Sept 26th - Logs, Of Course

The weather is holding and thank God it's not raining. It’s quite cold in the mornings but by lunch time we are down to T-shirts and we all are very much enjoying the sunshine. It does wonders for how much you can get done.

Pat and I started on the laying down the first course of logs for the garage. It’s a tricky thing to get started as the bottom row or courses of logs have to fit flat against the foundation wall or the 6x6’s we have installed on the south and north walls. Each wall has been stacked and banded with the bottom log on top and since I had already stacked the logs once back in Iowa, I know how they go together.

These are especially heavy logs, originally cut 150 years ago in the Mississippi Valley near Quincy, Illinois. The logs are red oak, dense and hard. A 6’ long log weighs around 200 pounds! Each log has to be cut to length for new and old window and door openings. The logs never had the bark removed and because of this the powder post beetles had infested the bark as well as just under the bark layers. Using a wire brush disc on the end of a grinder, we remove the powdery and bark surfaces from the top and bottom of the logs.

Next we mark where the holes must be drilled and using Pat’s heavy duty drill and a 16” drill bit we have to drill holes in the area that the all thread will run. This involves drilling some difficult and lengthy holes in each log. Each log, after drilling has to have the bottom surface cut to fit against the bottom plate. This takes considerable time and effort, If you can imagine cutting a 6” nail infested oak timber it's entire length. After hitting a couple of nails while cutting, the carbide saw blade has been destroyed. I am bone tired by the end of the day from lugging and lifting the logs.

Greenbay and Joe have built the entire east wall of the north bedroom. This one wasn’t easy and had to be built in place using scaffolding and ladders. It takes good concentration and a concerted effort to figure the details out before building. Tomorrow they should be ready for installing the ridge and mid-span beams.

Pat also came across my glasses today dropped inside some bunched up plastic. I was glad to find them.