Hello everyone! I had originally planned the first couple of posts would be flashbacks of some of the early experiences on the homestead to catch everyone up on how we got to this point. Those posts are coming, however, this last week on the homestead we hit a very big milestone and I couldn’t deny you my excitement!
The goal/plan for the week was quite simple. Finish cutting down enough saplings to finish building our wood and tool shed addition. A week seemed like plenty of time since I only needed about twenty saplings, and they are small enough to take down with a hatchet. Having used the easiest to find to build the outhouse last year, I wasn’t quite sure how long I would need to search for suitable sized saplings. If I got done early, I would work on finding out if I could move and stack the cabin logs by myself with hand tools – a question that has been weighing on my mind since the trees were taken down last fall. The cabin logs could wait a couple of weeks if they needed to though. Cold weather is coming quickly, and it would be nice to have plenty of dry firewood for the months ahead.
I had originally tried to protect the firewood from water by storing it under a plastic tarp, only to find it still starting to rot because there is so much moisture in the air. I needed something to protect it from the rain and also allow some airflow. It just so happened that I also needed to extend the roof and build a wall to better protect the sides of the shed shack from snow build up. We get up to the homestead extremely infrequently in the winter right now and the snow accumulation can get crazy pretty quickly. After a few designs, we settled on a wall that could be built pretty quickly using saplings about the size of the saplings I used last year on the outhouse. Here is the first side we put up a couple of weeks ago that we will duplicate on the other side:
We found out with the first wall that when my wife is there to help we can get it done about ten times faster than I can alone. I may be dumb, but I’m not stupid. I’ll happily just collect the saplings this week, and wait until the next time she is up there with me for us put it up together 🙂 She would be up there in the next month for sure so we had some time. The search turned out to be easier than I thought, and by Wednesday morning I had collected all the saplings I needed!
It’s hard to complain when you get to wander around and check out these gorgeous wildflowers during your breaks
I was heading home Friday morning, so I had a day and a half to see if I could move a log. I know one log seems like a very small goal, but I had some serious doubts that I could move these logs by myself. Last fall when the trees were taken down, I tried to lift up a very small tree and came nowhere close to being able to lift it. I still figured I could make something work with tools, but a lot more doubt was in my mind than I wanted. The logs need to start properly drying, and I needed to know if I could move them with hand tools or if a little extra power needed to be arranged.
We plan to use these logs for the guest cabin, and the current design is 18′ x 16′. I need to leave 2′ extra on each end, so half of the wall logs need to be 22’ minimum in length. The roof logs need to be even longer and the straightest logs out of the bunch. I think 26′ will be needed on those, but the longer the better.
I had to spend a couple of hours cutting and stacking some damaged logs that were blocking my access to the cabin logs. They will still provide a lot of firewood so I wanted them stacked properly as well so they could begin drying. Towards the end of finishing this up the skies started to darken, and it looked like it might rain. It was forecast at only about a 5% chance of rain, so I figured I would roll those dice. I guess the universe decided that I was to be done for the day. The rain came on slow and light at first, but was a pretty good downpour during the peak. In warmer weather it would have been a welcomed relief, but it was only ~50 F (10 C) which makes the rain rather unpleasant. Slightly defeated and very cold, I would have to wait until tomorrow to see if I could move the log.
I had about an hours worth of cleanup still before I could get to the logs but by mid morning I was ready to go! Cutting the first log to length with an axe went pretty smoothly. Before I knew it, it was time to grab the cant hook and give it a go! For those who don’t know, a cant hook is essentially a flexible hook on a pole that helps give you leverage to roll the log. It’s quite incredible the difference it makes being such a simple tool. I slowly worked at rolling the log, and since it was fairly straight it actually was not too hard! Getting it up on the drying logs was a little different story, but some roughly made ramps finally got the first cabin log off the ground and starting to dry!! 🙂
To finish off the day, I ended up getting three more logs moved! They ranged in end diameters from 9″ to 13.5″ and lengths from 21′ to 25′. The diameters listed above include the bark, so this will be reduced when we peel that off.
While knowing that I know I can move most of the logs I need by myself is great, I still have quite the task ahead of me. Here is a picture of the pile that I pulled the first four logs from. I have two more piles like this, and if possible I would like to get through them before there is too much snow to work through.
So a huge moment on the homestead and plenty of hard work ahead of us for the next couple of months! If you are looking for a good workout, just hit me up 😀