Notching in and levelling floor joists

I want this cabin to start rising so badly! Before I could do any more work on the walls I had to build something to stand on. The next step was to install floor joists for what will eventually be the floor. I can’t complete the floor until the cabin is roofed in, but with the joists there, I can step on them and use them as a platform to build the walls. I cheated on this step and went to the lumber yard to buy up some 2x6s. I could have cut smaller logs and notched them in, but I got lazy on this part. I was so anxious to just get it done that I went ahead and bought some milled lumber. This isn’t keeping with the wholly hand-build goal I had, but I’ll just have to be reconciled with that.

Making sure the joist is level across

To install the floor joists, I measured across the middle and 4 inches deep into each side base log.  This gave me the length to cut the 2x6 joist. 

Notching the log one cut at a time

I cut a notch into each side base log and one notch in the middle one and leveled them so the joist would sit straight and level.  Then I measured and cut the next set of notches so it was not only level across, but level with the previous joist.  This ensured a smooth level floor. 

Joist sitting solidly in the notch

Each notch was cut one chainsaw width at a time, then carved out with a chisel and mallet. The job went slowly but my system worked out well. 

Level!

When the last joist was laid in place, I put the level across different boards and angles and every time was level and true! 

Now that I have the floor joists in place, I have sure footing for the next step in the process: raising the walls! Stay tuned in for a blog post about the joys and dangers of raising walls, one log at a time!

Halfway done with the joists

Raising the base logs

So the last time I posted a blog, I was pulling strings to make level guides for cinder block foundation posts. A whole lot has happened since then. Most notably, multiple trips to Lowes for cinder blocks and mortar, multiple weeks of mixing, lifting, setting, measuring, leveling and hauling those blocks. I wore through two pair of leather work gloves and all of my t-shirts.  There was a 2 week trip to Minnesota for work, many days off due to rain and a broken winch cable. However since that time I have raised 11 cinder block pillars, laid the base logs into position, and set the floor joists. 

I found that I could only lay, at most, 2 layers of block at a time as the mortar would squeeze under the weight of more. The first few days I could lay and set a layer at each pillar position and by the time I got back to the first the mortar was dry enough to continue.  Being as they’re on a hillside, the pillars are all different lengths and as I finished the smaller ones I had fewer and fewer to work on. Now my mortar wasn’t dry enough to continue when I made a full round so I had to wait to continue.  It seemed the work went slower and slower but eventually every one stood tall and straight.  To my great surprise and pleasure, all but one pillar were right on-the-money level. I don’t know what happened with that one but it was easily remedied with a concrete cap stone.

Once the mortar cured for a bit (and by bit I mean a week or two) it was time to raise the base logs. These are the largest logs in the building. They sit on the very bottom of the walls and create the base upon which the walls are stacked. They each measure over 20 feet long and the largest is over 2 feet thick at its base. These logs were moved into position at the base of the foundation pillars, some of which are 8 feet tall, in order to then hoist them to the top. Using an Arctic Cat with its winch and chains, I was able to pull the logs pretty close to the pillars. Because they were so heavy that even the 4-wheeler couldn’t pull them, sometimes I had to thread the winch cable through a block pulley mounted on a tree and pull the opposite way.  The pulley was a huge boon and made the job a lot more manageable.  At one point I needed to turn the largest log to aim it down hill and in line with the pillars.  Not thinking I wrapped a chain around one of the pillars and mounted the pulley to it instead of to a tree. As I pulled with the ATV the log didn’t budge, but my weeks of work came crashing down with disconcerting ease--the pillar lay broken on the ground like the statue of Saddam Hussein after the US invasion, and the log remained steadfastly where it lay.   I had to come back with new mortar and rebuild the entire pillar before I could do anything else.

