Making it through another year '21-'23

[aigheadish]

Reading through everything you've written about these mushroom logs it certainly sounds like the 50 cents per log logs were likely just throwaways and probably not treated well. It'd be interesting to keep up with that fellow to see how the cheap logs do. I can't imagine you make money at that game without using big equipment to move stuff around, even then I can't imagine they were cultivated well. Good luck!

[Nebraska]

Wooden business card is a nice touch..

[Old Greenhorn]

Well I really didn't want to use up 4 of them, but the client insisted. He feels he will get a lot of questions about the benches and wanted a label on there so he could just point it out and say "Call this guy".

 AH, I did a little research into the other seller and it turns out he is a forester who works a lot of woodlot jobs and does some cutting or cut managements. I think he is just cutting and setting these logs aside when he is doing tree work and probably throwing them in a truck at the end of his workday, so for him it is found money I guess. I have seen that quality varies all over the map, so yeah I want to find out what this fella got for his 50 cents.

 Heard back from my client last night and he wants to see how that V-notch works out. He still doesn't like doing totems because they use so much spawn. I have an idea for a variation that may mitigate some of that I will try to if the rain holds off today. But the rain is coming and I have to load up all this stuff for delivery tomorrow.

[WV Sawmiller]

  Aighead has me thinking again so be careful! :D

   I assume this has been tried but what happens if you just score the logs an inch or so with something like a circle saw then inoculate and seal them? I'm thinking my battery powered circle saw would be perfect for this but since you seem to be doing this in a shop environment a corded version might work better. If that took too much spawn and sealant maybe just score the log in several spots with the saw them move ahead and do the next one?

   Good luck on the wooden business card on the loginator. (If course I would have attached it to the cross brace on each end but I digress... ;))

   I have an order for another composting toilet and ordered roofing and bought treated 2X6 for the floor yesterday. A 4' treated 2X6 is $9 each and no veterans discount allowed on it at Lowes. The metal roofing panels and drip edge is going to cost over $60 for a simple 6' square roof so I have over $110 in the roof and floor that I don't produce on the mill before I even get started. I may have to start sawing up my locust posts to get my 2X6's for the floor as it has comparable durability for ground contact IMHO. 

[Old Greenhorn]

Howard, I'd start milling up that locust and maybe soak in a coat of preservative all over before you nail them home. Glad to see you orders are coming in. We all need those. :D

Your 'alternate' suggestions are much more labor intense than just going with standard hole methods and would appear to use a lot more materials and take a lot longer to execute. I have a couple of ideas I may mess with, but I am racing the rain today. I am not doing this in the shop. Also a circ sawblade kerf is too thin to allow for entry of the spawn. You would be forever trying to pack that stuff into a tiny slot. I am just messing around trying to find something just a little better than a straight sawcut because the spawn is layed on top and the mating piece is replaced. This makes keeping them together problematic. Having some simple mechanical joint would be helpful. It is critical that the spawn is in good contact with both upper and lower halves of the joint or it won't propagate. I am also trying to find a way to not use spawn in the heartwood area as this is mostly a waste.

 It's just something to keep my mind busy. As my client said "So many things to try........and so little time to try them."

[Old Greenhorn]

Between yesterday and today we got over 1.5" of rain and the trend is toward slightly warmer temps. It hasn't hit 60 yet, but I am hopeful. I loaded the inoculation systems on the trailer and had to put the Loginators in the truck bed when I ran out of trailer space. Tarped everything over to keep the heavy rain off over night. 

 This morning I hit the road before 8, grabbed breakfast on the way and got to the site around 8:30.


 

We unloaded pretty quick, ran some screws in to tie it all together, and messed around with the layout a little. I am sure John will think it over a bit more for layout before he sets and levels blocks for the final locations. But they look fairly good and this was the first time I had room to assemble them both completely in the painted form and get a look.



 

 After messing around a bit and given the off and on drizzle and the appointment he had, we packed them into the storage configuration and fastened the tarps.



 

 My client John is extremely happy with them. It's another step in his growth plan and I was happy yo help make that happen. Now I need to make him a workbench that can live there also for the stove and wax melting station and we will add other stuff after that. I could be building him a shed before the end of the summer. He even wants to put in a composting toilet over the hill from the classroom. Howard, how much for shipping?

 After I finished off with John I drove over to NYBHH's place because I had to see in person these beautiful cabinets he just built. I saw some photos but I knew it wasn't coming through. Sure enough when I saw these with the Ash grain coming through the stain/dye/topcoat process he used it was filiipn' gorgeous! I'll never have skill like that and even if I did, I could never figure out how to apply them to make a finished product that presents like his does. He has a few more things to do and then needs to get a countertop and backsplash made, but boy, his stuff should be in a magazine.
 Then we went for a walk in the woods to re-visit another part of his plan. I'm gonna see if I can manage to arrange some help with that one, I think. I'm gonna try anyway.

