10/22-25/96 I went up to the property for 4 days: Tuesday through Friday.
I got a late start because of a doctor's appointment so I didn't get up there until around 3:00. There was from 3 to 6 inches of snow on the ground so I had to put on chains to get the pickup up to the trailer. I shoveled the snow off all the ramps and the tool boxes. Then I finished measuring and marking log #39 for the rebar holes. The temperature was near 40 degrees so I mixed up a batch of Penetreat and treated log #39. I just finished by the time it got dark.
On Wednesday morning, I had just gotten started drilling the holes in #39 when Pete Persing drove up. We had a great visit. We toured the place and Pete took a bunch of pictures. We went to the Cougar Inn for lunch. Afterward, we finished drilling the holes in #39 and started lifting the log up onto the building. The log was destined for the northeast wall where the crane can't reach. The first thing was to dangle the log above the building wall and rotate it 180 degrees. Then we set it down on the south corner of the wall so we could raise the boom and move the log so we could lay it over the east corner. Drizzle had turned to cold rain by the time this was done so we quit working and went into the trailer to warm up and chat.
Pete left for home about 4:00 and I went back out in the rain and went to work on the log. I attached two come-alongs to the vertical crane pole and used these to manually move the log into position above the rebar on the northeast wall. By that time it was getting dark and raining pretty hard so I quit for the day.
The rain turned to snow in the evening so by Thursday morning there was about 4 inches of new snow on the ground. I shoveled off the tool boxes and ramps again, and I also shoveled and swept the snow off all the sill logs. I hadn't shoveled the logs off the day before and they continued to drip and keep things wet all day. With the snow off, they would dry out and make working around them more pleasant, plus it is probably better for the logs to keep them dry.
Using the two come-alongs and a snatch block, I lowered the last sill log into place. It went down perfectly and I went in for lunch.
Just as I was finishing lunch, Earl Landin stopped by and we had a nice chat over cocoa and Postum. When he left, I clinched the rebar on #39 and then pulled three logs (#37, #61, and #97) from the log pile up to the upper roadway. My plan is to get a stockpile of skinned logs up on the upper roadway so that whenever the weather is warm enough, I will be able to take advantage of it and treat logs.
I tried to pull log #48 so that it wouldn't stick out so far toward the road, but it was too deep in the pile and wouldn't budge. This log sticks out about 4 feet farther than the rest of the logs and I am afraid that the snowplow will hit it if I don't get it pulled in. In the process of trying to move it, I twisted the far end with a cant hook and in doing so, it seemed that the end of the log was rotten. I decided that the thing to do was to cut 4 feet off the end of the log.
On Friday, I worked on trail maintenance. Most of the deciduous leaves are still on the trees, and with the new wet snow, the trees are bending over quite a bit. It is just the right time to make sure that no trees bend over and pinch off the hose. It took most of the morning to clear brush and trees away from the hose. I also found a leak in the hose that was sucking in air making quite a loud noise. I taped this leak up and it made the flow from the end of the hose a lot less gurgly. When that was done, I cut 4 feet off the end of log #48 and packed and left for home.
10/28-31/96 I went up to the property for 4 days: Monday through Thursday.
It was raining cats and dogs when I got to the property at about 1:00. I spent a couple hours on the phone straightening out some banking business. Then I went out in the rain and started pulling log #71 up the bank. It was heavy and wet and Oscar couldn't lift it up the cliff so I hooked a snatch block to it and was able to pull it up. By the time I quit for the day, the log was resting on the foundation and the skidway on the edge of the cliff.
On Tuesday morning, I had to go to Lake Wenatchee Village and fill my propane tanks. When I got back, I got log #71 up on the upper roadway. The rain had stopped during the night and it turned out to be a beautiful sunny day.
I cut the ends off of the log and found rot deep into the log. I started cutting more off each end of the log about four feet at a time and found that the entire log was rotten throughout. After all that work getting the log up the hill, I ended up bucking it up and stacking it away for firewood. Needless to say, I was discouraged once again with the quality of the logs. I am anxious to know exactly how many good lineal feet of logs I got.
Larry Copenhaver stopped by on horseback just as I finished bucking up the log. When he left, I measured some more logs that had been exposed on the pile and added them to the inventory. Then I pulled log #25 up onto the roadway. It was a fairly green douglas fir and still had quite a bit of bark on it. I peeled it off with a spud.
