Okanogan 14x24 by a lurker :)

[MountainDon]

She had a Haier.

[rick91351]

She had a Haier.

Dang you beat me to it MD I went looking ......... and you had found it when I got back .....  Great minds   

[OlJarhead]

I'll check those out too.

[MountainDon]

Dang you beat me to it MD I went looking ......... and you had found it when I got back .....  Great minds   

At times I surprise myself with the details I remember. At other times I am shocked I can not find where I put my (enter elusive object here)  down. 

[OlJarhead]

Finally started my rail for my ships ladder stairs.


I took the chain saw down the hill below the cabin and found a tree that was dead and the right size, cut it down and hauled it up to my 'shop tent' and began stripping the bark off the first log I'd cut 45" long....note to self, strip the entire log first.

Once the post was cut to 44" (2" over the rail hight of 42") I took it inside and marked where I needed to cut it to inset it onto the stringer.



All in all I think it worked out pretty well.  Now, can I do it a second time?


I need to get shorter lag bolts and inset them into the post so I can pretty much hide them when I'm done.

Once I have the two posts made and installed I'll mark and drill the mortices.  That will be a challenge but with my new drill press I think I can make it happen.

After that I have to measure, cut and strip the railings which I hope to use from the same tree and finally I have to drill them with mortices for the stiles which I'll use my lumberjack tools tenon cutters to make.

And of course, I have to actually install it all and sand and stain and......can I get a long weekend soon? lol

[OlJarhead]

Got the second post done but Photobucket is down for maintenance so I'll have to post tomorrow, I also got the irrigation in the garden sorted so each tree will get up to 14 gallons of water in an hour and the sprayers I installed will cover an 18 square foot area so should really saturate the ground a lot better than the dripper heads I was using.

[OlJarhead]

Took some pics of the process I went through to make the second railing (which was more or less the same as the first)

First step was to measure and mark where to cut/notch the post.  I used a hand saw for most of the cutting though I did use a miter saw for some of it I found the hand saw much better for this work.


Once the cuts were done I knocked out the better part of the wood with my hammer and then used the chisel to get down to a flatter surface.


Next I dragged out the draw knife and used it like a plane.  It does a pretty decent job of getting things even and planing off material that is sticking up.


Finally I get out my Timber Framing Slick and smooth the surface around the angled cut a but more.  It's amazing how well it works if you take some time and go slow.  No hurrying in this kinds of work.


Standing the post up and clamping it in the vice helps with this step.  Once secured I ran the router around the top of the post to radius the edge a bit.  I like the way this turns out with the drawknife cuts showing in the radius.


Finally after securing the post in the drill press and driving holes through it where I want to secure it to the stairs I mount and secure

Of course I still have to sand and stain and varathane but not until I've cut the mortices for the railings.

[Redoverfarm]

Yeah I was wondering why you didn't recess the lags (either direction) and plug them to hide your fastners.

[OlJarhead]

Yeah I was wondering why you didn't recess the lags (either direction) and plug them to hide your fastners.

That's the plan.  Just roughing in at this point.  Both have to be removed, treated, stained, coated, drilled etc etc and the railings have to made too.

More or less this was a test fit.

[Adam Roby]

Maybe it's just the angle, but that looks like a stairway to nowhere....   

Very nice work.

[OlJarhead]

Maybe it's just the angle, but that looks like a stairway to nowhere....   

Very nice work.

LOL a long time ago I had this debate with my kids and wife as to where the stairs should run.  I wanted them to run either onto a landing out from the wall a couple feet or perhaps the opposite way however the kids and wife won and I installed them the way the ladder originally was placed.  It actually works this way and takes up a lot less room but for taller folks is a bit of a pain.  My hope is that once the railing is in it will be a lot easier to get on and off them.

[OlJarhead]

OK so after digging and digging (to try to find what I thought was a broken or plugged line) and not getting very far (pun not intended) I finally gave in and pulled up the pump from the well (it was 83 feet down). Darci thought maybe there was a problem with it.....a short or something....I pulled it up because I noticed when I flipped the switch on it pumped fora second and then stopped....

After pulling up the pump I finally, after much fiddling and testing, tool the water proof connection apart and found  corrosion (from water) and a broken positive! Needless to say I ought to listen to my wife before digging a big hole! lol

After fixing the wiring and getting everything back into the well etc we began pumping....more than 40 minutes later water starting filling the cistern and an hour after that we are half full. I'm about to go out and check it again (I want to get the float re-attached to the system so I don't need to watch it any longer) and am THRILLED to have water again!

SHOWERS TONIGHTS! WHOHOO! After two days of digging in the dirt it will be nice to have a hot shower

[OlJarhead]

Well it's not what I wanted or planned but it's 'ok' for now.


I goofed big time on the upper post but recovered 'ok' on it afterwards (started my mortise in the wrong angle).


The 58 degree angle of the stairs proved VERY tough to drill even with the drill press I bought which has a rotating deck that I can set to 58 degrees.  It was just too steep to work with and to clamp the post to.  I have some ideas on how to improve the design but may have us the drill and chisel method to properly mortise the rails.

It can wait though.  This is solid and will give something for people to hold on to when climbing the ships ladder like stairs.

[OlJarhead]

Broke out the Panda washing machine last night and did some laundry.  I'm VERY impressed!



Left side is the washer which really agitates the clothes, the right side is the spin dry side and it gets them nearly dry.  This is not your mom's old ringer washer!

So far I'm pretty impressed and VERY happy we purchased it for the cabin.  Uses about 330watts during the wash and rinse cycles though it isn't constant (cycles on and off).  Time to wash for most things is 3-6 minutes, same for rinse cycle.  Spin cycle is a little less time but more often (one load might require 3 loads of spin cycle) and the spin cycle uses about half the power.

