The Wall is FINISHED!!!

The last of the t-nuts came in the end of last week.  Yesterday, I borrowed a skill saw from Vance (the person we rent from).  With Erin’s help we got all the t-nuts hammered in.  WE built a frame for the other side wall.  Since we bought studs instead of regular 2×4’s we had a little lip of the plywood hanging over the edge.  The skill saw made quick work of that.

After we had the back wall screwed into the side walls, it was starting to take shape. We found out that the screws we used to screw the plywood into the studs for support were sticking out the back just a little bit.  So when we would walk by we occasionally were scratched by them.  It wasn’t long before I was fixing that issue.

After we got that taken care of we went to work on the roof. It went up pretty quickly.  We were able to secure it into place which added even more stability to the whole structure.  Then it was on to the back slant.  We only used one sheet of plywood for the vertical part of the back wall.  From there we slanted the rest of the back wall to meet up with the one sheet we used for the roof.  It was a bit of a struggle, but Erin and I finally finished up construction.

It was then time to add the holds.  By this time it was around 10:30 P.M.  It had been a long day working in that little room.  Erin jumped right into bolting on the holds.

After we finished putting on the holds that Erin got me last year for my birthday, it was time for a little climbing.  Man has it been a long time.  I can’t believe how out of shape I am, and how great of a work out this is going to be.  I am really excited to be able to climb this year. The district is having its fall in-service here this week, and we have friends coming into town from Savoonga that are bringing their climbing shoes, so it’ll be fun to play a little match game, or set some routs.

[QUICKTIME http://www.bbryson.com/movies/bill_first_climb.mov 320 255]

Я вижу Россию (I See Russia)

As I sit here in Little Diomede with Russia only 2.5 miles away.  I am taken back by the beautiful views in front of me.  When the weather is nice this is a very picturesque place.

My trip started from Unalakleet at 9:00 AM Saturday morning.  A crew of us hopped on BSSD airways and flew to Nome where a couple of us hopped off.  The rest of the crew went on to Wales.  Vanessa and I were the ones who stayed in Nome.  We were the lucky ones that were able to take the helicopter all the way from Nome to Little Diomede.

When we got out to the island we were greeted by the staff and a few kids.  After we got settled in and had a bite to eat we went out to hike up to the top of the island.  It was a beautiful day.  We started hiking up the “North Trail”.    Here is a picture of the village after hiking for a little bit.

When we got near the top I snapped this self portrait where you can see the heli pad by Little Diomede Village, and Big Diomede (Russia) in the background.

We walked across the top of the island which was very flat.  We got to where we were directly over the top of the village.  Here is what it looks like from above.

The school is the building with the red roof.  Just up the hill from that is where Nathan, Ben, and Elise live.  Nathan and Ben were kind enough to let me sleep on their

couch.

We continued our hike moving around to the other side of the village.  On our decent Nathan took this picture of me with Russia in the background.

show off this amazing place.  As the sun was setting over Russia we were all sitting around visiting as we were eating dinner.  It was a very nice day.