On Wednesday I called a rebar order in to Graham Steel for half of the pins I will need for the log walls. Then I went up and cut log #25 to length. I figured out a pretty good way to get the ends cut square. I cut a piece of 8 inch galvanized flashing about 5 feet long, but I made sure that I didn't straighten it out. It is still in a coil. To mark the log for cutting, I just wrap the flashing around the log and get it lined up where it overlaps. Then with a pencil, I just draw a line around the log and use it as a guide for cutting. This makes a very nice square cut.
When the log was cut, I used the Log Wizard to skin it. This log is a nice sound log and I felt a little more encouraged again. When I finished, I gave the log a treatment of Penetreat and then started skinning log #61. This log had about an inch of brownish black wood on the outside and nice looking white wood on the inside. I decided to see if the Log Wizard could peel all of the dark wood off. I got about a quarter of the log peeled this way-down to the white wood- by the end of the day.
On Thursday morning, I resumed peeling #61 and got about half of it done when the chainsaw started acting up and the Log Wizard had gotten dull. I decided to work on the saw at home so I quit peeling and worked on raising log #25 up onto the northeast wall. I got it lying in place, but not pinned in by the time I left for home.
11/4-6/96 I went up to the property for 3 days: Monday through Wednesday.
On the way up, I picked up 350 rebar pins at Graham Steel. They are 15" long and are about half of what I will need for the building. It was raining when I got to the property about 11:30 and it looked like it had been raining for a long time. Fortunately, the rain stopped by the time I got moved into the trailer.
I spent the afternoon getting log #25 in place on the northeast wall. The log isn't very straight and it took a long time to choose how I wanted it to lay, and then to get it laying that way. I got 3 rebar pins nailed through it before the bits I was using failed completely. I had an old garage sale bit for which I made an extension, and which failed, and I had a new bit which didn't work. The new bit was short but I had bought an extension for it. Unfortunately, the extension was bigger than a half inch, so it wouldn't go down into the hole. I gave up on driving pins until I can get a long bit that will work.
On Tuesday morning, I put the Log Wizard on the chainsaw and resumed skinning log #61. I had cleaned the air filter on the saw and expected that this would solve the low power problem. It didn't. I called Chainsaws Plus and they told me that the carburetor needed adjusting and that the owner's manual, which I didn't have with me, had good instructions on how to do it.
I fiddled a little with the adjustments enough to use up all the gas I had with me and nearly finished stripping the log. It is now two inches smaller in diameter than it used to be, and it has a lot of rot toward the middle of it. Later I will cut the log in two to see how extensive the rot is and find out how much good wood there is in the log. Larry Copenhaver stopped by for a visit while I was stripping the log, and Earl Landin stopped by after I had finished and was putting the saw away.
I had to be home early on Wednesday. It snowed Tuesday night and was raining when I got up in the morning. I figured that it would be snowing quite hard in the pass so I decided to leave around mid morning to improve my chances of getting over the pass in time.
I loaded into the pickup the lumber and tools I would need to make two rough door openings. These need to be installed before I can add any more logs to the walls and I decided that I could save time by making them at home. I left for home by 11:00 and as it turned out, there was no snow on the road over the pass at all.
11/7/96 I made two exterior door rough openings out of 2x10s and two gauges that I will temporarily nail to the mud sills below each exterior door. The gauges will control how far I need to mill the sill logs in order to seat the rough door openings at the correct height.
11/11-14/96 I went up to the property for 4 days: Monday through Thursday.
I got a late start out of Seattle so I didn't get up to the property until about 2:00. I brought the rough door openings and sill gauges with me and hauled them up to the site. For the rest of the afternoon, I worked on skinning log #43 with the Log Wizard. I had read the chainsaw owner's manual and followed the instructions for tuning up the carburetor, but I still couldn't get full power out of the saw. This made the skinning slower than it should have been. Since it is getting dark so early, I rigged up some overhead lights and worked until 6:00. By this time, I still hadn't quite finished skinning the log.
On Tuesday morning, I finished skinning log #43. The temperature was about 44 degrees and the sky was overcast. My strategy for the winter is to have a stockpile of skinned logs ready so that whenever the temperature is over 40 degrees, I can treat the skinned logs with preservative. When the weather is colder, the first priority will be to pull new logs up to the site and skin them. If there are already a lot of skinned logs ready for treating, then I will put the treated logs up on the building. With the chainsaw on the blitz, I feel like I am wasting this warm weather because I don't have many logs ready to treat.
Next I treated logs #43 and #61. Before I finished it started to rain. I decided to cover the log walls with visqueen to keep the rain from washing away the preservative, and also to make it easier to remove the snow. I think it is better for the logs also to keep them dry.