Raising the logs to the pillars turned out to be a job for more than one person.  I listened to the voice of reason and recruited help for that task. First I climbed a tree that grows right next to side of the cabin and mounted the block pulley with a chain. Once I got the Arctic Cat maneuvered under the tree I strung the winch cable through it, down to a pulley mounted on the log then back through the block pulley and fastened it to the log. I was expecting a difficult pull but with the 3 pulley system, the log came up pretty easily. Dale and his brother Joel helped to guide and maneuver it while it was suspended and, in no time, it was resting solidly on the foundation.  The other log was much smaller and lighter and the three of us were able to lift it into position with a little effort and little trouble.

Seeing those first logs in position was quite an inspiration. For a year I’ve been doing all this work on a LOG cabin and no logs were going down and no walls were going up. It was great to see those base logs sitting there ready for the walls to start rising. But first I’d have to build a floor …

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Breaking ground!

I haven’t written anything on here in a long time about the cabin. That cabin is the biggest first challenge to overcome and will also stand as the first major milestone in turning this homestead utopian dream into a living farm. Living on the land will be the first step in accomplishing all sorts of other projects including the majority of animal husbandry that I’m interested in.  Shortly put, living on the land is the first step toward living off the land. That cabin has to go up.

After looking at the slope of the land, I discovered to my chagrin that I’d need to build up pillars at certain points as a foundation and leveling agent for the base of the cabin.  Eleven pillars of cinder block at measured points along the walls and in the center as support for the walls must be erected before log stacking can begin.  The pillars along the bottom obviously need to be higher than those toward the top of the hill.

Staking out strings

With the help of my friend Danny, a fantastic gardener and natural living enthusiast, I cut some stakes, got some string and a line level and set to gridding out the footprint of my cabin. Let me tell you there is a huge difference between imagining 12’x20’ and seeing it laid out in actuality. It was really exciting to see the site, size and layout of my cabin!  After the site was mapped out with string, I measured to the middle of the shorter wall and placed a wooden stake; I then measured 8’ down the length of where the long walls will stand and placed a stake.  Another 8’ after that with stakes in the centers and I had the placement for my pillars.

After mapping out where the cabin would sit, we could actually begin breaking ground. This is not to be confused with ground breaking work. It was just digging, scooping dirt, digging out the roots of trees that were in the way and generally getting very sweaty and dirty.   As I was chopping away brush to start digging at one spot, I felt a pain in my wrist followed by the tell tale buzz of angry bees.  Apparently, this little piece of property was already claimed as a home for a nest of yellow jackets. I felt another sting in the soft part of my arm just above the inside of my elbow and the buzzing was uncomfortably close to my face.  A marionette in the hands of an epileptic puppeteer would not rival the jerking, swinging, terrified dance (and subsequent flight) that ensued.  While I understand that my current endeavor is under the auspices of the natural, traditional way of building and living, sometimes situations call for modern chemical warfare.   The traditional mountain method of getting rid of yellow jackets is to hang a fish above a pan of water and wait for them to fall off the fish and drown.  The other tried and true method in this neck of the woods is to douse the entire area with gasoline. It’s your choice whether or not to light it. In light of these options, I went with the Raid. I can say with certainty that nothing eases the pain of multiple bee stings like emptying can after can of industrial strength poison on the offender’s nest.

Levelling strings

Once the war was over, building could begin again! In order to make the floor of the cabin level, I knew that I’d have to design a system to dig the holes all appropriate depths.  I decided that I’d measure everything off of the corner that was highest in elevation.  Once the lines were totally level I could measure down from the string to the base of the hole, subtract for gravel and for concrete and divide by the height of a cinder block and mortar, which is 8”.  Basically I needed the depth of the holes be at equal depths so that the pillars would be level at the top, no matter how many cinder blocks were used. Once that was figured out I went back to all the holes, measured and either dug out 4-6 more inches or filled in a couple inches.

A huge surprise came when I got those strings all nice and level. The top string was only a couple inches off the ground. When I went down to the bottom, I was reaching above my head just to reach the string! When I measured, it turns out that the bottom pillars are going to require upwards of 10 cinder block rows.  That means that I’m going to have to hoist the very first logs above my head to put them in place.  Another challenge, I guess. The nice bit is that I’ll have a cellar almost premade once the cabin is built.

