BLOK Ranch cabin

[MountainDon]

you can start look forward to some fall activities.

Bow season starts Wed.

[NM_Shooter]

Cold to me is freezing or below.  I woke up Saturday morning to frost!  My toes and head were cold most of the night when I was in the back of my camper. 

I got snowed on Oct 5 last year.  Snow stays in the shady spots in early November.  Stays put all over around Thanksgiving.  Sort of depends on the fronts that move through, but you can be sure of snow on the ground by mid December.  Tricky part is that the road in goes through dark woods and that stuff gets icy and snowy fast, and you can get stuck in pretty quick.  If it starts snowing, I need to be heading out.

No bow hunting for me this year... maybe next year!  I have a bull tag for me and a cow tag for my guest.  I'm 80% sure he will fill his tag.  I have not decided what my lower limit is on horns this year.  I'll probably hold out for at least a 5x5 for the first 3 days and will consider less the last day and a half.  There are at least two very nice bulls on the property now, and there are a few on the ranch to the West that will probably seek refuge on our place once the pressure starts.... we have less hunters.

I'm slowly learning the property, and have three hotspots picked out.  This one was taken from one of the wallows in 2005 that is 1/2 mile from my cabin.  My goal is to one day shoot one of these from the window in my outhouse :-)

[diyfrank]

Nice,
They won't hardy let you shoot bulls like that here.  Much of our areas are antlerless or spike only.

Your due a break! You sure made short work of your cabin.

[NM_Shooter]

Nice,
They won't hardy let you shoot bulls like that here.  Much of our areas are antlerless or spike only.

Your due a break! You sure made short work of your cabin.

I cheated.  3 pros, hired for 3 days.  They worked their tails off too.  Best $2600 I spent.  Just figuring out how to do the soffits was worth it :-)

It is far from perfect, and more yet to do!

[NM_Shooter]

Ouch... i am a hurting puppy.

Went up yesterday a.m., insulated the inside and set up a temp location for the furnace.  At least I'll have heat for elk season.  It was luxurious having a thermostat control the temperature! 

Insulated the floor today and stretched wire across the bottom.  Whacked one of my spine bones on a protruding 2X4 corner.  Right in the small of my back.  I am not looking forward to how that is going to feel tomorrow! 

Pix posted tomorrow assuming I can walk to my office 

[Sassy]

Well, Shooter, we certainly hope you are feeling better tomorrow - you know how we like pictures 

Talk about moving fast!  Great progress - looks nice 

[Yonderosa]

Terrific project!  Thanks for sharing the progress.  BEAUTIFUL location.  Anywhere with Elk = Heaven

[NM_Shooter]

thought I was going to get rained out, but made a last minute call to go up anyway.  Packed until 11 on Friday and drafted one of my kids to come up and help.  We didn't get to the ranch until almost 1pm, but started working as soon as we hit the ground.

On the way in, we cross the Cumbres / Toltec rail line, and the train met us at the crossing:


This is the major revenue source for Chama. 



This is what happens when you are one strip shy of some insulation for the ceiling joists.  Gotta have some duct tape in there somewhere!



I get by with a little (lot) of help of one of the neighbors:



What do you do when your nose itches, and your dad tapes your gloves to your sleeve?



Not very fancy, but very cozy!



Temporary installation of furnace.  What a luxury!



Installing the regulator and furnace in the rain.  Not much time for secure mounting.  I'll tighten that up next trip with a bracket to the wall.  Note the regulation cover on the furnace vent to keep bugs out.


This job was nothing less than a complete b!^@#.  Less than optimum with the paper facing down, and slits in the paper to vent.  Oh well.  Not the first compromise on this job.  At least the floor is wired and insulated.  Bet that the porcupines enjoy that osb this winter. 



Still left before my last trip of the year.... one coat of paint on the cabin, and a cross brace for the high side.

