07-29-13

I just finished 11 days at the cabin. AWESOME!!
The plan was to work on getting a roof over the porch of the cabin.  
It was very hot up at Boonville with temps in the high 90’s and low 100’s so I could only work for a few hours in the morning while it was still somewhat cool. The rest of the time I spent sitting in the shade if there was a breeze or down at the creek with my feet in the water reading.

Below is a summery of my activities.

 

Thursday; 

I arrived at the Cabin around 10:30 Thursday morning.
By the time I got everything moved into the cabin it was getting too hot to do any work.
I hadn’t planned on doing any work today anyway so I just hung out and enjoyed being in the woods.

Friday;

The day started off kind of cool with a little morning fog.
I got to work on today’s project around 9:00.
I am planning to put a tin roof on the cabin porch.
The first project is to build an annex on the side of the porch to move the refrigerator to.
The first thing I had to do was remove the boom that was affixed to the side of the porch. The boom is there to hold up the present awning. I had to move a few things ie, a barbeque, the control battery for the fridge, a garbage can and a couple of propane bottles, in order to get to the bolt that holds the boom.
Therefore I was walking back and forth quite a bit.
I removed the bolt and moved the boom out of the way.
Just as I was moving the boom I noticed a small Rattle snake curled up at my feet just inches away.

  
I am amazed that I hadn’t stepped on the snake while I was moving stuff or that it didn’t strike while I was taking out the lag bolt. My hand wasn’t more than eight inches away from it.
The only reason I can think of was that it was just too cold for the snake to move. If it had been in the heat of the day I probably would have been bitten and would be sending this blog from the hospital.
I decided to put a large rock over the snake so it would be covered and wouldn’t bother me while I did my work.
Oops!
Oh darn!
I dropped the rock. Oh well I guess the snake won’t be bothering me now.

The snake was pretty young and only had one button.

Once I took care of the snake problem I started on the annex.
The first thing was to find some lumber that would work.
I got the wheelbarrow. Carefully turning it right side up and making sure there were no snakes hiding under it. Then I went over to to the lumber pile behind the dining hall. I carefully pulled out some boards keeping an eye out for snakes. You might say I am a little snake shy right now.

After I got the lumber together I started building.
The first thing to do was to cut 4 boards to build the frame.
I pulled the generator out of the van so I could use my skill saw. I tried several times to start the generator without success.

Finally I decided to just use my hand saw to cut the boards. When that was done I screwed the frame together and installed it.

  
My cordless drill’s were working pretty hard and by the time I had the frame together my newest one was barely working.
I also had to cut several more boards for the floor of the annex. I needed some electricity.
It was time to find out why the generator wasn’t working.
After monkeying with it for about half an hour, I realized that the problem was that the generator was low on oil. I topped of the oil and the generator started right up.

I carefully scrounged up some more lumber for the floor of the annex and cut and installed the floor.

 

After I moved the fridge onto the annex I was done with that project.

I still have to build an enclosure for the fridge.

By then it was too hot to do any more work so I had lunch and after a short nap I headed for the creek.
Unfortunately my work wasn’t done yet.
I had to cut a downed tree off the road to the grove. Fortunately I had my chain saw in the van and it finally started after about a dozen pulls.
As soon as I got to the swimming hole I waded in to cool off.

  
I hung out at the creek until around 5:00 then headed back up to the cabin.

Saturday;

The next thing to do on the roof project was to make a “peeling horse” so I could peel logs for the posts, rafters and rails.

I found a large section of a fir tree laying along the side of the road so I hooked a chain from the trailer hitch on the van to the tree and drug it home.

The log had been laying around for a couple of years so the bark was pretty loose and mostly came off while I was dragging it down the road. 

The next thing was to drill some 1-1/2 inch holes in the log for the legs to fit into. I had to use a 1-1/2 inch hand auger to drill the holes as that is the only drill I have of that size.

This it slow work and I took several breaks before I finally got it done.

Once the holes were drilled I had to find something to use for legs. I decided to use Tan Oak saplings for this as there are a lot of Tan Oak’s around. I cut a couple of small trees down and then I cut them to length.

Next, I had to shape the ends of them to fit the holes that I had drilled in the fir log.

  

After I got the legs pounded in

I went to the creek for a dip.

Sunday;

Some time during the night my refrigerator had stopped working. The propane tank on it ran out of gas. Fortunately I had a back up tank so I changed it over and that got the fridge working again.

Just as I was finishing my morning shower the propane tank on the shower water heater ran out.

I decided to finish the peeling horse, then go to Philo (about 10 miles away) for propane. There is a gas station in Philo that sells propane and kerosene. He is usually closed on Tuesday so I figured that he might be open on Sunday.

