Construction Journal Entry Week of 6/24/07

6/26-28/07 I went up to the property for 3 days: Tuesday through Thursday.

There were some delays on the road but no closures. I arrived at 1:30. After moving in and having lunch, I discovered one mouse in a trap upstairs. The telltale peanut was gone but the other two traps were still set and their bait was untouched. The peanuts were also still in the rodent valve pipe and on the ramp to it, so I am sure the mouse didn't get in that way. I didn't know what to think. Maybe there was another stowaway or maybe there is a new hole.

I started out by checking the big log in the saddle behind the privy. It seemed sound when I rapped on it, but when I cut into it with the chainsaw I saw that there was more rot inside of it than I wanted. I decided not to use it for the next beam.

While I had the chainsaw up there, I cut a section out of the fallen ponderosa snag that was right across the trail to the back woods. The snag is about 2 feet in diameter so it took some doing to cut 3 or 4 chunks out of it and roll them aside.

I took the other half of the log I had used to make the first beam and roughed out the second beam including both tenons. The chainsaw started acting up early on and I lost patience with it. I used the big one-man crosscut saw to fashion the first tenon. After cooling off a little (both me and the chainsaw), the saw started again and I used it to fashion the second tenon. I suspect that the air filter on the saw needs cleaning so one of these days I'll have to take the time to clean it. It's always something.

The mosquitoes were pretty thick but they didn't bother too much. I fed the chipmunks intermittently all during the work.

On Wednesday, I was pleased to find no mice in the traps and none of the peanuts was disturbed. I still don't know what to think, but I decided against spending any more time searching for a new hole.

The second mortise hole in the sill log is about at eye level. I decided that I didn't want to work on it holding the tools that high so I set up a scaffold using two of my trusty scaffold brackets and a couple planks. That way I could work on the mortise sitting down. I used the same drilling alignment jig and the same technique to cut out the mortise hole as I did before. Again I was lucky that I didn't hit any rebar going through the log. The chances were low that I would hit one, but not zero. There is a rebar going through the log every four feet and I didn't know exactly where they were.

Then, using two pulleys and two anchor bolts overhead, I rigged up a lifting rope for the beam. I removed the bolts from the second column and took the column out of the CB66. That way I could get the beam positioned in front of the mortise hole. I lifted the second beam up to the sill log level and with several iterations of trying the fit and using Rasputin to work the mortise and tenon down, I got the joint to fit snugly before lunch. The gray jays and the chipmunks forced me to take many breaks during the work so they could get their treats.

After lunch, I used the same techniques I had used before and cut the mortise hole in the second column. I mated the column and the beam and re-installed the column into its CB66. I was happy to have both sets of columns and beams installed.

In fact, I was so happy, that even though it was about 6:00 and time to quit, I decided to keep the momentum going and lift the two half-log planks up and rest them on the two beams. I set up the necessary rigging, lifted the first plank up, and had the second one almost all the way up when it dawned on me that this was an utter waste of effort. I was really tired, hot, and sweaty and knew that it was dangerous to be working in that condition. But I was having fun and didn't pay attention to the time.

But I realized that I had to disassemble both columns and beams in order to treat them with Board Defense and to stain them. And before that, the logs needed to be scraped down to bright wood. So I had to get those planks back down off the beams. I then proceeded to do all the cranking in reverse and lower both planks back down to where they started. I finally went in to shower and eat at 7:45. I was super tired and sore, but I sure had a lot of fun.

On Thursday morning I was delighted to find that there was no evidence of any more mice. My level of hope was boosted another notch. I will be away next week so there will be an extra week for the mice to find that hole, if there is one, before I get back. That will be a good test.

I unbolted both columns from their CB66s and dismantled both columns and beams. I set them up on saw horses under the eaves and started working on them. I was hoping to get them all treated before I left, but all I got done was scraping of both beams and chamfering them with a hammer and chisel. It was very hot sweaty work using the drawknife, a scraper, and a chisel, but the beams looked very nice when I finished. The columns shouldn't be as much work because the logs were green and had only recently been peeled. It should take only a light scraping. I'll get back to that in a couple weeks. Of course, the gray jays and the chipmunks were around all during the work. I left for home at 2:20 feeling pretty good.



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