Return to Paradise - Homestead and Adventure!

Another hot day today and another tree for the felling. This one will hopefully be the ridge-pole. I had a fun time chainsawing it down too. I got the Tirfor deployed to make sure it fell the right way, gave it my three cuts, re-tensioned, one more cut and SWOOSH down went the great tree.



After a cable-pulling session through the day (I had to move other obstacles etc), I had the mighty 30 footer ready for lifting and peeling.



I wonder how many more times I must call upon Trebor the Tirfor? I hope he lasts as I paid a small fortune for him to be deployed. He gets a daily greasing to make sure his joints are ok so we shall see...



Bit of a traffic congestion here, the other tree will have to wait a few more days as he isn't a priority.



Finally in position for lifting and peeling:



I had a quick check of the log and saw this!



A hidden stone must have done that, just as well I leave the bark on for when Trebor moves the logs around! Still the rock has helped remove the bark without damaging the sapwood.

I will be very glad when the long girder logs are all stacked in the racks! Two are down and I have another three to go! The difficulty isn't so much the weight of them, it's finding a tree that is near-to-dammit straight. Once you go over 13 - 16 feet in length of a tree there's a much greater chance of bends, kinks and swerves to contend with. I don't mind a slight curve but many are only suitable for posts, some barely capable for a 14 footer!

Sometimes I feel like this Sisyphus.

The Labors of Ryder continue...

Déjà vu was setting in as I went to lift the great log from the previous day. It groaned and moved but the Harbor Freight tensioner keeping the line taut was no match for the battle and it paid out instead.

I moved on to felling the last of the long girder log-trees.

This is a fir tree, just look at all the branches I have to sned off!





This one vanished into the forest. Come back!



Two are in awkward spots to drag out with Trebor so I concentrated on the easy one first, I trimmed, de-limbed and pulled it in closer.





Tomorrow is city-visit day when I have to re-supply and do chores. No video today, hopefully there’s enough to be keeping you entertained already until the next one.

Wednesday was a full day of graft!

I deployed the new cable tensioner which I hoped would be capable of getting the Sky Wire taut enough to take the great 30 foot logs.



Up we go!



The cable dipped, but was much more capable at taking the 1000 lbs+++ log.

Lifted and in place on the saw horses!



The ridge log isn't perfectly straight, but it will do for my cabin, I'll possibly hew it straight next year, for now my priority to getting it peeled and stacked in the racks for drying.

During the peeling process I used my rigging techniques to turn the log using the lifting equipment. I could have rolled it, but the risk of it falling onto the deck and breaking a limb wasn't worth it.





Indeed the saw horses collapsed 3 times, but each time the chain block prevented the log from falling very far, which was just as well.

Almost done now!



Fully Peeled! The only tricky bit is rolling the big thing on the racks (some stumps are in the way).



I get the Tirfor on the case and soon it is...

Stacked and in the racks!



Only another 3 of these big beauties to go!

G-Man stopped over for an unexpected visit, he was most impressed by the progress. Hopefully I'll get the entire log panoply done with more projects to spare by winter!

Look at all the mess from the 'clothes bark'!!



It'll take a while to pick all that up, but tomorrow is another day...

Today was a semi-rest / writing day.

What work I did do entailed getting the hanging log peeled and trimmed down to about 34 feet long. The peeling was a lot harder than normal. Despite the tree being cut down green the bark on the sunward side was actually semi-dried out!

G-Man was telling me that some people just have a log cabin kit delivered and they just put it together, that’s ok but folks like us prefer the real deal making it raw kinda thing. It’s cheaper but more importantly there’s a sense of having done it entirely yourself instead of relying on outside forces via the $$$$.

Some raw (ish) video of the hatchet-throwing fun

Had my fourth log tree felled today!

Getting it rigged up:

Run the lines out extends the range of the Tirfor! This is over seventy feet total length now! Far enough to get a good falling video with it clouting the camera or me.



The mighty tree was on the edge of the All-Forest though and I had to wade in with my chainsaw to clear a path!



“Take the Strain!”



This may look an odd knot but all it is is a bowline on the bight so I wouldn’t have to unspool 100 ft of rope from the drum.




Then it was two cut sequences and:


Video here.

My only slight concern is that it’s a Tamarack tree which are not the best for log construction unless used as boards. It’s a thick thing but I won’t use it as a ridge log for this reason.

Snedded and cut the lengths that were needed, dragged out the shorter log section.
Cut a banana-shaped tree down too that was intruding onto the cabin land.





Notice the tree in the midst of the All-Forest? That’s what I have to drag out! It’s about 34 Feet long too and still partly on the stump. I carried a small log to put under the stump section still holding the tree, that way when I pull it off the stump, it’ll roll along the log, making Trebor the Tirfor’s job much easier.



Gloomy weather brings a bit of rain, but it soon passes for sunshine once more:



Still, only one more big tree to fell and sort out and that’s’ the long girder poles out of the way. Then it’s just a case of getting the posts done.

Did other small jobs mostly, more dragging tomorrow, can’t wait.

Today the 4th great log of girdage was peeled.

First I had to drag the thing into position using Trebor and Chainblock:



Then peeling commenced!



Ready!



It's not true straight but should do for my style of cabin.

