3-1-06

Brandon then asked if I'd seen enough, then handed me the saws and pointed to the other end. Took a few errors but I got the hang of it. Brandon also told me to hand cut a mortis, just to give me an idea of how difficult they are to make.

The best part of the day was when he showed me how to sharpen chisels to a mirror finish. Very useful.

3-1-06

After showing promise at pulling nails, I was promoted to almost-useful and given the task of reinforcing the storage shed. In the shed, we will put the "mill ends," pieces of full length lumber that are too small to be beams but could be useful in the future. 1x8's, 2x10's etc. 

Quickly promoted to semi-useful, Brandon gave a demo on how to make the tenons. It took Brandon about 30 minutes to make the one tenon. Of course, he was explaining everything to me, showing off his cool tools and letting me take pictures.

3-2-06

We are done pulling nails! At least for this batch of logs. So far, we've pulled nails on one log truck full of beams and we have a good start on milling them.

The top picture shows the beams we have milled so far. Most of them are cut to a specific size. Brandon, or the person running the mill, makes four cuts, squaring the beam. Then comparing the dimensions to the plans, they cut the beam to the correct size.

The bottom picture shows Mans lining up the blade to cut the top off the beam.

3-2-06

In order to get the permit process started, we had to remove the oven and stove. On Thursday afternoon, Rolf and I disconnected the oven and stove and got rid of it. We will probably but a few shelved where the oven was and maybe a chopping block where the stove was. That night, I had a bit of trouble cooking.

3-8-06

Another load relocating to Bell. Looks like lots of nails.

The original plan was to have the builder of the house de-nail and mill the beams. But after they saw how many nails the company decided that they didn’t want anything to do with it. So Rolf and Terra Nova will de-nail and mill the beams, then ship them to Canada were the builders will construct the house.

After the frame is complete, they will put the beams in reverse order back onto log trucks and ship them back to Orcas. Once everything is ready on Bell, one truck at a time will be barged to Bell were each piece will be removed by crane and bolted in place. Then the next beam will be placed. A bit of planning required but it should be the easiest way.