After I got the visqueen on, I removed the bark from log #38 with the spud, and then started stripping #38 with the Log Wizard. The work was slow and I didn't quite finish before dark when I quit and went in for the night.
On Wednesday, I finished skinning #38, then skinned #97, and then treated both #38 and #97. After that, I started pulling log #49 up from the pile. This is a nice, fairly green 37 foot douglas fir. I got it halfway up, teetering on the edge of the cliff before it got too dark to work.
On Thursday morning, I got #49 up onto the roadway and peeled the bark off with the spud. I had intended to put this log in the wall, but it is such a nice looking log, I decided to set it aside for use as the main ceiling beam. As a result, I selected another log for the wall: #104. After gathering some pine and fir cones for Priscilla's wreath project, as well as harvesting a pole for Kalimba's kitty condo, I pulled log #104 up onto the roadway before I left for home. I am getting a little better at pulling the logs up the hill. Log #104 is a 42 footer and I was able to get in onto the roadway in an hour and a half.
On the way home, I dropped the chainsaw off at Chainsaws Plus and they said they couldn't have it ready for a week. That means I will have to work without it next week. Since I won't be able to skin logs, I should be able to make more visible progress by adding door frames and logs to the building.
11/18-21/96 I went up to the property for 4 days: Monday through Thursday.
I got a late start because of errands I had to do in the morning. When I got up there about 2:00, there was about 6 inches of snow on the ground. I put the chains on in order to get the pickup up to the trailer. I had bought a long half inch augur bit and it worked great. I drilled all the holes in log #25 and spiked it into the northeast wall. After dark, I spliced a new eye into a long cable I have and in the process, threaded it through two blocks which are not snatch blocks. Since the eyes won't go through the blocks, the blocks are kind of useless. This way, I can use them with this cable to help snake logs out of the woods, I hope.
It snowed during the night so on Tuesday morning there was another 6 inches of new snow. I spent the day cutting the notches in the sill logs to accommodate the front and back door frames. I used the sill gauges that I made on 11/7 and they worked great. They provided a horizontal board on each side of the sill log where the tops of the boards were at the exact height that the notch was to be. Then using a big crosscut saw, (my chainsaw was in the shop), I sawed kerfs in the sill until the saw just hit the gauge on both sides. After 6 or 7 kerf were made, I used a big wood chisel to cut the bulk of the wood away between the kerfs. Then I used a block plane to level the top just even with the tops of the gauge boards. This left a nice flat, level surface at just the right height.
It snowed the whole time I was working, but it didn't cause much of a problem to work in it.
By Wednesday morning, it had snowed another 6 to 8 inches and by morning I had run out of propane in the trailer. I made my breakfast using the MSR hiking stove that I carry in the pickup for emergencies. I used the left over hot water to mix up a small batch of Penetreat which I applied to the notches in the sills.
Then I drove to the store to fill the propane tanks. I had to take the chains off the pickup once I got onto plowed roads, and then put them back on to get back up to the trailer.
When that was done, I set the door frames into the notches. The front door frame was lying on a rock pile to the east of the foundation and was buried under about a foot and a half of snow. I dug through the snow to find the top of the frame and tied a rope around it. Then I used Oscar to gently pull the frame out of the snow, and dangle it just above the notch in the sill. When it was time to set it in place, Oscar gently set it down. The back door frame was easier to do by hand, since Oscar has trouble reaching that location.
I was gratified that the frames fit perfectly and they sat in place exactly plumb in both directions with no need for any shimming. I caulked the notches before I put them in and then I spiked them in with 20d galvanized nails. The frames are made of 2x10s and after they were spiked down, they were so solid that I decided that they didn't need any temporary bracing at all.
There was still enough daylight to cut log #43 to length, again using my long crosscut saw, and to have Oscar get the log up to the north corner. I also had time to make a "log clamp".
The clamp looks like a capital "H" with a 4x4 and a 2x6 forming the two uprights and a 5/8ths inch threaded rod forming the crossbar. I wanted to use two 4x4s, but I couldn't find two of them under the snow. After using the clamp, though, I think 2x6s or even 2x4s would work better because they are lighter and I think they are strong enough.
I used the clamp to hold the log in place in the wall prior to spiking it in. It worked so well on #43 that I am going to make another one. #43 was only a little over 5 feet long and I think for bigger logs two clamps will be necessary.
The threaded rod goes under the new log and the uprights are vertical alongside the log and the log underneath. When the nuts are tightened, the clamp draws the log into alignment and holds it there so Oscar's choker chain can be removed before spiking the log down. Then by taking off one nut, the clamp can be removed.
