Timber!!

There's nothing quite like a giant diesel burning tree-lifting truck on a rainy afternoon, burning up lots of extra fossil fuels into the crisp mountain air. Yep, there would be nothing quite like that. For better or for worse, however, we are using the age ole 'Egyptian Technique,' to remove a few large timbers from the woods for next years house-building. Getting these 70 year old things to go where you want them to go is a bit of a challenge, especially on the hill-side. But it is also an interesting puzzle to put together. Progress is slow (without a giant diesel beast to help you), but satisfying.

Yurt Construction

Onto the next project! 


Using some old tires, scrap plywood, and old crappy chicken wire we began making the footings for the upcoming Yurt!


I gave myself a good chuckle trying to fit this square peg into a round hole... It's so much harder to get things done while laughing...


We got some crush from a nearby gravel yard, some cement mix from the new Home Hardware, and mixed in some cedar mulch that we made with the chipper last week... A little bit of rebar, and we were off to the races...

 What was most appealing in this design (aside from incorporating things which would have otherwise gone to the dump) is that the footings are now rather mobile, should the yurt need to be moved in the future.

The warmer days are great, too!

Chicken Coop Complete!

Chicken Palace!

Wow! What a week. S, D, and I put our minds together to get the chicken coop in place last week. The first two days we had the sun in full cooperation, it snowed Wednesday (which was depressing - even for me, who never complains on the weather!) and then we had mostly sunny days to finish out the week. It is truly REMARKABLE just how much a factor the weather is on this hillside - for morale, energy, inspiration, physical exhaustion... I blew out yesterday with a fever. I was in bed by 3pm yesterday, stoked the fire hot and high in the yurt, bundled up and sweated it out until 11am today! Certainly it cannot be over-or-under-stated, that the patience of a saint should be on every person's tool list when taking on any building project.

We were so inspired with the sunlight that I didn't even carry my camera, and missed documenting how we build the platform. Six palettes and three 2x6 - and Dylan's new giganto-nail-gun - had us a platform in about half and hour. A few rocks along the bottom edge had us level, and then we were off to the races putting the structure together.

I enjoyed how S called the wooden palettes "a waste product," and they are certainly something I wish to gather for keeping supplies off of the forest floor. Pressure treated ones would make a good shop floor surface with some sort of sand/salt barrier below. And this brings us to the coop itself. S & D picked this up second hand for $200 (regular $1000 at Canadian Tire). D enjoyed bashing the retail cost of this pile of plastic. It is certainly not hurricane proof, let alone whoops-I-slipped-in-the-mud-and-had-to-hold-onto-something... proof. ... It is, however, chicken proof, which counts the most.

Repurposing: Less plastic in the landfill :)

We snapped this puppy together in about two hours of Kootenay time. Which is to say, it felt like two hours passed, but it probably took longer.... or lesser. ... No one knows. It was easy, and inspired by M's lego palaces inside, the three adults took to it like, say, adults cooped up in a trailer by inclement weather. It was so good to get something off the ground and together in a pinch. The reuse of this building was the "convenience we didn't pay for" but welcomed all the same.

Next, we traced the pole lines, and dug fence posts. Certainly a fence auger is manna from heaven for the task. It's actually very satisfying to use because the progress is so measurable.

the folks of  rBrand - click here to see their blog :)

When it snowed on Wednesday, we eventually got moving on using some new found lumber for building the roosting boxes. The coop kept us reasonably dry.

Last came the fencing, which needed "base boards," just to make sure the little chicks don't get away, and hopefully add another layer of defence against predators... which unfortunately includes the family pup, Oden! He's been super "bad," as his "inner wolf" gets the best of him, especially when the chickens give a little dart. Like pinball, the energy increases, and they bring out the worst case scenario in each other.

 

The back side needed some extra attention, what with the slope, and to have the option of an extra exit/entrance. The backside levels up closer to the road, and the quad can be better pulled into place to ship in wood chips or heavy bags of feed.

Shortly after came the moving of the chickens themselves, which was so exciting. It was a relief to get them out of the former coop which they had clearly outgrown by number some time ago. Catching them would certainly have put my mother in stitches. I took a good slide on the "chicken shit slide of death."

I had the better part of Friday afternoon to solve the back gate issue, and had a lot of fun doing so. The birch on the left had several curves to accommodate: I built up the ground with some clay and rock to make a step, stapled the fencing into place, and filed in the gaps by lashing a pole along the bottom.