[NM_Shooter]

Well, got the cabin caulked and painted.  No way is this going to be the final color though... dang, I am bad with picking out paint chips.  I won't even post a picture of it until I get another coat of paint on.  My wife says it looks like a light colored mocha.  My kids think it looks like a barbie doll with a little bit of a tan 

I was trying to get it to match the darker color of the soil.  Will have to try again next year.  At least it has some shade from the paint and Mr. Hardi's 90 day limit of bare exposure was not exceeded. 

Figured out how to best use the monster heater in there.  Leave the temp set at 55 for sleeping is perfect.  Any higher and the darn thing overshoots as the heat exchanger is cooling down.

I'm becoming more convinced I don't want a wood stove.  That box heats up fast, even when we are just cooking.

Going hunting soon!

-f-

[Sassy]

You've really made some great progress!  Looking good.  I just caught the pictures of the train - very     I miss a lot of postings & pictures when I'm away at work...  gotta go back to the valley in a couple hours, in fact.  Better get off this computer   

[MountainDon]

I'm becoming more convinced I don't want a wood stove.  That box heats up fast, even when we are just cooking.

I've found that an oil lamp can raise the temp in our cabin a degree or two in an hour or so. Plus the range pilot lights act as a small heater.


G/L on the hunt

[John Raabe]

That underfloor area looks good to me!

Hope the critters get well fed this Fall. The lumber will likely come through fine.

[Redoverfarm]

Frank on the color this is what I used.  I went to Lowes and PU some of the sample swatches that the companies display with their products.   I stapled the ones that I had narrowed it down to (2-3 about 2ft apart)) to the siding (in my case the logs).  Then I stepped back several few feet (20-40) and then viewed my selections.  You can get a better idea if you step away some distance.  Most people don't look at the color within a few feet so why should you.  Just my $.02 worth. 

[NM_Shooter]

Went up to my cabin to button up for the winter this weekend.  The road in was nasty.  The best parts were in the shade and covered with 12" of snow.  The rest was very, very, very wet and muddy.  I only have street tires on my 4X4, and it was a challenge to stay on the road in places. 

I would have turned around if this had been a "fun" trip, but as it was, I needed to pick up my solar panel, batteries, and get the windows boarded up so we went in.

The RV furnace worked great.  Kept us just right all night, even though it did come on much more frequently.  My recording thermometer said the overnight low was 18 deg F.

It blew all day Saturday, and calmed down for the night.  My little one and I made a campfire after dinner and roasted smores...

Sarah took this picture before I came out.. a little fuzzy but not bad for a handheld night shot!:



We took this one before getting serious about toasting marshmallows.  Clear night, and the stars were fantastic once the moon went over the horizon.  With no wind it was not cold out at all!



Okay... so you have to see this.  I am hoping that photobucket trims down the size a bit, as it is a lengthy video.  If not, I'll try to find a way to post a more compressed version.  The Grey Jays were hungry... The rest of the weekend they were dive bombing us looking for a handout. 




The fishing was great.  Caught a ton on slow retrieve woolly buggers.  More snow on us on the way out; if that storm had come in the night before we could have been in some trouble.

[John Raabe]

Great pictures and a nice project.

You have a short building season at that altitude... but a fantastic site.

[MountainDon]

It's sort of sad knowing it's going to be months beore easy access comes again.


I love both the full moon nights in the Jemez and the moonless nights. We can wander around in the dark under a full moon. On moonless nights with clear skies the stars are so amazing away from civilizations lights.

[NM_Shooter]

Thanks for the kind words.  I'm bummed that we are done with it for the year!

My tree cam quit working.  I don't know if it is the camera or the controller board 

The snow comes and goes for a short while, then really sticks in about a month!  If I can get my camera working I may brave a day trip in during the first weekend in November. 

I'm having trouble with my F250 at altitude and cold.  It just darn near does not start...not a good thing when you are at least a day's walk from the road.  I'm hoping it is something as simple as a glow plug relay or glow plugs.  Next trip up will be in the 4-Runner unless I get this figured out.