The first thing to do on the horse was to get it up on it’s feet. That was kind of tricky since it was too heavy for me to lift. I could only manage to lift one end.
What I did was to lift one end and set it on a saw horse then lifting the other end I rolled it over and set it on its feet.

 

The next thing to do was to drill more holes. This time they were 1-1/4 inch holes for pegs to hold the logs to be peeled in place and a couple for stops. This was a little easier than the the leg holes since they were smaller and the log was sitting at waste height .

By the time I was done with the holes and had some pegs made it was too hot to do any more work.

I had lunch and loaded the two empty propane tanks in the van and headed down off the hill for Philo to get them filled.
Unfortunately the gas station in Philo was closed so that was a wasted trip. I almost decided to go all the way to Ukiah but changed my mind and decided that it would be better to come back to Philo tomorrow. 

Monday;

Right after breakfast this morning I headed back to Philo to get the propane. This time I was successful.

When I got back to the cabin I started peeling the fir poles for the rafters.

After they were peeled I cut them to length.

Then I peeled the redwood logs for the support posts.

By then it was way too hot to continue so I had lunch took a short nap then went to the creek for the rest of the day.

Tuesday;

The first thing to do today was to set the posts on the corners of the porch.
I used a plumb bob to get them “plumb” and braced them in place.

After that I cut the ridge pole to length then figured out where the notches were to go.

I figured that I wanted 2-1/2 inches of wood above the top of the posts so I measured on the thick end of the ridge pole and drew a line across the end using a level. Keeping the pole in the same position I drew a corresponding line on the opposite end of the pole.

Then using a chock line I popped a line the length of the pole on each side.

That gave me the depth of the notches and lined them up.
To make the notches I laid the pole on the deck of the porch against the posts and marked where the notches were to go.
I used a hand saw to make several cuts down to the chock line.

Then I broke the wood out with a hammer and used a chisel to clean up the notch.

I set the ridge pole on the posts, screwed it in place.

After that I had lunch and went to the creek.

Wednesday;

This mornings chore was to notch and install the rafters. I used a similar method to make the notches in the rafters as that which was used to do the ridge pole except that the notches in the rafters had to be rounded to fit the ridge.
This took a lot longer than the square notches in the ridge pole did. There is a lot more meticulous measuring to be done as well as more chiseling and rasping to get the notches to fit. Unfortunately my notches didn’t come out as tight as some others I have seen done but they work.

Just as I was finishing the first rafter, Joanne and Dave showed up with 7 year old Cody, a boy Joanne baby sits.

It was a good excuse to take a break so we sat around and visited for a while.
After a bit Joanne and Cody took a walk, Dave went down and puttered around their camp.
I took that opportunity to make another rafter.

Eventually Joanne and Dave took Cody to the creek.

After they left I had lunch and took a short nap. Later that day I made another rafter.
Three done only two more to go.

   

Thursday;

In the morning I got the last two rafters in place.

 

I was kind of tired from all the heat and work of the last couple of days so I decided to take it easy for the rest of the day. There was a nice breeze blowing so I spent much of the day sitting in the shade reading.

After supper I drove over the mountain to the south side so I could get a cell lock and called Patti.
She had just gotten home from her trip to Redmond, Oregon.
We talked for a while and decided what she needed to bring up with her for Friday and Saturday nights supper.

Friday;

Patti came up around 11:00. by then I had 
finished most of the frame work for the porch roof. I attached a couple of 1X6’s across the rafters for something to screw the tin to. I was short one piece of 1X6 to finish the framework.

We had lunch around noon and then we went to the creek.

Saturday;

I started working on the rails for the porch after breakfast.
In the picture below you can see the 1X6’s that I mentioned.

I got the rails installed by lunch time.

  
After lunch and a nap we went to the creek.
While we were at the creek we picked up a couple of redwood branches that I wanted to use for decorative pieces on the rails.
On the way back to the cabin we stopped at the wood pile and I scrounged another piece of 1X6.

Sunday;

I had one short post to put up on the right side of the stairs to the porch so I started on that right after breakfast. Once that was done I began adding the decorative pieces to the rails.

 

By Noon it was too hot to continue so we had lunch.
After lunch we loaded Patti’s car and cleaned up the cabin in preparation for going home. We left the cabin around 2:00 and were back in SRO around 3:30.

It was quite a productive 11 days despite the extremely hot weather and the fact that I could only work for a few hours each day.

I still have a little more decorative work to do and the tin still needs to be installed but then the porch roof will be done. 
That will have to wait until my the next trip to the cabin.