Walls going up
This week was all about putting up walls and we made good progress without major mishaps. We’re a bit over halfway done with the fourth row of logs out of six. As we refine our process we’re making faster progress and doing better work, although the approach is still not what anyone would call fast.
How’s this for excitement! We started the week by moving the blue outhouse up close to camp and the cabin. No longer do we have to trek down the hill for nature’s calls. The “blue room” isn’t quite level yet, but the proximity is much better.
The left image shows a classic “W” long groove cut in a log. The edges were scribed so they fit onto the log below. You can see the foam sealer on the edges of the groove in the right image. We don’t put on the seal until the log has been fit checked — so the right image is a happy sight as the log is just about to be placed in its final home.
Scott came up this week to check things out. You’ll note he carries the “Swanson work” gene, showing off the classic hands on hips stance in the left photo. As you would expect, Scott looked carefully at the site layout and was generally impressed with Logan’s dirt work. Despite claiming he wasn’t going to work, he helped place a couple logs, plus he brought up much needed supplies — we had run out of oil for the chainsaw gas and Logan was longing for ketchup.
We’ve gotten a surprising amount of rain this August, including a little this past week. Fortunately it wasn’t enough to cause trouble, plus it reminded us to look at the view.
There’s a lot of angle grinding (left photo) to get the groove edges right on the scribe marks, plus we have been pinning the logs with half-inch steel pipe (right photo). The background of these images shows rain wasn’t much of a problem most of the time. Temperatures were close to perfect and there were very few flies; late August is a great time to work!
We usually work to 6 o’clock or later, so meals are simple. Scott’s steaks made another appreciated appearance.
Although our scribed fits are not perfect, they’re also not bad. The left photo shows how well the long groove allows the logs to fit together, and the right photo shows the saddle notch fits in a corner. (The top log has been scribed but not yet cut for final fitting.) Tom bet me a good bottle of wine that I would resort to chinking. Some foam will be needed, but I think I have a decent chance at extracting that bottle of wine.
Several times this week the beauty of the sky just stopped us in our tracks.
By the end of the week we were finally using logs that span the full length of a wall. We finished scribing this pretty log just before we quit for the week, and reinforced the scribe with Sharpie so rain wouldn’t take it off. Sabrina’s moose (right photo) has been watching over us all week and seems to approve.
This last photo shows the cabin at the end of the week. Previously we were putting up about one round of logs per week, and we completed more than one and a half this week. We should have the walls mostly done before Mark shows up in about two weeks to help with the roof. Having a third hand and Mark’s ideas should put us over the top, although I’m not looking forward to him driving over the outside hydrant, which is all but certain.
Lessons learned
As usual, not everything was perfect. Here’s a summary of goof ups and things learned:
Don’t forget the chainsaw oil in the garage in Bozeman.
I broke the sprayer, which is needed to get the scribe marks to show, and it caused far more grief than you would guess.
The generator throws a circuit breaker when it gets warm. This was a major pain while angle grinding.
It HUGELY helps scribing by cleaning up the log with the draw knife and/or angle grinder.
Logan likes ketchup. Unfortunate but true.
Thanks for keeping this report up. I look forward to it every week, and so does Elaine.