In the days following the range day I had mixed and unexpected news. My trusty neighbor , G-Man, had to leave for nearly two weeks. It meant my internet time was severely clipped! The last of the girder logs went into the racks BUT the others do not meet my exacting standards. So some will be demoted to post duty at a later stage. This means I must once again hunt down more 30 footer logs!

Nonetheless I got stuck into the work-as-usual with a gusto! The big drama day came when I was dragging what would be the massive ridge log behind the White Wolf! You should have seen it, if I had taken my camera it would have made for a cool video.

This was romper-stomper action, I was concerned my truck wouldn’t be able to get moving but move it did, in an angry ox moving a plough kinda way! You should have seen what it did to the road! LOL. The big log was no less than 36 feet long and 14 inches in diameter at the base! The primordial thing left a trail like a torpedo had been fired along the surface of the road! I made sure to drag it along the middle, creating a mini-median as I rolled along. I was in first gear the whole time too. However, the wire cable I was using to drag the mighty-log snapped about 3/4 of the way back to the Havens. That’s how hardcore it was! So I had a log in the middle of the access road and it was scorcher hot! What to do?

I felt the load ease so I stopped and retrieved the snapped portion. Thankfully it was only the end piece where the loop was, meaning I could make another loop using the existing cable-clamp. Doing so was a mini-saga in itself. Eventually, after returning to base to get tools and rope, I was able to manually rock’n’roll the log enough to get the loop back under. Then using a rope around a tree with a mallon link I used the White Wolf to drag the metal wire fully under the log so I could reeve the long end’s eye through it! Then it was just a case of driving onward.



This time the wire held the rest of the way, on my return I had another challenge though, how to get the thing into the cabin site?

The cable had really tightened against the ball:



After a session and a half on the Trebor-Tirfor I was able to get the log in position. I’ll let the pictures do the talking:







Here it is at the Cabin Site with all the others i need to do:





More musical logs the next day as I peeled and got logs moved.

Another big log in the racks, not straight-enough for a ridge log though:



This picture is starting to reveal the method behind my meanings. The far-right part of the picture is where the post-logs will be racked. They need to be out of the way so I can get the thirty-plus footer logs in to the left and top of the picture. That way the cabin site area is clear for marking up AND when I come to start making posts erect, the post-logs are easy to get to.

Also notice the Sky-wire chainblock. I actually move the entire log using this by raising the log to as high as it will go, then pushing one end to the point that the entire chainblock assembly skids along the skywire. In this way getting the post-logs into the side-racks is possible. I could use the Tirfor, but moving that thing back and forth all the time is a PITA and my back is aching just thinking about doing that.



On other news, there’s smoke in the air from distant forest fires, hopefully not to close to the Green Havens though…

Well this update will be short but punchy.

The peeling and racking of the Gungnir Log took a lot longer than normal, I was able to get some video shot though so that will be going through the tubes soon hopefully.

The dragging action of earlier days really beat up the underside, it gave the effects of a sawmill with a flat-section for landing on posts BUT there was a lot of dirt ingrained. Some of it was in tiny slits and gouges, meaning a draw knife was not enough. I tried water and screwdriver, this was not very effective. Then a deployed some 50 grade sandpaper which did a much better job. I could get all the dirt out, but most of it has gone and linseed oil will take care of the rest.



Through much jiggery pokery of the tirfor and chainblock, including using a dead tree as a snatch block, I was able to get ‘er done.





The log looks fine but needs some more sanding after the bashes and rubs from other obstacles on the way into the racks. No biggie though.

Outside the cabin site is another long log, this one with a slight bend in it, but nothing as bad as one or two of the others already in the racks. It’s like as soon as I do one job, another on leaps into action for me to contend with! I hope I can keep up this pace, I have to get to the firewood zone soon as they’ll be closing the gate for that in the coming weeks.

New Video folks!

Just got the finer peeling ways out and about for people to see

Views from high up in the PNW mountains







Zooming in:

Getting the first hole dug for the out-building:



I made 2 feet in depth, which for Rocky Mountain terrain is pretty good going for digging by hand!

Today I got the second post up and concreted!



Then it was onto the third hole! Compared to the last hole this one was a breeze and it only took 45 minutes compared to about 4 hours for hole 2! The only issue? I've run out of concrete and the log is still a bit too green for scorching.



After a successful day in Missoula I bought plenty of concrete! The prices in the PNW are sure cheaper than in Coloradica. Under $3 for a #60 bag! I bought ten of them and loaded up the W. Wolf. I wrapped the lot up in tarps when not in use:



Got the third post in today! She went in nicely and the concrete pretty much sealed the thing in good and proper.



After that I had to made my markings for a square 4th post:





Moldy Wood!




In the meantime though the great Gungnir Log and his friend has been stricken with this speckled mold! I deployed the sandpaper and draw knife to take care of it, then daubed on lashings of linseed oil! I would have done this sooner but wanted the logs to dry out a bit.

Tomorrow will be a harder buzz though, I have tree roots in the way for one of the middle post...

Today was intense. I had a 150 lb log to raise! It was 12 foot long and seven inches in diameter!

My back, shoulders and arms were screaming but I hoisted it aloft and after a wiggle and a wrench is went fully upright and slotted into the hole!



Only two, maybe three more posts to go.

This area here will be for the outhouse:





I am a sore and weary Ryder now though...

Latest video in the tubes: