Timber Framing and Slip Form Stone Construction

One building method we've been toying with these past few weeks (something C3 has been after for a while) is round log timber framing.  Thanks to the library, I've been reading up on it some as well.

With the supply of black spruce around the cabin, it might be worth looking into for framing materials for the 3 season porch we're planning to add.  Black spruce being of smaller overall diameter than white spruce means it's not sought after for dimensional lumber, but it has similar characteristics as far as construction requirements go.  I expect this is one reason why there are large amounts of black spruce left in the north woods when the white spruce, norway, and white pine have been logged.  I had thought about getting posts from our woods before, and possibly even making black spruce rough cut lumber with the help of a chainsaw attachment.  But round post framing would be a method of construction avoiding the lions share of the bolts and spikes I might have otherwise needed to use to make that happen.  Convenient.

Another building method I've thought about for quite some time is slip form stone building.  With the porch plan perhaps wrapping two sides of the current cabin, we could utilize slip forms to build the L shaped foundation wall.  We need roughly 2-3 feet of height to close off the underside of the cabin due to the slope on which it is sited.  We'd then run the posts up from there.  Stone would be gathered locally, posts would be gathered locally, and we'd have experience with another couple options for our future home.  The roof would lean-to into the side walls of the existing structure, so would likely utilize standard dimensional lumber and steel roofing over the top of that.  We'll have to crunch the numbers, but that is likely the most costly portion of the whole project.  Disregarding opportunity cost, of course!

Then again, education in productive, hands on skill sets is worth quite a bit in these days of uncertainty.

So It Goes

Was out of town for an onsite meeting today.  Over lunch, stopped into the local grocery for a deli meal and a sign informed me they had "Buy 1 Get 1 Free" on T bones and Porterhouse.  Now I haven't sprung for a good steak in a long time and at half price these just begged to go on the grill tonight.  I bought 1.  And I got 1.  Each a completely gluttonous 1.5 pounds and thick cut.  Man, I could taste them already.

I put them in the fridge to wait for the return trip home.  Then, when I left, I promptly grabbed a co workers pork chops instead of my porterhouse steaks and drove the 30 miles.  I have a half hog in the freezer from a local farmer, and I am really not sure how to cook 2 inch thick pork chops.  But hey.  Good is good.  I mean it could be worse, right?

As Kurt might say.  "So it goes."

Northward Bound

Counting on a relaxing evening tonight at home before the alarm and an early morning on the road.  Will be dropping the boy with his Mom, grabbing a trailer full of bricks, and shooting for the cabin by afternoon.

Speaking of bricks, sometimes life cuts you a break.  The boy's step Dad did me a huge favor and not only shuffled these two pallets of bricks from the back acreage, but left them loaded on his trailer for me to take north with me.  What was going to be a very long and hot day is instead as easy as dropping the trailer onto the hitch and driving away.  Thanks for that.

Overnight at the cabin with the pup and then back on the road home on Sunday means not much time in the woods.  But, it also means not much worry about packing:

Extra shirt
Sweater
Sidearm
Knife
Hat
Bacon

Check.

See you soon, Dobrze.

Kicking Around in my Bookmarks

And pretty much where I find myself these days.  Too prepared?  I'm going to remedy that.

You Probably Have Too Much Stuff

Lowering the Cost of Living

As part of our 2016 plan, we're starting to concentrate on a home; how we want to build it, maintain it, heat and cool it, and live in it.  We know we're going to be sourcing local materials to bring the square footage cost down and are kicking around earth bag, cord wood, straw bale, and dry stack block construction as options.  A strong desire for thermal mass is leaning the discussion toward one of the earth or block construction methods and earth is winning out over block for its moisture handling properties.

As we lay out the basics of the future homestead, we have real time projects coming together at the cabin which will allow us to test some of the building methods.  One such project is a bunk house for guest overflow during the popular spring and fall seasons.  Being old paper company land, there are quite a few areas which desperately need a thinning.  Plenty of the thinned trees will fall into the 3-6 inch diameter range and once peeled and cured will make great cord wood construction material.  Conveniently, the softer woods are less prone to shrinkage and cracking long term and the majority of the thinned wood will be of the balsam fir variety.  Not really good fire wood due to creosote build up potential, so was just going to go to waste for the most part if no better use was determined.  Rough timeline?

Spring 2014 - thin and peel
Summer 2014 - cure
Fall 2014 - Summer 2015 - bunkhouse construction

I have a good supply of unused, excess, second hand cedar shakes in storage up at the cabin currently.  Been there for years and years just waiting on a purpose, so the bunkhouse will most likely be roofed in cedar.  I really like steel roofing for the low maintenance and fire resistance aspects, but free is a good price. And between the cedar roof, harvested tamarack or spruce timbers for door and window frames, and cord wood walls, the bunkhouse should really fit into the hillside nicely.  Right now I'm thinking the floor will be gravel similar to Dick Proenneke's cabin in the Alaskan wilderness, but we'll see.  Being on the north shore, granite chips should be relatively easy and inexpensive to come by.  Warmer than concrete or elevated wood, would look nice, and we wouldn't even need to sweep the floor on the way out.

And Then There was Order

Or at least, a little less disorder.

Since the move there has been a lot of running.  So many fun things scheduled onto the Todo list that what we all really started to crave was to clean the house.  And that's just what we did.  Moved some major furniture and appliances in the kitchen and finally built shelves in the spare room.  We can now actually prepare and eat food in the kitchen (it really is all about the little things) and have a functional guest bed in the house for company to escape to as required.

Plus that new storage?  It means we can start shuffling the stacks of traffic blocking boxes and bins out of the main areas of the house and tuck them away neatly where they belong.  Both C3 and I are of the opinion that managing our "stuff" at a minimal level is best for all involved, but even the most efficient and minimalist perspective requires storage.  At a certain level it just doesn't make sense to donate and sell anything else.  You really will have to buy it back again later.  We aren't there yet, but you get the idea.

Another advantage of the long weekend at home was some time to sit down and do some leatherwork.  Alpha was completed and found wanting, so the beta version of a travel cribbage card case is done.  I think a final revision is in the cards, so to speak, but for right now I'm looking forward to some test time with friends. 

And that just goes so well with whiskey.

On Government Surveillance

The criminal need not worry.  Departments associated with completed crime lack funding and the media.  In the modern era, money is focused on rooting out crime which has not yet been committed.  Those with the most exposure are those who don't yet know they are planning to do anything wrong.