After all twelve holes were the appropriate depth; we poured gravel and inserted wire reinforcements before pouring the concrete. Megan, the lovely editor of this blog and log peeler extraordinaire came up from Fond du Lac, WI to visit and I set her immediately to work peeling logs, digging holes, pouring gravel, and setting the wire reinforcement for the concrete foundations.  I like to offer an alternative vacation opportunity for those souls not interested in traditional notions of vacation. I’m calling it eco-constructo-tourism. 

These last few weeks have been a halting procession towards progress.  I’ve been mixing concrete and pouring footings a few at a time, as I can afford to buy materials.  However, at this writing, all the footings are poured and cured! I’m ready at long last to go vertical! Building walls and using the logs that were cut and stripped months ago is a ways off yet, but I will be building vertical starting this week! I’ve already bought the cinder block and mortar for the first layer of blocks. I can’t wait to get those done and tackle the ensuing challenges that raising the logs will bring.  Though it’s August, I can feel Old Man Winter breathing down my neck and I know that I’m running out of time.  

Since bringing the girls to the house it has been a constant learning experience.  They are wonderful! They play and eat and sleep and are just so darn cute! Being bottle fed they seem to regard me as the herd leader and will follow wherever I walk. No need to call or herd them. They just seem to not want to be alone so they traipse after me. They nibble and butt at my fingers and legs. Padua has taken to jumping and climbing and is becoming quite the parrot!

Part of this learning curve revolves around health. These babies are right in the middle of the weaning cycle. They get bottle fed every morning and every evening but each week we drop the dose just a bit to encourage them to forage and graze for food. This is the normal procedure and it works out quite well as there is plenty of brush and brambles for them to nosh on.  What I forgot to take into account is that as babies, their little digestive systems aren’t ready for all the nutrient rich leaves that grow in spring.  Lady Marguerite was the first to get a bit glassy eyed and lethargic. She wouldn’t eat or drink and just stood around looking incredibly uncomfortable. 

After research and thought and observation I came to the understanding that the poor thing was constipated. In goats this can also pair with something called bloat. This isn’t the same bloat as a human might get and in babies it is quite serious and can lead to death.  Needless to say, I was very worried.  I never in my life anticipated that I would be so interested in another creature’s bowel movement.  I made an enema of warm water, olive oil, and mild soap and administered it.  I massaged and rubbed her belly trying to help any blockage along. After the third application of the enema, what seemed to be a huge rock hard blockage was pushed out.  After seeing the backed up traffic that was released I can definitely understand why Lady Marguerite looked so uncomfortable!  I force fed her baking soda to counter-act any gaseous buildup in her rumen and the next day she was bright eyed, bushy tailed, and eager to eat again! Since then, Tink also became bloated and the same “cure” was applied. It didn’t have the same effect and I worried it might be something different, but again it took only a day for her to be back on her food and hopping around!  

As much as I’d like to let the little ladies free range and eat all the tasty leaves and brush they just can’t handle it yet.  Dale built a fantastic wire manger that hangs on the inside of the pen and we bought some good quality hay for them to browse. It doesn’t have nearly the richness that the fresh spring growth does and we’re hoping it won’t affect their little systems too much.  I still let them out for an hour or so in the evening to eat brush and so far cutting them back to that has proven effective as they are happy, healthy and growing like the weeds they so love to nibble!

Three little ladies join the team

Recently there were three new additions to the homestead. I'm pleased to introduce you all to the three little ladies that will be the cornerstone of a hopefully growing herd of brush busting, milk gushing, dairy goats.

Lady Marguerite exploring the van

"Hello, my name is Lady Marguerite Chevre. Its a pleasure to meet you!"Lady Marguerite is a full blood Saanen.  She was born April 27, 2011 and is the oldest of the sisters and appears to be assuming the dominant role.

Tink on the ride home

"Hi! I'm Tink! Well, actually my names Bernice Beauregard, but I don't like it so I go by Tink. Pleased to meet'cha!" Tink is another full blood Saanen. She was born May 3, 2011 to "the Cadillac of milk goats" as the farmer from whom we got the girls called her mother. Due to bloodlines, I look forward to her being a great milker.

