Shiloh

It’s been a while since I updated so thought people might want to know what is going on. After this weekend we are almost half-way done building the walls. Very late Saturday we put the first part of the first log on the 8th course. It was a cheeky little log that managed to tie us up for about five hours of work.

As we go up the walls we are learning more and more about how to best stack these logs. My dear wife figured out something over the weekend that should keep the logs more more level where the ends meet at the corners. One of our issues has been that even though we tried to match up diameters there has been one to two inch differences in heights which has caused more gaps in the walls.

Anyways, when we put up the first log on the eighth course we could not get it to “sit” any better than having most of the log work properly with the last six or eight feet of the log crooked upward three or four inches above the log below it. It took us three or four lowering and lifting of the logs to determine that this was the “best” option.  Fortunately there is going to be a window opening in this section of the log. Down goes the log, out comes the trusty chainsaw and one log becomes two. This allowed the section that had been sticking up into the air to lay flat. While there was still a small part of the larger section that was raised up too much, but it will be acceptable as it will be right up on a window buck.

Some logs take 15 minutes to get in place and another 45 to drill and spike down. Some logs take 5 hours like the north log on the 8th course. That’s the nature of it.

Here is a picture done after we finished the 6th course with Dad’s pickup truck parked beside it for perspective:

And here is my little lumberjack (trying) to work with a cant hook: