My timber frame build

[Ljohnsaw]

... and is it time for lumber? :D

Yep!  Time to start dropping some trees.  First order will be to make the cedar sills but it will all depend on the weather.  All will stop with the first bit of snow.  I don't have chains for my Skytrac.  ¼" of the white and it's like you are on an ice rink - and my property isn't even close to flat!  Right now, it is pouring rain which will set the dust down.  No snow predicted in the next week so I will be working more on it.

[ChugiakTinkerer]

It's looking great.  It kind of amazes me how certain phases of construction have such a visual and psychological impact.  A slab is one of those.  A person looks at it and you don't have to visualize what it will look like, it's right there in front of you.  I'd guess the amount of work you did leading up to the pour was upwards of fifty times the hours it took to pour and finish the concrete.  But it's the slab or the sheathing that has the "Wow!" effect.  I guess our brains are still pretty primeval to be impressed by the bright and shiny moments.  Must be why we like pics so much!

[submarinesailor]

... and is it time for lumber? :D

No snow predicted in the next week so I will be working more on it.

I have some near and dear friends that live down near Sebastopol and they are hoping for a HUGE snow pack this winter.  Won't help you any with your get-r-done.  But sure would help the water levels.

Bruce

[jimdad07]

Looks great, thanks for sharing your progress.

[Magicman]

I am just catching up on my reading.  Congrats on the successful concrete pour before the weather sets in.  It was nice that Dani & Alex were there to help and to witness the event.   

[Ljohnsaw]

I am just catching up on my reading.  Congrats on the successful concrete pour before the weather sets in.  It was nice that Dani & Alex were there to help and to witness the event.   

Well, technically, they were not there :-\  But they would be upset if I didn't put their names on it!  My son really wanted to be there - but it was a school day :(

[Magicman]

They were there in spirit, and certainly in your heart for you to include their names. 

[Ljohnsaw]

Update 10/20/2016:

Well, spent 3 days cleaning up and moving dirt.  Took down all the scaffolding and put away all the rebar left overs and foundation stakes.  I planned on lowering the driveway level to the slab level (or a bit lower) so I got started on that on Tuesday afternoon.  My Skytrac bucket really doesn't like rocks when scraping.  So I resorted to using my backhoe to loosen up the ground and my ATV with a snow plow to move it.  I broke my bucket hinge on the backhoe at the end of the day yesterday so I spent this morning welding it back together.  In all, I'd say I spent about 2 days actually moving dirt.

Where the sun is shining, there was the remnants of a cement block foundation running right down the middle of the driveway (easement).  That is what I broke my backhoe on when trying to remove it.

 

The big pile at the end of the driveway was some fine gravel that was put down at the start of the project to keep dust down (worked quite well).  I'll probably redistribute it over the driveway again along with a little stockpile that was left over.  Surprisingly, this lower area of the driveway was pretty much devoid of rocks.  There were 3 or 4 to remove and the biggest being about 300 pounds.  I hit a layer of what looked like road base (gravel with fines) but was probably a long ago mud flow from a volcano.

Here is what it looked like early this year:

 

And now:

 

Some of the dirt was used to fill in the front bays.  These, and the driveway, will get a good layer of larger gravel as required by the fire department/county.

 

I pushed all the remaining dirt around the corner.

 

Watered down the slab before I left so it can cure some more.

 

[Magicman]

Nice job on the driveway.  So it is fairly well buttoned up until next year?

[Ljohnsaw]

Well, not really.  The blocks are freeze/thaw stable and as proof, they have spent two winters with no damage.  I would really like to stucco the outside (just a smooth coat) so that they will shed water and stay fairly clean.  The very rough surface holds dirt.  They are very porous so any water that hits the outside will migrate to the inside.  I have drains to take any water from under the slab or in the water tank "well" to the outside.

I plan to cut and mill trees until I can't any longer due to snow.  Pretty much all the trees you see in these pictures will be taken down.

