Going, Going, Going... UP!

As the farm jack continues to show it's infinite worth, we kept bringing up the cribs and jacking a bit at a time. It was getting pretty high, and it was a bear getting the jack up and down each one.



Then we hooked up a bunch of ropes to the top beam, put a pulley in a tree and hooked the metal cable to the chain winch and started pulling it up that way.








And then it was UP!











Today we got the post footings in the right spots with some extra winching, and Melissa did all the work of moving the cribs out of the way.

It looks pretty good. And big.

Got it on the ground!

We're now in the position of having the 'feet' on the ground, and *just* need to stand it up. The ropes are hooked up to a metal cable that runs through a pulley in a redwood tree to the north of the house.


The ropes will NOT be enough to pull it up. We'll have to keep pushing from below.


We're also putting the girts in place, so that when the middle section stands up, they'll lock right in. They're heavy too, so that'll take a while to get in place also.

Moved the Cribs, moving the Bent

Melissa reorganized the support cribs yesterday, so that they are now supporting the lower beams, which will give us a good leverage point to pop this thing upright.








we're able to do this in part because it's now at an angle that gets us inside the house, and these cribs should be good enough to get us all the way up.

They're pretty tall, and Melissa did a good job of building them like ladders, so we can climb up and add to the tops as we go.

Moving it higher...

We continue to build up the beams, moving them skyward, while trying not to let anything fall apart.





The farm jack continues to be one of the best tools on the property. There's so much wisdom in doing things 'little by little'. We jack it up a couple inches, then build the 'cribs' out of 2x4s and old scavenged lumber, then re-set the jack and do it again.

Got the Generator hooked up

The fuel filter is attached and not leaking, the fuel lines are cleaned out, and the water tank/radiator is hooked up, full, and not leaking. (yes, that's an old water tank I got from someone for free and painted to match the gen)

Next stop is the alternator!

Bee Stung Dog

Our mighty hunter, who spends much of his afternoons snapping at wasps tangled with a bee yesterday. How do I know, you ask? His lip swelled up something fierce. This picture looks a bit like I'm holding his lip out, but that's just the swelling.




The swelling was pretty much gone by bedtime, and he didn't seem to be in much pain.

How to build a compost pile Water Heater experiement
Really, it's all about the compost.

1. have a spot that's about 3'x3'.


2. Lay down some greens. Could be weeds, but I use leaves from small trees I'm cutting anyway.


3. lay some brown stuff on top of that. I use last week's pile, and dry, fallen leaves. Wet it down. (with waste water, of course)


4. Repeat the layering. Here you can see the sort of branches I use. I just cut off the leaves with a machete, or rip them off by hand.



A close up of last week's stuff.


Here's my experiemental water heater process. This is a 5 gallon jug filled with water, being built into the pile.

5. Cover your finished pile with straw. Here you can see the cap of the jug with a temp gauge in it.



RESULTS SO FAR: after 48 hours in this pile, the water has reached 115 DEGREES! I am so going to use this method to heat my house.

Moving the Bent into position

Melissa and I are getting the bent up to a level plane, which we will then gather neighbors and get their help in tipping it upright.

To get this massive thing up, we're lifting one little bit at a time, with the farm jack, and then sliding some more support wood underneath it.







We've still got a ways to go, but it's slowly climbing up. The worst thing is, we keep running out of junk wood to use as supports!

The Puzzle is going together!

We got the half the upper beam onto the lower beam/post set up. That one upper beam (the log on the left side of the photo) weighs about 600 pounds, and has a taper and two kinds of curve. Melissa did all the markings to compensate for that, and sure enough, it fits together. Took us most of one day to get it this far.





The brown-eyed boys were happy the logs fit together.

Jack does his thing

Jack the Dog has a regular spot under the yurt. He spends the hot part of the day under there.

Working it together

As we piece together this center bent, we're starting to see it take shape and feel like we're moving forward.

In this picture, you can see some of the sort of 'cribs' we have to build to hold up the posts and beams, and you can see the stem wall, which is what we have to work around.

First we're putting on the lower beams, and then we'll cap the posts with the upper beam, parts of which are laying on the left of the photo.