Half A Roof Is Better Than None?

As things get closer to being finished the slower they seem to go. We've been ready for three weeks for the roof to go on. The person who is going to do it just hasn't gotten to it until today.

We've been cleaning up around the site and on other places on the property. It has rained quite a bit for the last couple of weeks so it has been difficult to get to some areas which we would like to work on.

Last week we took a day and burned our brush pile. It took awhile since the pile was huge and the wood was wet. We were there for 12 hours and finally left with the fire still burning some. We went back the next day and pushed things together some more and the fire burned some more. Made a big difference to the field. For awhile you couldn't really see across it the pile was so large. I'm sure we'll start right back in with building another pile.

The other thing we started work on was a floor in the barn. We need to be able to have the sawmill level and stable so we figure we would but a wood floor in part of it. We are putting 6 x 6's down on the stone every two feet and then nailing 2 x whatevers on top. It feels pretty stable and hopefully will make it easier to mill than it has been.

Yesterday I moved the mill onto the floor. We don't really have all that much floor as of yet but I figure we are running out of time before the snow comes. I'd like to get the area around the shed cleaned up and I can't do that with the mill in the way.

I disassembled the mill and then picked it up with the forks on the tractor. Went pretty well though like all things it took about three times longer than I thought it would. Fortunately I didn't have to adjust it much after moving it as the floor is pretty level. I figured we'd let it settle for awhile and see if it needs more adjusting. I figure we'll lag bolt it to the floor to hold it in position. Should be interesting to see what happens to the whole setup when we drop a 2000 lb. log on it.

As mentioned at the beginning they started roofing today. Got the back half on and hopefully they will be back tomorrow to finish up. We went over to check on things this afternoon and they were already gone at 2 pm so I would think a full day would allow them to finish.

It sure will be nice if we can keep the mill out of the weather.

Apparently they weren't happy with the feel of the building as they applied braces back to front. We picked up some steel for cross braces on the gable ends today and have started painting them. Hopefully we'll have them up before the end of the weekend if the weather permits.

Ready For Roof

After quite a few delays due to weather, and lots of sweat due to me being on the roof, we are finally ready for the roof to be put on.

Today we finished up the fascia around the perimeter. The metal roof will overhang this trim so we had to get it on before the roofing was put in place. Hanging over the edge of the roof while holding up 2 x 7 boards is not my idea of fun. But we got it done. Caroline held the bottom edge of the boards by standing on the ladder while I held the top edge and used the nail gun to nail them in place. Neither of us is moving very well at this point after using muscles which haven't been used in years.

Last week we got the cross bracing between the bents lag bolted into place. They are made up of 1/8" x 1" pieces of steel which we then painted blue. We had the local welding shop cut them to length and drill holes for the lag bolts. They also drilled holes in the center for a bolt to hold the cross together. We still want to cross brace across the gable ends to strengthen the building in that direction. We'll probably go with steel for that also.

I talked with a contractor a couple of weeks ago about putting the roof on for us. He said he could probably do it in 2-3 weeks which is about where we are at this point. It would be nice to get the building undercover before we get any significant snow. The next step for us on the building will be to put a wood floor into the section where the sawmill will be sitting to make a level spot for the mill, and us, to work on. I'd like to get the mill moved in the next little while so that I can clean up along the driveway before the winter. As always it's a case of what to do first. I'd like to move the mill but I need to mill lumber to make the floor to put the mill on.

We are hoping to move on to getting wood for next year's firewood and putting that in the barn so that we can split it this winter. We are also hoping to get a number of logs so we can mill during the winter and hopefully cut beams for the cabin which we hope to start in the spring. For those of you who have been following along for the last several months we decided to cancel the installation of the septic system this fall. It was looking like it would be $8000-$10,000 to do it and we decided we didn't have the funds at this point. Most likely we will put a composting toilet in the cabin rather than a full blown septic system. A composting system will probably be in the $2000-3000 range and we figure for the amount we will be using the cabin it will work just fine. We've always been a bit interested in the composting technology so it seems to be a good time to try it.