Putting up Logs

This post is a work in progress.................

The following shows the progress over 4 days of hard labor, a day of rain and then days of blessed sun.

This stack of logs were set up on the floor with a Bobcat and moved around by hand by David (my Brother) and I several days before we started putting them in place. This allowed us to get a couple of rounds in place without renting the expensive equipment I would have to rent the next day.

The morning of August 6th. Lots of rain. I had made this tent the day before but it came down at the edge of the floor. For us to work on the walls we had to hoist up the tarps along the sides. This was our creation. It worked while the rain came down. It was slow going that first day getting the first logs in just the right place. And then I had to run to town to get a different kind of sill seal. The foam type I had bought was not compressing enough. So I got some made of fiberglass.

The end of day 1

The late morning of day 2. On this morning I was up at 6 am to go to town and pick up a zoom boom, a fork lift with an extendable boom. As I was driving to the property, about a 7 mile drive from the rental place, I got a call from Wendy Shiffler that he would be headed my way to help out. What a blessing. It was going to be just David and I that day. With Wendy and his wife Judy's help we went from 2 rounds up to 6 rounds up. Thanks so much Shifflers, for the help and the food!!!

End of Day 2

Start of Day 3

The Zoom Boom in action. This job could not have been done without it. A gin pole could have been used but it would have taken much more time to use it. With the end of summer soon upon us this was the best option. Log tongs were used to grab onto the log. The tongs have needle points, so it is very hard to balance the log perfectly. Using only one tong allowed us to rotate the log easily when placing it.


Moving a log.

Lowering log into place.


While I got the logs ready (squared off seam ends, routered the chamfer, and determined exactly where the log would be placed, David and Wendy would put down the sill seal, have me put the logs in place with the zoom boom and fasten the logs in place with log screws.

End of Day 3

End of Day 3

Looking South

East. Door going to future covered porch. Kitchen window over future sink.

North. Main door coming from a future Arctic entry way.

West. To the left will be the ladder/stairs to the 2nd floor. A wood stove will be located against this wall or in the foreground. A small oil stove (back-up heat) will be against this wall.

Logs arrive and get peeled

On Friday nite, July 27, this semi-trailer arrived with a load of logs (81 in total) from Dry Creek a sort of commune located 20-30 miles from Delta Junction, Alaska on the Alaska Hwy. Over the next 3 days the logs were peeled and moved to the building site, which is about 100 yards down the hwy. As you will see in the following pictures, these logs are, what is called, 3-sided. This means 3 sides have been milled flat in a saw-mill. What will be the outside part of the log is left round to give that round log look to the cabin. Inside you get a flat wall.

Last bundle. There were 3 stacks but I forgot to get a picture when we started. Doh!

The scene on Friday nite after the 2 hour un-load, using the Bobcat in background.

Different angle.

The scene around the middle of the second day of peeling. On the first day, I peeled about 25 logs. Fortunately only one side needed peeling. When we built the lake cabin with full-round logs, I was lucky to get 7 to 8 logs done in a day. My Mom, who was up visiting for 2 weeks came by on Sat. evening and peeled a few logs with me. She turned 60 a week before. "I could peel logs all day", were her words! And she could.

My friend Lee giving me a hand on Sunday. Her help was greatly appreciated and made it so I my last day of peeling went much faster.

Poser

Peeling the last log. Quite a pile of bark shavings on the ground there. The logs had been dried in a kiln (the folks at Dry Creek use the waste saw-dust and other waste wood to fire the kiln) for about 5 days. This dried out the bark and made it a bit harder to peel as opposed to the logs being wet and the bark coming off much easier, sometimes like a banana. But with the monster draw knife (borrowed from a friend of David's), as seen in this picture, the process went pretty smooth. I had sore arms and upper back but a day after the last log was peeled I felt fine.