[thecfarm]

That gravel that is required by the fire department/county you will be happy with. I had a good base put down with some ground fabric and no mud here. I have had logs trucks use it too. Can't even tell they was on it. Get the driveway up in the air and a crown and the water will drain away from it.

[Ljohnsaw]

Update 10/27/2016:

Went up today to take care of two items.  Since it was raining off and on, I started up my burn piles.  Nice to have those piles gone!

Then I went to work on my driveway to take out another 6-8" to set up a good slope for drainage.  Well, I spoke wrote too soon about there being a lack of rocks. :-\  There were 4 rocks that were poking up a little bit (2 or 3 inches) that needed to be removed.  Turns out they were just the tip of the ice berg:

 

The brown square-ish one in the middle above is about 20" x 20" x 30" - super heavy.

 

 

Lots of rain today.  Snow level on Sunday will be about 700-800' higher than my property.

[fishfighter]

Those rocks run around $150 each around these parts that people just throw out in there yard. :D Really. :D

You can send some of that rain here too!

[Ljohnsaw]

Update 11/2/2016:

Big storm blew through over the weekend.  Lots of rain, a bit of snow and then more rain.  When I got up there this morning, all the gravel was frozen.

Spent the day burning the last of the junk wood and slabs, and working on the driveway.  As I think I mentioned, the top 30' or so of the driveway/easement had a cement block wall running down the middle.  I used my backhoe to remove the small river gravel from the north side of the wall (dirt on the south side).  There was about 18" of the stuff.  Here it is with it removed:

 

 

I forgot my camera and used my new Rugby IV phone but I think I need to adjust the camera settings - things look a little purple. :

I scraped it down the hill with my SkyTrak and then filled in the area with dirt, compacting it by rolling over it with the SkyTrak.  It will be getting some crushed gravel soon.  I also moved the big rocks shown in the last post out of the way, the big triangular one just didn't want to go for a ride in the bucket but I finally got it to go.  I decided to winterize - I drained all the water lines and tanks (after I doused the burn pile).

[Magicman]

I hate to see this thread have to go to sleep for the Winter.   :-\

[Ljohnsaw]

I hate to see this thread have to go to sleep for the Winter.   :-\

Well, I'm not giving up without a fight! :D

I forgot to pull the drain plug on my tankless water heater on my shower house so I went back up today.  I had great plans for the day.  I was going to spread the little bit of small gravel I scraped up back on the bare dirt to help with dust/mud.  I was going to take down the smaller rocks against my foundation and stack the new bigger ones.  I was going to head down the road to where the power company had dropped a big pine and branched and bucked it into three nice saw logs.

But...  My SkyTrak had a flat.   It was fine yesterday but completely flat today.  Spent a while trying to start my generator so I could run my compressor.  My last bit of ether wouldn't come out of the can (no pressure left) :-[ so I poked a hole and ran some into the carb with a short piece of hose.  Fired right up.

Started pumping air into the tire but no pressure building up. :-\  Hmm - valve plugged with mud (sunk that tire past the hub in mud yesterday...).  Removed the top part of the stem and blew it out - no problem.  Air chuck not working?  Added air to another tire just fine.  Shut the generator down and I could hear air leaving the tire as I filled it. :'(

Looked on the inside, the two-piece rim had moved in and the bead was open :(  Tired some ratchet straps to pull it back in place but my air chuck wouldn't deliver quite enough air to make it seal.  So, need to borrow an impact gun and pull the tire off to see what I can do.  There is a 1/8" or so o-ring like seal on the rim where the second piece mates.  I'm thinking that may be the problem.  This tire has a history of loosing a little bit of pressure over time.  Maybe it finally gave out.

[thecfarm]

Spoke to soon.  :  Well at least you can count the rocks on 2 hands.  ;D
When they dug here,ALOT got buried and some got hauled off for a retaining wall for him.

