Construction Journal Entry Week of 8/28/16

8/29-31/16 I went up to Camp Serendipity for 3 days: Monday through Wednesday.

This turned out to be a very happy day. For several weeks I had been stewing about how to build the front porch hand and guard rail system. Since the staircase is curved on both sides and I want to use all natural materials, there were a lot of unanswered questions. In particular, I hadn't figured out what to do about the upper newel post for the inside stair rail. This post has to serve as an anchor for both the stair rail and the porch guard rail so I decided to use a fairly large diameter log for it. Since I couldn't see any obvious solutions, I had a feeling of foreboding that I now had to face up to. I needed to find a good sound big 6-foot log and I wasn't sure I had one. There were only three fairly unpromising candidates that I planned to check out.

The weather was hot (85°) when I arrived at 12:25. After moving my gear in, hoisting the flag, having my lunch and a nap, I put on my work clothes and went out to check on the three possible logs.

I started down by the rhubarb because I also wanted to make sure the siphon down there was still working. I was happy to see that it was. The ground around the rhubarb was nicely watered. I hope the plant recovers.

The loggers had left some logs down there that were too short to sell and too big to burn up in the slash piles. They left them for me for firewood. I had my tape with me so I measured the logs. There was one among them that was long enough and big enough in diameter for the newel post. The only question was whether or not the wood was sound. I decided to come back after checking out the other two possibilities.

Back at the cabin, I opened the valve to water Brian and Paul and then went into the woods to check on the second possibility: the big Doug fir that had been lying across the giant sequoia grove for a few years. While I was there, I checked on all the sequoia trees. Andrew, Earl, and Ellen looked a little dry so I carried a bucket of water to each of them and gave them a drink.

I inspected the Doug fir log and I could see that most of the sapwood was punky. The heartwood seemed to be sound, so I figured that if I went toward the butt far enough, the diameter would be big enough so that I could get my newel post from it by cutting away all the sapwood. That would be an awful lot of work.

Next I went to check on the third possibility which was the butt of the snag Robert had recently cut down for me. I had bucked the log up starting at the top and had cut all but the last 15 feet or so. The problem was that that log was now perched in a precarious position at the top of the cliff and I needed to secure it before I could cut any more of it.

I got a chain, a rope, and a come-along from the cabin and brought it to the snag. Then I rigged up to pull the log back away from the cliff. I used the rope to choker the log and then wound the rope around the log seven or eight times, coming over the top of the log before running the end over to the come-along. I attached the hook of the come-along to a tree using the chain and paid out all the cable.

After taking the slack out of the rigging, I cranked on the come-along. The log rolled up the slope but got hung up on an outcropping. I used a thick pole to work it up over the rocks and finally got it into a safe enough position that I could buck one firewood round off one end of it.

In the process I could see that the wood was so rotten that it would not work as my newel post. I had to rule it out. That left me with the rhubarb log as the best possibility. I went to check it out.

I gassed up the chainsaw and cleaned the air filter, after pulling in vain trying to start it. Once the filter was cleaned, it started right away. I am a slow learner. I bucked a 6-foot log from the biggest log down there and then spudded the bark off of it. The bark was rotten and there was a thriving colony (or many colonies) of various grubs, beetles, worms, fungus and who knows what else living under the bark. They all squirmed and scurried when I spudded the bark away.

Fortunately, the wood under all that mess seemed to be sound. I was very happy. This log would work. In fact, it will be perfect, which is close enough. It is 12" in diameter at one end and 10" in diameter at the other end. It has a lot of knots so it is very lumpy. It will add character to the front porch. I was very happy.

On Tuesday I used the porch crane to skid the newel post log up to the porch. I paid out all the winch cable and extended it with another length of cable and two log chains. With that I could reach the log and choker it. The winch had no trouble skidding the log out, over the rocks, onto the roadway, and up the hill.

At the top, I simply hoisted the log up over the guardrail ropes and set it down on the two big sawhorses on the porch deck. Then, I got a scraper out and checked out the condition of the log. I was very pleased to find that the wood was nice and sound under the mess. The insects had all disappeared overnight and the mess had somewhat dried out. It was easy to scrape off.

Before it got too hot, I decided to peel the bark off the first vine maple I had harvested. If I need to have a handrail in addition to the guard rails, this piece might still be useful. The bark is easy to peel off while it is still relatively fresh, but if it sits out too long and dries out, it will be hard to peel. Since there was still shade in front of the cabin, this was the time to do it. I peeled the long pole with a drawknife and then brought the peeled pole up onto the porch deck. Then I went in for lunch and a nap.

When I got up, I opened the valve to irrigate Brian and Paul and then took a bucket and a box of Miracle Gro into the woods and fertilized all of the sequoia trees. This time I even fertilized Dave. I decided to buy more fertilizer so it was OK to use up all that I had.

Next I took another rope and the chainsaw over to the fallen snag. I planned to buck the last of it into firewood rounds.

The come-along had pulled the log far enough up on the pole so that I could cut one round off the end of it and the rest of the log would still be supported. The problem was that I couldn't just let the round fall to the ground because it would then roll over the cliff. So I used the second rope to hold onto the round. I made a noose which I chokered around the end of the log and then ran the rope around a tree and tied a tautline hitch, and an intermediate half hitch, to secure and tighten it. Then I cut the round loose and the rope held the round and kept it from rolling away.

The rope then served as a handle for me to use to drag the round up over the rocks and logs that were in the way and pull it over to a safe flat spot where it was stockpiled.

I used this technique to buck one round at a time from the log from each end, depending on which end exposed an easy round to take as it rolled up the slope. At one point, I pushed one of the rounds over and it instantly started rolling down the hill before I could grab it. It went over the cliff and crashed down toward the road below. Fortunately, it got hung up on bushes on the way and didn't make it out to the road. It could have been bad if it had or if there had been somebody down below the cliff. I knew there wasn't, so felt OK about it. I would probably not retrieve the round, though, so I didn't like the loss of a chunk of firewood.

After finishing the bucking, I went in for the night very happy with the developments of the day.

On Wednesday morning, Dave called and we had a great conversation. He confirmed that he will be visiting Camp Serendipity next Wednesday. I am really looking forward to that visit.

While we were talking, I was looking out the front window and I saw a coyote come out of the bushes and onto the road. He took a left and started walking up the road. After a hundred yards or so, he turned and went back into the bushes on the other side of the road. There are about a thousand sheep over there right now so it is no surprise that the coyotes are interested. I just felt lucky to have seen this one. I heard one howling and yipping during the night before so I know they are out there.

I spent the morning tidying up around the cabin trying to make it ready for the visit. I left for home at 12:30 feeling very good about the week.



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