Padua on the box near the shelter

"Hi. My name's Padua! Nice to meet all of y'all"  Padua is a mix of Nubian, Boer, and Saanen. She was born May 4, 2011. With a good amount of Nubian, Padua will probably produce less milk than the other 2 but the butterfat content will be much higher for a better quality product. Also if bred with a Boer, her offspring will be the best for meat goats.

Apparently everyone is queen of the mountain

The little ladies are getting adjusted to their new home and have already begun tearing into the brush and forage in what was a very inhospitable part of the property. While they won’t be bred for at least another year and a half, it looks like they are already paying their way by keeping that brushy area clean and cropped! We've given them a few things to climb and play on and a little shed next to the house to hunker down and stay dry at night. We couldn't be happier to have them and they seem to be pretty happy with the arrangement as well. 

Hearing their little voices from the back adds a wonderful new tone to the sounds of the house and never fails to make me smile.  They are friendly, adorable, and curious and they love to have company. Whenever I leave the pen they cry and bleat and generally anounce their displeasure and they come running, back legs kicking whenever they see me approach.  There's a little sample in the video above.

I hope you all enjoy seeing the girls as much as I do. I'm sure new pictures and videos will be taken and uploaded pretty regularly.  They are little now but they grow quickly and I'll keep everyone updated on them as they grow and change!

Constructive Destruction

From an early age I have been an advocate for maintaining a sustainable relationship with nature.  For my 6th birthday my grandmother gave me a subscription to Ranger Rick magazine. This magazine arrived every month and I eagerly awaited every issue. They always came just in time as the previous one would fall apart from my constant flipping back and forth through the pages.  I did all the puzzles, read all the articles and absorbed and reabsorbed all I could of insects, trees, ecosystems and human’s relationship to nature. “Give a hoot. Don’t pollute” was a mantra and Woody the Owl an idol. Old National Geographic back issues did more than the threat of the lash to keep me completely silent in waiting rooms, and watching Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom narrated by Marty Stouffer was a special and savored treat.  These outside influences, paired with my proximity to forests over my young years, served to create a budding young naturalist. Now here I am many years later at odds with nature, hacking and sawing my way through trees that were saplings when I was reading all about protecting forests and natural habitats.


When I stand among the trees on this sliver of West Virginia mountainside with chainsaw, axe and drawknife, I feel the spirit of this place looking on.  Does it shake its head with disapproval and sadness?  Am I the burning, felling threat humans so often have become?  I would like to think that I am working towards restoration and benevolent management.  When those trees fell and when I attack the fallen timbers and brush with blades and chains, I can’t help but feel like I’m destroying the very spirit that I’ve always fought to protect and respect. No matter how much good you do, the sound of a chainsaw explodes the wonder and silence of forest at peace.

Peeling bark with a drawknife

The bark of a tree is its skin. It is the barrier which separates its inner core from the outside world. It is armor against weather, infestation, distress, and abrasion. When a tree has fallen the bark works in quite the opposite way. It traps moisture next to the wood, creates havens for bugs, and increases the speed of decomposition. These are no good if the wood is to be used for any sort of long term building application.  I have to remove the bark for proper drying, rot prevention, insect discouragement, and of course, aesthetic appeal. To make a protection for myself from the elements I must first destroy the trees’ version of the same.
Now we’ve got conflict. I need the bark off. The tree doesn’t want to give it up.  The tree has spent years, its whole life in fact, growing thicker and thicker bark and it is quite attached. It is a formidable defense system that is none too easy to penetrate, but I have opposable thumbs, steel tools, and a stubborn streak that rivals an oak.

