108 +50 +100 = 1590 or more
An estimate for Five houses
1590 nail holes x 5 = 7950 nail holes in the trim and probably a lot more
I filled in about 500 nail holes today during a partial day at the task. Say it takes 2.5 days to do all the nail holes in one house
Five houses x 2.5 days = 12.5 days, but let’s round up to 2 weeks to fill trim nail holes. I will be long gone!
Tomorrow? Not sure but I plan to get at it again. I like the break from door painting. Monotonous still, but another mindless task that allows me to listen to Audible books.
A few nail holes on the door threshold
A few more nail holes in the room-facing trim along the doorway
My weapon – a nail hole filler that is pink out of the tube and white when dry. The pink is quite handy when double-checking that I got all the holes.
Perfect end to another HFH day. I stopped at the Las Cruces Sprouts store for some groceries and stumbled into $5 Sushi Wednesday at Sprouts. An hour later, Crab Salad sushi all gone. Feet up. Then I received this photo of my G-baby on the quilt that I made for his nursery. Bears!