While doing laundry I managed to dig the trench for my new foundation footing.  Yes I know it isn't down below the frost line but I've had no heave in 5 years and a neighbor above me has also had no heave (in nearly 40 years)...maybe it's the soil, dry climate, who knows but I'm comfortable with the footing being down only 12" though I'll be adding back fill a little to get it closer to 16".


This will be a 16"x8" footing which will support an SBC wall 16" tall


Above the SBC wall I'll build a 2x6 pony wall to the underside of the cabin and I'll secure a ledger to it with ledger lock screws to hang the deck off of.  My plan is to build the deck with rough sawn 2x6 joists spanning 5' to a 4x8 beam and another 5' to a second 4x8 beam.  I think that ought to be plenty strong

[rick91351]

You sort of hit on a key issue.  Dry ground.  Pretty hard to see much movement if there is nothing to freeze.  Lots of people do not understand the northwest and its moisture cycles.  Basically the hard freezes are done when the snow starts to melt.  As the snow melts the ground gets moist.  Cycles through the summer by fall dry as a bone.  Goes back in to a cold cycle yet dry cycle.  This does not stop the ground from freezing just very little movement.

[OlJarhead]

And in this area where there is only about 14 inches of rain a year (most in March through June).

Was going to work on the foundation but decided to work on the sprinkler heads for the orchard and test out the new sprinkler on the rye grass I planted this year.

Then ran the bush hog for a couple hours until I hit a rock (BANG!!!) and called it a night.

[UK4X4]

There's not only frost depth to consider, but the soil its self

looks to me like your still in top soil with live plant matter and haven't reached a stable compacted soil in that trench

[Lindym]

WOW! You have actual dirt! On our side of the Valley we have rock, oh, and more rock..... We're not sure what we are going to do for planting fence posts.

[OlJarhead]

Ya don't kid yourself! lol there is rock, then um, more rock.

Sure some places appear to have some 'dirt' but in reality it's just deposited on top of rock -- lots and lots of rock.

I 'might' get that trench down a little deeper but it's unlikely.  Heck, I couldn't even drive a ground rod down more than 5 feet in this area...it took driving one at 45 degrees and beating it to heck and back to get it all the way in...I've been told they often look like cork screws when pulled out because of the rock...much of which is about the size of a small house, or cabin.

We dug trenches for the original post and pier foundation with an excavator and just found rock, rock an more rock.  I only went down about 12" then and haven't had any movement that I can tell so I've decided to go with that hear too figuring it will be a stronger and sturdier foundation either way.

[OlJarhead]

Perhaps I should consider doing this to push the frost line away a little

[OlJarhead]

Much work later....

So I decided to see if I could lower the footing a little and managed a few more inches however the rock is getting tough to move.  One of the problems with this soil is that it's glacial till (I think that's what it's called) which means you have lots of rock....rock rock rock.  I can take a long time to hand dig anything becuase as you get deeper you just run into more rocks -- big rocks, some the size of your car.

In this case I managed to get down about 16" without having to move too much rock but ran into a lot more at this level so I stopped.  Pounded the ground tight and set the form.

After a lot of messing around, wideing the trench etc I managed to finally get the form under the center of where the wall needs to be (I forgot that I needed to account for a 2x6 wall under the rim joist of the cabin which meant the form needed to be centered 3 3/4" under the cabin in order to put the center of the footing directly center of where the 8" block wall will go.

I then had to remember to pull the form out away from the wall the correct distance so I can turn the corner and keep the footing the correct distance out from the outer wall. 

Now I just need to drill some holes, bend an place some rebar and then finally I should be ready to mix and pour concrete.....12 bags alone should be a synch right?  lol tell my arms that!  My forearms are already mad at me!

[OlJarhead]

After reading a little about Glacial Till and decided that I couldn't do much without an excavator and moving the cabin it was time to shrug it off an finish what I started.


First Iifted the SE corner of the cabin 1/2" and moved the post in a little, fixed a support and leveled the corner a bit better.  That corner has always been a problem because the pier block was not put in perfectly level (I've brought this up before).  Once done I moved to the porch and using my 20ton jack I supported the porch beam so I could move the post and pier back out of the way of the new foundation.


I then bent and cut rebar, tied it together and set some pins for my blocks.  I didn't place plastic under the foundation which I debated doing but I'd never actually done it before and decided to just leave it


Once I finished getting the form and rebar ready I moved my truck into place with the bags of cement on the back so it would be easier to grab them since I'm working alone.  With everything set up and the water on as well as the generator runnning to provide extra power to run the mixer I set to mixing and pouring concrete.


Less then an hour later I had this.


A little more scree work and I decided I was done messing with it.  The mortar will take up any minor bumps or ridges so I'm not too worried anyway.  Though having it level and smooth helps.

Next step is to get the SBC which is on order and start dry stacking   Should take long since I'm only doing two courses but I need to make sure I have enough foundation to turn the corner (I think I am short).  If need be I'll get more cement and dig out the next section and pour it too   Took me longer to do the digging then it did to pour and scree the cement.

[OlJarhead]

Block placed and mortared


Bond Beam poured and ready for extension when new section is added


Beams placed and joists being added


Finished!


Taking a break in the rain -- notice the new stringers.

Will post more later but must run!

[OlJarhead]

  I might hurt a lot (tendinitis) but man I love this deck!

[OlJarhead]

Well hello

Got my game cam running again and despite only having 5 pics on it (forgot to dump all the old ones and it was a 512m card) I captured this one...the camera is OLD and SLOW so my wife bought me a new one for my birthday   I hope to get some great pics of deer up around the rye field....will post when I get some.