Remote Estimating Part 2

(Continued from June 22, 2010)

We finally got back to camp and I started investigating the old cabin that needed to be jacked up to put a new foundation under it as well as a new roof and many other improvements. By now it was getting late and I knew I would be here for the night so I relaxed and allowed myself to enjoy the evening. A small argument broke out between a member of our camp and the neighboring lodge from whom we got our electrical power. The next door lodge shut our power off until an agreement could be worked out. For a few minutes I thought a brawl was going to start but it was soon smoothed over and it was bedtime.
The next morning I did some last minute figuring before the plane came to get me and soon I was on my way back to Aleknagik.
I got to my plane a little after noon and was soon heading to Illiamna to get fuel. At Iliamna I found that Lake Clark Pass was choked up with weather so I would have to wait until it cleared up which it did in only a few hours and I was on my way again. I made it through the pass and headed up Cook Inlet until I reached a solid wall of clouds that I couldn’t go around so I landed on a beach strip close to a little camp called Shirleyville. I knew nothing of Shirleyville but I found that they housed oil company people and other workers who were in the area and I was able to buy a meal and hang around for awhile watching TV until it was time to go back to the plane about a mile away.
I took everything out of the plane to make room to sleep and went to bed and slept fitfully even with the wind rocking the plane all night.
The next morning the weather had cleared so I took off early and flew home, landing uneventfully at my home strip as my wife and two kids raced out to meet me. What I had allowed one day for had taken three and we didn’t even get the job. The homeowner sold the property and that was the end of that.


You can't do anything about the length of your life, but you can do something about its width and depth.
- Shira Tehrani