Log #43 was the first true test of my method of cutting a log square (see the entry for Wednesday, 10/30) and it worked perfectly. The end of the log butted up against the door frame snugly and flat so that the frame remained exactly plum and square after being spiked into the end of the log. Very gratifying!
On Thursday morning, I mixed another small batch of Penetreat, treated the fresh-cut ends of #43, and then spiked the log into the wall. It gives me a feeling of exhilaration to look at the north corner now; with two courses of logs at the corner and with the door frame tied in, it is really starting to look like a log house. And the new wood looks so beautiful and light.
After admiring the work and taking a few pictures, I made a couple snow shelters inside the foundation. I had some planks stored on top of a scaffold frame. They were covered with a tarp and this, together with the scaffold planks, formed a sort of shelter. Since this was about the only snow-free area I had, it occurred to me that I should use all those planks to enlarge the shelter and get a much bigger area in which to work and store tools. Too bad it took a heavy snowfall to get me to think of it, but I will be ready for the rest of the winter now.
12/2-5/96 I went up to the property for 4 days: Monday through Thursday.
Because of Thanksgiving on Thursday and a doctor's appointment on Tuesday, I skipped last week. It had snowed a lot that week so there was about a foot and a half of snow on the ground when I got up there. It snowed for most of the trip up there but I didn't have to put on chains to get over the pass. It took about 45 minutes to shovel out a parking place for the pickup.
The first thing I did was to make trails with the snowshoes to all the places around the property I would need to go: the privy, the building site, the compost pile, the trailer, the log pile, etc. Then I shoveled the snow off all the ramps and scaffolds so I could walk on them safely, and I shoveled the snow off things I didn't want to collapse, like the new snowsheds under the scaffolds, the cover over the cement mixer, the cement storage bin, the big tool box, etc.
While working in that deep snow, I came up with an idea that proved to be a good one; I put a block in the tree that I used to anchor the eastern boom control rope for my crane. Then I ran the boom control rope through the block and then back into the building through a vent opening in the foundation. That way I can control that boom control rope from inside the building and I don't have to maintain and travel on a trail to that tree each time I need to manipulate the rope.
The rest of the day was spent digging log #104 out of the snow so I could skin it with the Log Wizard. The log was lying up on the roadway but was buried pretty deep.
On Tuesday morning there was about 3 inches of new snow and it was still snowing. I had left some log chains outside on the building footing and felt sort of proud that I was so organized that I knew exactly where they were. That feeling changed when I did a lot of digging through the snow trying to find them. From now on, I will keep all tools and anything else I need under some kind of cover so they don't get covered up with snow. Even though I sort of knew where those chains were, I wasted a lot of time and hard work retrieving them. I spent most of the rest of the day skinning #104 even though it snowed pretty heavily all day. I also took the time to measure the lengths of all the scaffold planks I have so that I will know exactly what I have to work with when I design the traveling scaffolding I will need for the log walls.
On Wednesday I finished skinning log #104 and pulled log #36 up onto the roadway. It had started snowing at 8:00 AM and by 1:00 there was 6 inches of new snow. I skinned log #36 and it went pretty fast because it was a nice sound log, and only a 17 footer. When that was done, I made the rounds and shoveled snow off roofs, toolboxes, and such again.
The new arrangement for the boom control rope worked great and saved me a lot of time. I made a cleat to fasten the line and when I cleated the rope, it was like handling half inch copper tubing; the rope was that stiff from being wet and frozen. It wasn't a problem, however, because I had made a big cleat from a 2x4 and it was easy to wrap the stiff rope around it. I imagined what it must have been like for old time sailors in cold latitudes to handle frozen lines in rigging that wasn't a lot different from what I was using on my crane.
On Thursday morning, there was so much new snow that I had to remake my trails with the snowshoes. I also made a simple time saving discovery that I should have figured out a long time ago; I removed the screens from the trailer windows so that I don't have to open them and go outside to squeegee the water off of them. Now I can simply sponge the windows off from the inside. I do this chore every day to keep the humidity down in the trailer and this trick will save me a lot of time during the winter.
It had stopped snowing so I took pictures of myself as I pulled log #117 up to the roadway. It was a pretty short log so it was pretty easy to pull up.
As I was digging the pickup out getting ready to go home, Ron Sideritz stopped and chatted for a while. I left around 3:15 PM and again, didn't have to put chains on to get home.
12/7/96 Designed scaffold frames which could be moved up the inside of the walls as logs are added, bought the material to make 8 of them, and cut out the wooden parts.
12/9/96 Assembled one scaffold frame in order to try it out.
12/10-13/96 I went up to the property for 4 days: Tuesday through Friday.