The real gem is the found handle. Character wood pieces always set ablaze the creative heart. As one  unhooks the gate, the little rounded piece makes a perfect handle to lift the gate through. I may need to put a similar handle on the other side too. It's very functional, and there are no gaps!!

Haggard and Happy!

Cordwood Log Peeling

I took the day off yesterday to celebrate my birthday and have some fun. Met some great locals, was given some locally grown foods, and the waitress sang me Happy Birthday! where I took myself out for lunch.


Today, I got right back in the saddle and set up for log peeling!


The draw-knife is the main tool, and the first log went much more smoothly than I thought it would. After reading "Cordwood: State of the Art," I was expecting an all out battle, and I can respect after thirty years of building Cordwood houses, that Rob Roy would certainly be going a little mad, but I found it much smoother than what I was lead to believe. Perhaps that is good strategy on behalf of our guru of cordwood - thank you Rob!

 

I also made a little demo video: 

 http://youtu.be/dwCDswKmfUo

I was kept well entertained today with Odin & MacKenzie. The snow is very deep, but the hot sun has us all falling through in surprise deep patches. I've been walking along numerous times and have fallen in up to my waste. The pups have a heck of a time to, especially without the advantage of Sorels(!) 

 

 http://youtu.be/XvD45ZLH0F4

Splitting Wood - Second Round

As the romanticism of 'clearing the land' ... clears from my mind... I found myself relaxing into hearing the different pitches the wet birch happens to make when being split.

I found that the smaller logs - pieces closer to the top of the tree when it stood - made more of a baritone crack, whilst the larger logs from the bottom of the tree made often a soprano crack when split through. This 'split' between size and sound reminded me of Bach's music. 

I know... for those of you who know me somewhat intimately, you'll know that I'll think upon Bach at the slightest of invitations. However.... It reminded me of how often Bach will use a descending triad within an ascending scale-like motion, uniting "opposites" - the sad and the happy, as it were - granting the listener a reverent, ecstatic joy, of being supported as one climbs. 

From my days of writing music and studying the life of Glenn Gould, I have since written much on the nature of opposites, calling them instead, "inverses," as all things in opposition truly relate to each other, compliment each other, and possibly at best, complete each other.

... I separated smaller slash from the larger, as these mid sized branches could be used for fence poles or garden structures. Looking at the big tree that was fallen, this massive timber could easily be used in house construction. Perhaps tomorrow I'll step in to my first debarking! Rob Roy, of Earthwood Building School says you should peel logs "before they stop vibrating from hitting the ground." While splitting the wood today, much of the bark was peeling off with no effort, so I think I'll take a look at this big birch tomorrow.

 Thank you trees!  Thank you Bach! 

Thank you good times in the forest!

Puppy Love

Odin, MacKenzie and I have really taken to each other. After my first night I gave them some ... instruction... as to my barking preferences, and they have taken to it ever since! I am so completely impressed! They also inspired a post on one of my other blogs on the nature of discipline. You can read it by clicking here: All Things Indigo, . Thank you Odin and Mackenzie! You're heart-breakers both!

Splitting Wood

I set out to do some work today on D&S's house site. They have a daughter M, but if I type in DS&M too much, I may get the wrong kind of internet traffic. So do forgive me, M... Please know that when I type D&S... I have M in mind too. :)

I am considering a cordwood home and will be testing my metal for the task with some upcoming log peeling. Every natural building method has at least one massive labour bottleneck, and certainly in Cordwood design, this is it. Today though, I got warmed up with splitting some birch for S&D's firewood stockpile.


I made some pretty tidy stacks, and began imagining my own cordwood walls. A person building with Cordwood has the choice of using round ends or split end logs. I anticipate using split ends, as this dramatically decreases the drying time needed. Also, the finished result looks closer to stonework in my opinion.

I made sure the base of the stack had some lift, so that the wood was not directly on the ground. Some logs were still way to wet for chopping, so I kept them for future chopping blocks, putting cedar bows below them.

I covered the logs with some cedar bows to better the drying time. Today was super snowy!! And I also stacked the poles D has fallen, keeping them layered as best I could with shorter logs in between for air circulation. 

I am thinking that the cedar bows may have an acidic effect to assist the drying wood. Can anyone confirm this for me?





D&S... have these foam blocks salvaged from the nearby tree nursery, and are discovering all kinds of building applications for them. There is a chemical coating, however, so this would not be ideal for a dwelling, but rather an outdoor shop. I used them for a base and cover today. The little holes for the trees are ideal to capture cement. Strapping layers of these together would basically be like building with lego.

I hope you have a wonderful day.

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