Oct. 17th - Chink it out

Snow, snow and more snow. It started this morning and is still going and will be through the night. It makes it tough to get much done, but we continue on. This will be the last day we have the material handler and material we need at the back of the house gets moved around and restacked. From here on out, we will need to move things by hand and so we want to get everything as close as possible to where we will be needing it.

Pat and R.D. try to finish the Tyvek, but with a slight wind and blowing snow, it's nearly impossible. Greenbay is tending to the lower north cabin and cutting the window openings and installing the upright stanchions that will serve as nailers for the windows and doors to be secured. Cutting the large hole in the front of the house for the new window sure makes a difference in the amount of light. Greenbay starts with my chain saw and a new chain, but after one cut he hits a screw head and now has to use the circular, beam and reciprocating saw to cut the holes. We have to install a channel in the cut surface to strengthen the short sections of wall between the front window and door. Greenbay uses his big router to make a vertical channel up the exposed log ends.

The snow is coming down hard and I am outside pulling the old chinking out of the original cabin. Some of the chinking is original while other spots have a different material that was used as patch sometime during WWII. Some of the cracks were chinked with old newspaper from 1941. Pat is helping me complete the chink removal which involves removing any loose bark from the old logs which were stacked 125 years ago. The cabin may now be the oldest surviving structure in Rico. Using a large pry bar, Pat and I pry logs up and fill in with shim material in the joints to help straighten out some of the sagging logs. Once completed the cabin logs now look straighter. With some more blocking installed Barbara Walker will be ready to start the chinking on Thursday.

Barbara has arrived today with thirteen 5- gallon buckets of chinking compound that we have to store inside the cabin with a small electrical heater going to keep it from freezing.

Cody and Anika have borrowed the forklift for moving the final logs for their new home up the steep hill on Silver Street.

Today I have ordered a special heat tool which will help us cut the styrofoam panels for the roof without having blowing styrofoam particles all over town.