I had just gotten sick with a bad cold, but I went up anyway. There was a lot of snow going over the pass but I didn't have to put chains on. There was from 1 to 2 feet of heavy wet snow to shovel in order to park the pickup. There was a light rain and I was feeling pretty sick so I didn't work too fast. For the rest of the day, all I got done beside moving in to the trailer, was to make trails through the snow and to shovel the snow off all the ramps, roofs, toolboxes, etc. so that I would be able to work. To save energy, I didn't bring the battery up to the trailer, so I did without a radio for the week. It was a lot quieter and I got more sleeping and reading done than usual.
On Wednesday I still felt crummy so I took some cold medicine. There was no new snow on the ground and I skinned log #117. Then I erected the new scaffold frame and was happy to discover that they will work perfectly. I was out of propane so I drove to the store and filled the tanks. On the way, I talked to Louis Brender and to Mike Tutino.
I spent the rest of the day digging through the snow looking for log #97 which I planned to put up into the building next. I used Oscar to help pull logs out of the snow when I found an end. Sometimes it would be too much for Oscar and I would have to shovel snow off a log before he could pull it up. I finally found log #97 and had time to cut one end off before it got dark.
On Thursday morning, there was another 6" of new snow. I cut the other end off log #97 to make it the right length, and then I treated both ends with Penetreat.
Before I could move the log, I had to move a cleat that was fastened to the crane pole. It was attached near the bottom of the pole and was now under 3 feet of snow and was behind the two logs now in the northeast wall. This was poor planning on my part, and now it took me about an hour to move the cleat.
When that was done, I could now raise and lower the crane boom easily, and by the end of the day, log #97 was in its place in the southeast wall.
On Friday morning, I spiked the log into the wall. In doing so, I made a decision to space the rebar spikes 20 inches on center. That was the spacing specified by Tom Hammond, but since Skip Ellsworth had said they only needed to be placed 4 feet on center, I had decided on 3 feet as a compromise. After spiking the second log on the northeast side on 3 foot centers, I made a judgement that that wasn't close enough, and I decided to go down to 20 inches. That seems to be about right to me now. It will make a very strong wall.
12/16-19/96 I went up to the property for 4 days: Monday through Thursday.
This week was an improvement, both in my health and in the weather. I still had a runny nose, but at least I didn't feel sick anymore, and the weather was clear and sunny from Monday through Wednesday. Someone gave me a nice surprise by having scooped out the snow from my driveway. That saved me a lot of work because there was a couple feet of heavy wet snow that was now frozen solid and it would have taken me a long time to shovel out my parking space. I figured it must have been the county road maintenance crew - but I didn't know.
I cut log #38 to length and was just as I was beginning to put preservative on the cut ends, Earl Landin came up for a visit. He watched me treat the ends of the log, and he watched as I hoisted log #38 up and placed it on the southeast wall. I got it lined up and ready to spike in before the end of the day.
On Tuesday morning, I spiked #38 into the wall and then pulled logs #17, #106 and #77 up the cliff. The one I wanted was #77, but it was buried under 3 feet of firm snow and I had to dig it out before it would budge. Also the other two logs were on top of it, so I pulled them out first so I could get at #77. While I was digging the logs out, Shirley Tutino stopped by and gave us a Christmas gift. She said that she suspected that Mike Dickinson had scooped out my driveway. That evening I called Mike Dickinson, and sure enough, he had scooped it out out of the goodness of his heart. He had also done it once before during the Thanksgiving week but it had snowed over it again before I got back up to the property.
On Wednesday, I skinned log #77. Then I walked the hose trail to see if there was anything about to pinch the hose off, but the snow was so deep and hard that there was no way I could see the hose or its status. I will just have to trust that it won't clog and freeze. If it does, I'll just have to hike to the spring to get my water like in the old days.
I measured log #77 and decided that it was too big (in diameter) for the next spot in the wall. Instead I selected log #105 but unfortunately it too was buried under the snow. I dug a 3 foot wide by 4 foot deep trench in the snow the full 40 feet of the log in order to free it. It still took me the rest of the day just to pull the log so it was sticking out of the pile.
On Thursday morning, I pulled log #105 the rest of the way up the cliff. It started snowing around noon and before I left for home at 4:00, I got about 30 feet of log #105 skinned. It snowed hard all the way to Gold Bar but the traffic kept moving so the trip home wasn't too bad.
Entire Journal by Year:
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008
©2003 Paul R. Martin, All rights reserved.
1996: Part 1
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Part 2
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Part 3
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Part 4
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Part 5