To build the cabin I need a minimum of 40 logs. The cabin is a simple one room affair 16’x12’. I’ll need logs of those dimensions plus 7 logs 20’ long. These larger logs will serve as the foundation logs, eave logs, purlins, and a ridge log for the top.  That will give me 192 square feet of floor space, a loft for sleeping and a 4’x12’ covered porch out front.  Last autumn I felled enough trees to produce the required building logs and left them over winter to dry and cure. You can build a cabin with “green” or uncured logs, but over time they’ll shrink as they dry creating lots of work chinking and sealing the spaces that the shrinkage leaves. Now comes the battle. Armed with a small camp axe and a drawknife I went to work peeling logs. The work seemed easy at first as the drawknife cut quickly through the outer bark. I thought it would take approximately 15 minutes per log. Only later did I realize that the toughest layers lay deeper in and I was nowhere close to being done. As it happens, I’m spending almost an hour per log carefully working the bark off in strips.

Some peeled logs

Each log seems to be an individual. Some release their bark almost willingly, the head of my axe sliding between the wood and the fibrous membrane with ease and large long strip peeling away to reveal the white wet wood beneath. Some, on the other hand, fight every inch of the way and leave my hands, back, arms and shoulders sore with effort.  I feel sometimes as though I’ve lost as much skin as the logs have. The sound of a good strip peeling away is a satisfying “zip” that leaves a long flexible strap of bark and a smile of accomplishment!


Along with peeling the logs is a possibly more challenging feat. I have to skid them from their resting places on the side of the mountain, deep in forested territory, to the building site that I’ve (somewhat) cleared.  The grade of the land is steep and it is completely covered in small to large trees along with underbrush.  As luck would have it, the largest of the logs were situated the farthest from the building site. I worked and worked with chain and come-along and could move those monsters about 6 inches! I needed to get them about 200 yards up the mountain.  A come-along just isn’t the tool for this job.  

Skidding with the Arctic Cat

With the power of a Jeep Rubicon, an Arctic Cat 500 with a winch, and Dale’s help we managed to grab and skid 7 of these monster timbers up above the site and stack em.  It still took us all day to do that amount of work.  When they were stacked, we were exhausted, the winch worn out and road had been turned into mud pit. No, a come-along isn’t the tool for this job.  The job is by no means done. I’ve got 15-20 logs to skid to the site still. Then I’ll have to arrange them and get situated to start the stacking! I can’t express how eager I am to get those logs down and watch those walls rise!


I want to work with this land. The stars know I can’t work against it. My vision for this land is one of mutual benefit, diverse landscapes and micro-ecosystems, and sadly, that involves what amounts to clear cutting much of the timber that currently makes its home on these slopes.  I can only reconcile these by using every last scrap of brush, log, and root.  I’ll need it for compost, construction, and fencing.  I can only hope that this meager justification calms the child in me that can’t help but disapprove of the destruction that must occur before the building and healing can begin.

Sugar makin!

Sugar camp

The first time I remember eating maple syrup was in New Hampshire around 1981. My family lived at a small collective and one of my earliest memories was a pancake breakfast.  This was no ordinary fund-raiser or church get together. This was THE syrup breakfast.  We all bundled up and headed to the big lot where the men had set up what I’ve come to learn was a sugar shack.  It was basically a rectangular pole structure with a roof and open sides. Under the roof was a giant square pan with a wood fire burning underneath. Men stirred what was in the pan with spoons the size of canoe paddles and it smelled like a diabetic heaven!   All the local maples had been tapped and collected for days and the sap was cooking down into syrupy goodness. My family didn’t stay long in New Hampshire but my Dad still won’t eat maple syrup unless it is the100% real deal from NH or VM. I won't either. I guess some things learned just stay with you.

Collecting sap

Making maple syrup requires a lot of work and a lot of waiting. For the small producer or the hobbyist, the factors that are beyond control far outweigh the controllables.   It’s a lesson in patience.
You can’t make the trees run;  you can’t make the wind stop; you can’t make the temperature fluctuate in just the right way.  Once you have the sap collected and the fire burning, you can’t make it boil any faster.  There’s work involved for sure, and after just 3 days of “sugar makin” I was exhausted. But with as much work as is involved, there’s still plenty of time to sit and reflect and just enjoy the elements, the process and people that are with you.