 Got home early afternoon and did some chores. Still snotty and drizzly all afternoon. It is nice to have the main bay in the shop fairly open after a few months with those benches choking me up. I could finally sweep up. Hoping for nicer weather tomorrow with some sunshine. Bill and I plan to go fetch a van like my wife's that we can pull the rear axle out of to get my wife back on the road and me off chauffer duty. Hopefully when we finally get down to doing it we can get 'er done in one night. This is not my forte'. I can work on vehicles, but I seldom enjoy it. I wish we could just replace her van, but the prices now are out of this world.
 Tomorrow is another day.

[WV Sawmiller]

  Looking good. Is that purple paint on them? (I guess you had some left over after posting a woodlot somewhere. :D) I assume if I understand the work flow someone sets a log in the loginator, you spin and drill/tap it, roll it up the ramp and others on the team  inoculate and seal them then off the table to a trailer or such.

We had rain yesterday and I was able to burn 5-6 trailer loads of brush so I got caught up on that. We had windstorms last night and heard a tree fall at midnight. I got out and looked but did not see it. Found it was a big dead ash uphill from where we park  our trucks but in the pasture and no damage to anything significant. We had lousy weather so it was early afternoon before I got out to work on my toilet but I did go get the metal - $88 for 4 sheets 75" long X 3' wide - enough for 2 toilet roofs.

I finished my framing all 4 sides on it, got the floor framed and ready for adding the floor. I start on a half sheet of 1/2" plywood as a jig to start with a perfectly square base. After the floor is nailed on I remove the plywood for the next time.

I cut up a cart load of the dead ash for the next day or so as we were low especially on kindling. I've got to go get some more 16d nails in the morning and should have all the walls up on the base if I don't get started on the walls. We will see.

[Old Greenhorn]

No Howard, that brown paint. Very expensive semi-transparent waterproofing and wood sealer paint. It's brown. (We don't have a purple paint law in NYS, yet another way we are out of sync with the world.)

 But you missed my question: How much would you charge for delivery? ;D

[WV Sawmiller]

Tom,

   Sorry I missed that. For a load like that for a good customer and the first time I'd done it, I'd likely charge from $15-$50 depending on whether it was a special trip or if some place I was already going. That is still likely too cheap especially since you loaded, unloaded and set up the lines for him but that's a ball park for me. 

   If it is going to be an on-going need I'd look at something like $1.50- $2/mile (each way) and 30 minutes to an hour labor at whatever rate you charge for set up and breakdown.

[Old Greenhorn]

OK, go back and read that paragraph and question again. :D

[WV Sawmiller]

   Well, if you meant how much for shipping just the toilet from your house to the site I'd go with the $15-$50 rate. I thought you were asking shipping for the loginator line as shown in the photos.

   If you're thinking of me shipping a toilet, trust me, you don't want to know. :D I will be glad to ship you the plans and BOM and you can build him one. ;)

[Old Greenhorn]

Well you ARE the deer stand/bus stop/composting toilet king, so I figured I would just bump the job over to a specialist. ;D

[WV Sawmiller]

   Thanks for the kind words and consideration but sometimes we just have to help others by referring them to someone in a better position to serve them. ;)

[Old Greenhorn]

I agree, that's why I thought maybe you should be the guy to make the outhouse. I could probably go back through all your posts and find the details on your design and build one. But I think there is a big and clear difference between taking someone's idea and learning from it to incorporate it in your own work, to taking the entire design, copying and selling it to a third party. It just doesn't seem right to me.

 In any event, the shed has to come first (after the workbench) and that will likely be full custom to accommodate his needs for storage as well as sales display. It will have to be mouse proof also. Given the amount of time we spent on design options in the inoculation system, I expect it will take time to design this and the exact site has to be cleared of brush and some pecker poles.

 He has a long range plan for this outdoor classroom which includes WiFi, functional displays of logs in various stages of growth, different species, different cultivation methods, and internet links explaining each in detail and eventually an open pavilion. When he hires educators to run this, all the aids and displays will be in place for regular classes. When the classes aren't going on, the educator will be inoculating logs, cultivating, picking, drying, etc. This will feed into his extract and mushroom sales business. Unlike me or you, he is looking to hire folks to do these various specialties so that it works without him having hands on minute by minute. These folks aren't easy to find with the skills they need. He travels the world a couple of times a year for research, study, and other things. He participates in major mushroom events around the country as a speaker and needs to keep the day to day thing going when he is away. It is interesting to watch him grow it, learn a bunch along the way, and fun to help him make it happen. I noted yesterday that he now refers to our relationship as 'business partners', meaning two small businesses helping each other out for mutual benefit. When he finally updates his web page he wants to put photos of the stuff we built with links to my web pages because he figures if I do well, it helps him too. I already have references from my site to his because he can answer all the questions I can't and provide services I don't.

 The whole thing fits right in with my goal of having work that gives me pleasure and makes other folks smile. John was certainly smiling yesterday.... a lot.

[WDH]

OGH, are you color blind?  Maybe the person that mixed the paint is too .  

[Old Greenhorn]

I think both you guys either need to get your eyes examined or get new monitors. ;D Maybe if you go back and look at reply #1024 you can see the color better. I promise you it is brown. That is to say, I identify it as Brown and the customer identifies it as Brown, the tech guy at HD that mixed it calls it Brown, so it must be Brown.
YMMV. :D

[WV Sawmiller]

Danny,

   Just accept that it is "Northern Brown" and we'll let it go at that. You can't expect people who don't like grits to see things the way the rest of the world does either. :D

Tom,

   Since the toilet seat is free standing you can just start with that and put it in one corner of the storage shed and build a separate building for it later (if needed). ;)

[Old Greenhorn]

I can live with that. So 'Northern Brown' is what the rest of the world calls brown, and 'Southern Brown' is what the rest of the world calls dark purple. Yeah, that works.

 Howard, the toilet will have it's own building. Actually I think John has already made arrangements for an outhouse to use until he gets the composting thing up and 'running'.

[WV Sawmiller]

  That's good because you look to be about 500 miles from here (Assuming approximately same distance as Corning - some members are proud of and post the actual name of their town but I digress...) and at $2/mile each way plus a very reasonable and moderate $150 per diem for 2 days, you might just want to build it on site. ;)

   My wife was in the area so I got her to help hold the wall frames up while I used my 1/2" impact wrench to put the lag screws in so that went real quick and easy. I'll start on the walls which go up pretty quick at 4-8" wide boards per wall then a 3" batten over the seams.

[Old Greenhorn]

 That's good because you look to be about 500 miles from here (Assuming approximately same distance as Corning - some members are proud of and post the actual name of their town but I digress...) ....

Well sure enough that's true, in fact some members are even proud enough to go in their profiles and put their location on Google maps so other members need only click on the link to see nearly exactly where they are. Mine will bring you within 1/4 mile of my house. But I digress....
 I am another hundred miles ENE of Corning, so a 608 mile trip from the center of your town, which was the closest I could figure. I don't figure costs too heavily when weighing against the best final solution for my client.
 I spent an hour or so reviewing all your posts on your original build and the design. I see now that although what you built is perfect for your purposes and conditions, it will not work well for my client. First, the size is too small, but that is scalable. But this shed build needs to be critter tight. Your live edge siding, which I really still like, has too many small gaps that mice can sneak through. I will have to go with a board and batten and seal any gaps. I also need a tight roof with no venting. I will add separate vents. Looking like a 4x8' foot with a 4/4 deck on the roof and steel over that. I will probably pre-fab it here and transport the wall sections and roof it on site. But we have a while to talk about it and decide. I figure just for the P/T wood for the deck and floor and the roofing materials I am already at $325. before any paint, hardware, mill lumber, or labor. This one will run for a while as we work through it. I have other stuff to do in the meantime for sure. 
 Spent today bucking some more firewood and cleaning the ice storm damage up. Bill and I went and fetched his small 5 ton trailer and picked up that van and brought it back to his place. The axle is a bit different in the torsion bar area, but we think we can make it work OK with a little welding here and there. ;D
 Tomorrow is another day.

[WV Sawmiller]

Tom,

  I only ever built one LE lap siding building and it is a school bus stop with no door. Well, I did build a deer blind that was lap siding but not LE. All my toilets have been Board and Batten. I have not figured a good way to build a door with lap siding because the extension on the siding interferes with the door swing. I assume some kind of J-bolt hinge would work better but with B&B I do not have that problem. I use combination T-strap hinges on the door.

  There is no insulation in the walls or roof and the gaps are not sealed so they are not designed for people to go pontificate at length. I never knew a lot of people who wanted to spend any more time in an outhouse than they had to and would not likely have associated with them long it they did. The composting toilet should never have the foul smell of an old deep pit head but I don't see them as a great party venue.

  I got the sides and back sided and am just going to have enough 8" spruce stock to finish the front/door. I still have to put the battens and the corner molding (2- 1X4's made into a 90). I have several more logs down to cut and need to cut a poplar or two and make some more stock 2X4's and a friend called and placed an order for 20 of them today so weather permitting that will be on next week's schedule.

[WDH]

OK.  A grits eschewing Yankee brown. 

[WV Sawmiller]

Danny,

   I like that term "Yankee Brown". Ranks right up there with Mustard Yellow or Robin's Egg Blue IMHO. ;)

   I may have trouble distinguishing the difference between Yankee Brown and Rust Brown but I guess YB has a more blue (Purple?) tint. :D

[Old Greenhorn]

I get it. You boys down in the balmier climes are very sensitive when it comes to admitting you may not be exactly correct. I have not brought it up again, but you seem to have a hard time letting go. Call it whatever you want. The rest of us simple practical folks will just stick with 'brown' and be happy with that. I hate painting anything and could not care less about shades and nuances of color. Perception is reality I guess. ;D

[WV Sawmiller]

Tom,

   Reminds me of my dad. He bought a gallon or so of paint to paint (I.e. Us sons to use) the porch. When he opened it it was pink. I wanted to take it back as they had mixed it wrong. He had us go ahead and use it then we had to put another coat of blue  or grey on top but he was not going to waste it. :