It's a New Year -- 2006 Projects Linger On

Well yesterday began the New Year. We got a lot accomplished last year but the projects we started are still not finished. We learned a lot about building, milling, using the tractor and ourselves.

Currently we are concentrating on extending the barn out a bit further towards the driveway. We are in the process of framing up the area as you can see by the picture to the left. We have 1/2 of the front framed. Have ordered metal roof for the whole thing and hope to get the half we have ready roofed this coming weekend. The reason to expand the area under the roof is to allow for firewood storage as well as hopefully supply a spot for sawdust and slab storage. We might also be able to put the front loader implements undecover by dropping under the roof from the sone wall side.

We have some cedar boards which we milled to side the small area above the new roof. The roof will give us another 6 feet of storage along the whole side of the building once it is done.

A couple of weeks ago we put plastic on the rear of the building to slow down the wind and snow. It seems to be holding up well thus far. Doesn't keep all the moisture out of the building but does seem to help. I suspect that until we close in the Gable ends a bit more the rain and snow will find their way all the way inside.

In the picture at the left you might be able to make out a couple of utility posts which we buried behind the building. We hope to extend the roof out for three of the bays for lumber storage. Those posts are 12 feet off the back of the building so we should be able to put most of the lumber we mill under cover.

We still have the wood floor to extend inside the building as well as thinking about milling boards for siding. We also are hoping to start cutting timbers for the cabin which will be the big project for 2007. On the right side of the top picture of this post you can see one of the logs we brought down today. There is a similiar size log on the mill. They are both from a pine whose top broke off back in the spring. We haven't tried getting the butt log out of the woods yet. Still waiting for the ground to freeze.

We also took some of the maple which we milled last winter and made a little toolbox for Caroline's staining supplies. The maple looks great though a jointer and planer would help in getting the boards flatter. The toolbox came out pretty well for a one+ day project. We used the electric planer which Tom has loaned me to get the maple in somewhat reasonable shape. The handle is made out of some cherry which we milled this summer.

The cherry is part of a "twisted" cherry branch which broke off over last winter. It had been a really neat feature of the Waterville property. Don't know how it happened but the branch had snaked it's way through a pine tree down to the ground and then back up into the sky. It was a really big branch. The rest of the tree is still standing and appears to be doing well. It was too neat a piece of wood to just let rot, or use as firewood so we took it down by the mill. I milled up a couple of small pieces earlier this summer but the big piece took some working up to. I finally got it milled several weeks ago. Came out pretty neat.

Caroline is hoping to make some large benches out of it. The slabs are 2 1/2 inches thick and about 12 inches wide. They are about 10 feet long. We have a total of four of them to work with. They are currently down in the generator shed drying out a bit. Hopefully by the end of the winter we can try working with them a bit. Not sure what the final products will be. A bench made out of one of these would be neat but not sure where we would put it.