We finished stacking logs on Tuesday.
Finished walls, 16 courses
The trusses were delivered on Wednesday.
Trusses and roofing materials
We got to work immediately setting the trusses. First time I’ve been in on that sort of thing. Wow!
18 Trusses set up, 3 more to go
It really is beginning to look like a house now.
The sun on the downside
A good day’s work.
The older two kids are learning American Sign Language, ASL, for their foreign language in our home-school program, and have been doing quite well. While they are at it, the youngest tries her best to learn it as well. She now has her spoken ABC’s down, but is still working on the signing part…
For more information on American Sign Language, visit here.
Feb 4th marks our 8th month here.
We’ve seen summer slip into fall, winter arrive to wax and wane. Now we are anxious to see spring mark its arrival. Of course we just had a taste of a pre-break-up warm up last month. With more than two weeks of above forties weather, rain and melting snow, even some green grass peeking through. The stores are full of forced spring bulbs, hyacinths,daffodils and tulips. They are so cheerful, but bring a bit of spring fever with them. We still have a few months to go!
We are 3/4 of a way through our first year here. It has been a real experience and we’ve learned a lot so far!
I thought I’d give you an update of what I’m doing at work. This is the cabin we started the first part of December. There are three of us working on it and we’ve been stacking logs for three weeks now. This past week we finished the 11th course and started the 12th. Only 4 more courses of logs to go and then the trusses will go up.
the front of the cabin, faces south.
This photo shows up to the 9th course. We are up to the tops of the windows now, and will be laying logs over the top of them this week.
front of the cabin including the garage
This cabin has a nice attached garage.
inside of the cabin which will be one of the two bedrooms
This will be a two bedroom, kitchen, bath, living room and laundry/closet, a small starter home.
corner detail
My favorite part of log cabins, the corners. I love the way the log ends overlap and protrude. The signature of a true log home.
spline detail of how logs are joined together
Every place where two logs meet gets a spline to lock them together. We also use big stretch caulking and Timberlock screws to secure each log.
window/door slides
Every window and door gets framed and attached only at the bottom. The sides have slides that allow the logs to shrink and settle without binding the frame. The tops of the frames get a 2 inch space to allow for the settling/shrinking of the logs.
outlet boxes
Every outlet on the log walls has to be router-ed in and drilled to allow for the wires to be pulled through. There is a lot of drilling involved! And a lot of work involved in general.
This cabin will be finished out with drywall interior walls and be ready to move into when we are finished.
And this sort of thing is an added blessing to the job:
January Sunrise
When you find that place, the place where your soul is really content and you feel at home, you still miss all of those people you love, but you don’t want to permanently leave your home… you just want your loved ones to move to where you are. 🙂
I could increase the local population here significantly!
Heck, we could start our own little village.
First batch of bread.
Thing 1 wanted to make some bread. So she did… lots of it.
Fresh out of the oven, butter melted over the top, and honey drizzled over… oh yeah, it smells wonderful!
We’ll have challah bread all week…
Pan #2
Pan #3
Still more to go into the oven…
Final 3 ready to bake
She’s quite the little bread baker.
The whole batch, 1 braid and 16 knots.
Baking incorporates math, science, reading & comprehension and sometimes geography and/or social studies (depending on the type of baked goods and what we are studying at the time). This bread is challah and incorporates social studies (culture and religion) as well as math and science.
Baking is an interactive lesson for both the baker and the other students who get to enjoy (eat) the lesson!
Shabbat shalom!
So precious when she’s asleep…
Two weekends back, our plan was to trek out to the cabin on the 4-wheeler since the creeks are not frozen over enough to drive the truck. We got a huge sled to pull behind the wheeler for the kids to have an epic sled ride (and probably me too, at least for a while). Time to get the wheeler going and bundle up for a fun ride!
Half-way point
The kids were tucked into the sled, all snuggled under the blanket and off we went. The trail was in good shape. And much to our surprise the creeks were frozen over for the wheeler to pass easily.
Leaf Creek, Half-way point
We know we are half-way there when we get to Leaf Creek. There is a nice bridge over Leaf Creek and we know we can always cross it.
Break Time!
We usually stop at this point and take a break. This was on our way out when Thing 1 decided to try to build a snowman on the trail. She didn’t quite finish.
Silly Little Bit
Little Bit and Thing 2 walked around the trail for a bit and acted silly of course.
Mmmm, good food!
Once we got to the cabin and got the fire going we enjoyed a nice hot meal. Then, more silliness ensued…
Upside down!
The kids love sleeping and playing in the loft, it is their favorite place to be!
We took down the guttering and stored it until next year, so when the snow unloaded it wouldn’t tear it off and ruin it. Half of the roof unloaded that evening once the cabin warmed, the other half the next morning. It sounded odd hearing that snow sliding off the roof for the first time!
It takes us about an hour to drive out this way, going slowly with the sled. The kids seemed to really enjoy the sled ride, and Little Bit’s favorite part?…. no stinky mud! 🙂 Gotta love it!
We didn’t get to go out this past weekend because my truck is broke down w/a fuel supply issue. Hopefully we can get it figured out and fixed soon so we can head out again for some more winter wonderland fun!
It snowed most of the day yesterday, and is still snowing intermittently today and more snow forecast for tomorrow. Could get 10 or so inches of new snow. It’s so pristine and white, just beautiful!
And that’s the snow, covering up my boots. 🙂
The kids went out and did some sledding in the snow earlier.
Our plans to go to the cabin this weekend have been foiled by the Ford. I have to replace part of the fuel line. 😦 Boo!
Alaska on my mind... 