Still moving the log....

When Melissa helps by cranking on the winch while I lift with the farm jack on the end, we really get some distance.

Here it is at the balance point on the crest of the hill, with the end starting to lift off the ground.

Did I mention this thing is 54 feet long?

The Glove issue:

As readers know, I have glove issues. I can't find a decent pair of gloves that will last the length of time I think they should. I do give them a good workout, but sheesh. Here's a picture of me, with new $39 (ie fancy) "pro landscaper" gloves. Actually, I bought these in July, and wore a pair out, and I was in the hardware store and had them in my pocket and showed them how beat up they were, so they gave me a new pair. Since they were new, and I saw where the wear had been before, I took medical tape and taped my fingers. This picture was taken Dec 29th. I don't know why I look sunburned.




The picture below was taken today. Same gloves, 40 days later. The tape worked for a while, I actually redid the tape about 3 times, before I got tired of that. Obviously, I'm lefthanded, but I'm working on that. I'd also like to point out those are different sweaters. 40 days? come on!

Remember that Tree in the Road?

well, now it's firewood. The neighbor boys (it was their tree, after all) took some of it, but I carted a majority of it about halfway down my driveway and split and stacked it.







it's really beautiful wood, and burns fabulously.








it also splits really well when it's green and wet, which is why I got right on that. Notice that I used a 'dolly' (the blue thing) to move the logs, 2 or 3 at a time down to the stack.

Getting Mortar Done...

Melissa and I worked on the almost last layer of the house wall foundation this morning. We're able to do three 80lb bags of mortar between breakfast and lunch... or until it starts raining, whichever comes first. Here's Melissa working on the west wall.



Later that day, it got wet and cold, so Melissa stayed inside and wore, I think, every piece of clothing she owns. Note the hump from the hood of her down vest under her sweater. (we didn't have the fire going at this point in the day)

The Giant Tree project: update

Now that I've knocked the thing down out of the tree it was leaning on, I've got to haul it up the hill and down to the house spot. Since it's so wet out, and this thing is SO big, I've decided that using the truck to pull it up and over a hill (the truck could only be on the other side, about 100 yards away) wouldn't really be all that smart. So, it's a game inches.

Here you can see how, as Surfer Mike says, 'I'm going all Egyptian slave on the thing' with my little log rollers. I'm using two parts of the upper part of the tree as rails, and small (maybe 4 inch diameter) oak logs as rollers.


Once I get the chains all hooked up to tree stumps up above, I just crank on the chain winch until I'm tired. The thin yellow rope is there to hold the tree in place while I change the chains. This is a big log.


In both pictures, you can see the 'shiny' silver chain of the winch (between the blue thing and the log). It's maybe 10 feet long. I do one length of that in the morning, then another link in the afternoon. while, that's what I did yesterday and today.

Tree in the Road

This morning, the neighbors called and told us there was a tree in the road. It's actually their tree, and he was just sort of calling to find out what to do, but I had gotten my saw out to do some other stuff, so he called at just the right time. This photo is after the initial clean up... now just a matter of time until new firewood!

More Snow!

again this morning, the meadow is white. You can see where I had been clearing out the small shoots off the old madrone stump in the foreground. I'm going to put some grape vines in there.

Measuring for Posts





Now that we're almost done with the stone wall making, and it's too cold to make mortar, Melissa is figuring out how tall our posts have to be... they have to go all the way to the ground, ya know!

So we have to figure out the heights of the concrete footings. We got a small-time laser level and built our own transom (I think it's called) with a long 1x1, a measuring tape strapped to the side of it, and a little post leveling device we had from the yurt building period. By setting the laser level on one footing, we can easily tell the height difference by seeing where it hits the measuring tape on the 'plumbed' stick. I built a white background piece of plywood stand so we can find the laser during the day. You can see the laser level sitting on the closer footing here:

The New Chisels

Moving into the next phase, I ordered some fancy chisels for the timber frame project. These are like $100 a piece. You can see the size by the quarter between the top two. Turns out though, the bottom one is a 2" wide, and I need a 1.5". Now I have to send it back. sheesh.

Snow!

The snow started coming down last night around 9pm, and started sticking to the top of the yurt right away. We watched the dome slowly cover over:



and got up the next morning to a white meadow!


It's a wet, heavy, sloppy snow, so we're not trying too hard to work today. Making mortar in this stuff would be cold on your fingers.

More Excitement in Compost!

Continuing my ever expanding quest for the best compost, I've expanded the garden & kitchen waste compost pile so I can easily flip it over for stirring. Now I can just use the pitchfork and toss it from one side of the bin to the other, allowing air to mix in for faster decomposition. Fun!