[Ljohnsaw]

Update 11/9/2016:

Went up Tuesday with some borrowed tools to pull the tire off the SkyTrak.  Neither my buddy or myself were wearing our reading glasses so we thought I had two 1½" impact sockets (¾" drive) along with two breaker bars (1" drive) and a cheater pipe.  Turns out, one was 1½" and the other was 1-5/8"  The nuts are right next to the hub and the 1-5/8" had a slightly thinner wall so I was able to sledgehammer it on :  All ten nuts came off just fine (with the help of Blue Creeper!).  Took a 30 mile trip to the tire shop to get it fixed.  While they were working on it, I wnet over the freeway to NAPA to pick up a standard 1.5" socket.  Out of stock.  Well, how about a 38mm - out of stock.  A deep socket - out of stock.  Could get it in a couple hours but I wanted to be done by them.

Went back across the freeway to the hardware store but the biggest they had was 1¼".  Got directions to the local feed store (back over the freeway) - might have tractor stuff?  Nope.  But he sent me to the local boat repair place because it is run by a "real good guy" that lends his tools   Sure enough, he lent me his SnapOn socket and an adapter (was only a 1/2" drive).  I said I was worried about shearing it off but he said it won't... :-\

So I used my ratchet and snugged up the nuts and then switched to the breaker bar.  On the second nut, sheared the adapter :(  When I returned the tools, I said I will track down the SnapOn guy for a replacement but he insisted not to worry.  Then he noticed he gave me the NAPA adapter (same grooves like SnapOn) and said the NAPA guy will replace it.

Anyhow, I got the tire off, repaired and back on in 3½ hours with hand tools.  Did a little dirt moving for the rest of the day.

Today, back to dirt moving.  I think I'm satisfied with my driveway - ready for gravel.

 

Backfilled more on the west side.

 

I took the bucket off, put my forks back on the SkyTrak and retrieved these logs from down the street.  15-16' and 23", 22" and 21" big end.  The little log was from another tree they took out.  The second log they cut at about 7 or 8' so I might grab that one too, to make some lumber bunks.

 

Since I had more big rocks, I took down the smaller rocks from my retaining wall. (before)

 

And placed some of the bigger rocks. (after)  Once I stucco the wall, I'll add another layer or two of rocks.

 

[Magicman]

A good day is any day when everything turns out OK, even with help.   ;D

It's nice to see your successes and getting more done before the snow flies.   

[Ljohnsaw]

Update 11/15/2016:

Got up to the property this morning to be greeted with a flat on my SkyTrak >:(  I'll have to pull the tire off again and take it back to them to redo whatever they didn't do right the first time.

Had some ether so my generator started right up and I had the tire up to pressure in no time.

I had two highly valuable denim logs to slice up into blocking and stickers.  Got four (full dimension) 4x4x10' out of each log and twice the stickers out of the first log as the second.  Here is what the second log made.  Nice even blue stain :D

 

Once I got that done, I loaded up the top log of the three big ones I rescued last week.  The top snapped off when the crew dropped the tree.  The end is very jagged but the black bug trails go up and down the peaks.  I thought it was very interesting that these little tracks were just enough to have the wood fracture at them.

 

 

I marked out what I wanted on the first log (already made a couple of cuts).

 

The plan was for a 4x10 and two 4x8s and whatever 2x4s I could get.  Well, messed up a cut as I cut the 4x10 free.:  Ended up getting the 4x10, two 3x10s along with seven 2x4s.  Lumber-wise, I got 288 bd-ft plus another 100 bd-ft of stickers.

 

 

Lots of pine bug holes in the denim wood.  The good pine was pretty heavy - I sure could use some hydraulics!  I have a deeper appreciation for manual mill guys doing 1,000 to 2,000 bd-ft a day!

The day ended with a lot of rain coming down so I didn't pull the tire off the SkyTrak.  I'll have to do that later this week if the weather permits.  Supposed to snow tonight.

[ChugiakTinkerer]

...
I had two highly valuable denim logs to slice up into blocking and stickers.