Sugar camp coffee

Mornings were a routine that I could sure get used to!  The quickening of the forest acted as an alarm. Birds, squirrels, and on this trip one deer (!) moving about beginning their day stirred the blood in me. We enjoyed breakfasts of thick slab bacon and eggs with toast cooked over a campfire with a good pot of camp coffee as the world warmed.  When temperatures are right for sap to flow it drops to below freezing all night then warms throughout the day. If the temperatures are warm during the night and rise too high during the day like they do later in the spring, buds start to form and the sap is worthless for sugar making. It is bitter and sugar makers call it "buddy sap" Even thought the temp drops below freezing, trickles of sap still end up in the jugs and those are frozen solid until the sun has had time to work its magic.  There was no sense in punching a clock and rushing to the office. The office was frozen.

Building the pan

Building the pan in which to boil down the sap was a marvel! I’d heard descriptions from Dale’s mom, Wanna about how she had built pans and then had careless watchers burn them up when the fire got too high. She went into good detail about how they were built but I never really wrapped my mind around the concept until Dale and I put one together.   It’s a simple concept, but one that required 2 days of labor and some consternation.  Boat builders must share the frustration I felt at trying to create a water tight seal with wood metal and nails. Trust me folks, it ain’t easy! It’s simple. It’s not easy. Between building a 50 gallon pan from raw materials and lugging gallons and gallons of sap from trees to our holding container we passed the days until we had enough sap to start cooking.

Watch the fire!

There’s one rule to cooking the syrup: Watch the fire.  Its hungry, its temperamental, it is the major factor in how fast or slow your water cooks down, and if it gets to high you ruin the pan you just spent 2 days and some busted knuckles building. Watch the fire.

Filtering

Once the sap was cooked down from 50 gallons to about 2 over the fire we strained the syrup/sap into a pot big enough to accommodate its boil and brought it inside.  It’s a lot easier to control the heat on a range, and when the syrup boils down that much it’s easy to go too far and end up with a scorched black mess if you're still over an open fire.

There was a lot of sediment from the trees pith and the syrup was really cloudy at this point. The research that I did all pointed toward filtering and decanting as the method for clarification.  All this filtering and decanting is a time consuming process.  I decided to use a technique I’ve used many times for clarifying stock: slowly simmering egg whites in the pot.  As the egg whites coagulate they trap all the sediment and rise to the top where once the clarification is complete the “raft” can be scooped off and added to the compost bin or given to the dogs for a sweet eggy treat. Using the egg white raft worked like a charm and the syrup ended crystal clear! Let me tell you though, The cooked egg white raft with all the impurities in it looks mighty disgusting! I'm glad I used that method cause it took a lot of really gross looking detritus out of the product!

Clarifying with an egg raft

When the syrup boiled at a temperature 7 degrees higher than water boiling the sugar content was at the right level and the syrup was done. Then we poured the (now) maple syrup into jars and sealed them. Syrup is done and two weekends of work and 100 gallons of sap resulted in 8 pints and 6 half pints of sticky goodness.

This process has been amazing! I expected to learn a lot and have a good time and I was not disappointed. It is hard work but good work. Its relaxing but exhausting. I don't know how anyone could make a decent wage with all the work and fuel that is involved in making just a very little bit of syrup. I guess the techniques available now are far better engineered and more efficient than our tiny operation but I definitely understand why real syrup is SO expensive. Seen from this angle store bought syrup is not expensive at all. It made me think about modern America's relationship to sugar and yesteryear's relationship with the same. Back in the day, these 3-4 weeks provided almost the entire supply of sugar for the year! It was a hugely important process on the homestead or farm.  It created a respect for sugar and syrup because you just couldn't get it anywhere else. You couldn't just go loading down everything with cheap sugar because it didn't exist.  No small wonder diabetes and obesity just weren't a problem on the American frontier.   I can imagine that a bit cooked down to candy for a once-a-year treat would be a very special thing for children in that era.  It seems silly to say, but this syrup is rather precious to me.

100% WV maple syrup!