I could also use a mop on the floor of the cabin before my wife sees it 

[NM_Shooter]

P.S.  You know what is a bit odd?  It takes some work to keep a campfire started / going up there. Without a breeze to fan the flames, it wants to die down unless you keep it drafted.  I guess it must be because of the thin air?   

[JRanch]

NW Shooter,
I've been checking out your progress and it looks great. You have a beautiful cabin with a beautiful area as well.

Is that hardware cloth on the underside of your cabin?
I want to do the same thing to mine over by Quemado, NM.

Keep up the good work and I look forward to keeping an eye on your progress in the spring.

[Redoverfarm]

Frank my 250 as well since it turned cold.  I checked on the gloplugs and they are about $40 each X 8 =  .   The my mechanic said it could also be the harness that connects them.  Seems they had a little trouble with them.  I will have to get it checked out when I get some other stuff out of the way.  For now I am plugging mine in on cold nights.

The fire.  Maybe the wood is a little green.  Not that you can tell by looking but if it is hardwood it needs at least 18 months to dry out. 

[MountainDon]

P.S.  You know what is a bit odd?  It takes some work to keep a campfire started / going up there. Without a breeze to fan the flames, it wants to die down unless you keep it drafted.  I guess it must be because of the thin air?  

Using the internal combustion engine power loss at altitude as a model you may be onto something. At 10,000 feet the non-supercharged engine has about 30% less power than at sea level, all due to less dense air and less oxygen.

[NM_Shooter]

Is that hardware cloth on the underside of your cabin?
I want to do the same thing to mine over by Quemado, NM.

Yup!  We have a huge problem with both rodents and porcupines (are they rodents?)  I built my floor, put a tarp over it, and within a very short while had a pack rat inside. 

Let me know if you make it over to ABQ sometime..... I'll grab Mtn Don and see if we can meet you for lunch somewhere.

[NM_Shooter]

P.S.  You know what is a bit odd?  It takes some work to keep a campfire started / going up there. Without a breeze to fan the flames, it wants to die down unless you keep it drafted.  I guess it must be because of the thin air?  

Using the internal combustion engine power loss at altitude as a model you may be onto something. At 10,000 feet the non-supercharged engine has about 30% less power than at sea level, all due to less dense air and less oxygen.

I easily have 30% less power myself .  Even the very dry pine that I have up there is a challenge to get going.  You really have to have a lot of small stuff with lots of surface area to get a good blaze going. 

I noticed the fire thing last year when I was trying to get a fire going in a neighbor's woodstove.  I've laid maybe 5 or 6 campfires up there this year and have had the same problem every time. 

At 5000 feet my oldest daughter can make a fire with flint and steel within a minute or two.  She has been unable to duplicate that feat above 9k feet of elevation.  I wonder what the oxygen density differences are?

[MountainDon]

O₂ is approximately 21% of the atmosphere, regardless of altitude from what I recall. 3% loss per 1000 feet is the rule of thumb for naturally aspirated engines. So at 10,000 feet you have 30% less O₂  to breath or support a fire.

That's the reason why my stove performs better in start up with the "supercharger" activated I suppose.

I have found that dry pine needles makes the best tinder to get a fire going, better than newspaper. I have a 20 gallon barrel of them safely set aside.

On the other hand the chiminea with its straight stack of pipe going up past gazebo peak height burns like a champ. It's got a clear stack from firebox to chimney cap, no baffles, no smoke chambers or convoluted paths like a modern wood stove.

[intelijoc]

Excellent location and dwelling!  Are you diggin a well? At what depth do you expect to hit aqua?
Also, you have outdoor bathroom-yes?  Did I read you will be off grid because of the remoteness?

My property is a treed lot at 10K ft- with snow as well so I am reading your posts with enthusiasm.

Again, congrats on the build so far.