Isn't that what you meant?  :D

Enough of this mud and mortar, it's good to see some sawdust being made!  ;D

[Ljohnsaw]

...
I had two highly valuable denim logs to slice up into blocking and stickers.

Isn't that what you meant?  :D

Enough of this mud and mortar, it's good to see some sawdust being made!  ;D

Yes :

[Ljohnsaw]

Update 11/17/2016:

Went back up today with plans to mill a while and then take my tire back down the hill for repair.  There was a bit of a storm when I left on Tuesday and continued into the night and early morning Wednesday.  Here is what it looked like at 0800:

 

 

It was about 25°F so I decided to pull the tire and have it fixed while I waited for things to warm up a little.  Didn't get back until 10:45 and had the wheel back on by 11:00 - but it was still pretty cold (below freezing).  Learned a lesson - if you have more logs, put the next one on the mill at the end of the day, even if its raining.  I was pleasantly surprised that my SkyTrak didn't slip slide away as I loaded the first log for the day.

 

So, once again, I had plans: Make a 8x12 post and two 5x9 loft joists and some 1x4 strapping.  A little too much sweep in the log so I had to settle for the post, two 2x11s, four 2x4s and eight 1x4s, all 17' long - a total of 289 bd-ft in 4 hours of work.  That was the same amount as Tuesday in 2/3 the time so I'm getting a little faster.

 

I centered the pith on the other end but the sweep messed up this end  :-\ - but still boxed in the post.

 

Oh, yeah, I added a hydraulic loader and hydraulic log turner  :D

 

And lesson learned, the 3rd log is loaded and ready to go whenever I get back up there.  Log turner positioned, ready to work.  Snow predicted Saturday...  (Edit: went up today to button up for bad weather and retook a few pictures that were blurry from Thursday evening)

 

[Ljohnsaw]

Update 11/19/2016:

Didn't do any real work, just prepared for some snow.  Forecast is for 6-12" at my elevation.
Added some tin to my lumber stacks.


 

 
Brought up my winch contraption I made to plug into an old engine stand to make it a portable lift.  It also plugs into some 2½" tube I welded onto my sawmill bed.

 

I'll have to adjust a little for this size log.  If I slide the log over to the stop (to the right) and put the winch on the other side, I think it might fit.  It's not plugged all the way in.  The winch is hard to see, just under the top bar.  The vertical stem hanging on the bottom is there to plug into my trailer where I welded on some 2½" tube.  ( : I also cleaned up the slabs around the mill so I'm ready to go, when the weather permits...)

I also have some wheel hubs mounted on some 2" tube.  I'll need to verify that will fit as well.  Then I can move my mill to my lower section where I have Aspen and Cedar to mill.  I made some 5' end extensions and checked them for alignment.  They will allow the mill head to "park" and give me an extra 10' of milling capacity.  That will give me 27' with my current two track segments.

On the way home, I stopped to check on some free logs and access.  One log is difficult to reach and will have to pull it down a hill.  The other is in several pieces.  My trailer can park parallel, slightly up hill so I will par buck.  They cut a 7' section off the butt that is 30" small end (has a little flare).  When the tree came down, it broke another 26' up from this cut.  Then the top section is about 50+' with the big end being 24-26".  The log weight calculator puts the Sugar Pine weight for a 30" x 14' at 3,500 pounds (trailer capacity).  Tree has been standing dead for 6 months so I'm hoping it might be a little lighter.  Looks like I'll be making a number of trips.

[Ljohnsaw]

Update: 11/22/2016

Well, the free logs were a bust.  The steep access road only had about 1" of gravel and with all the rain, I couldn't get out without help WITHOUT a log on the trailer!  Oh well.  So I headed up to my property to mill the log that was sitting on my mill.  The weather man and Accu-weather both said it was only raining.  Does this look like rain to you!

 

 

So I was milling up the log and it was getting harder to push the blade through.  I just figured it was frozen.  Then it started diving about ¼-½".  Time for a new blade.  But first, I had to make sure it was really dull. :

 

I guess I'm a professional sawyer now :-\