Okanogan 14x24 by a lurker :)

[rick91351]

One map I found does reach in to you area Jarhead. Look like a hardware cloth ring would be a great idea! 

[OlJarhead]

The rings do not help.  The damage is all below ground a good 6 to 8 inches and more.

The gophers are tunnelling under the orchard and then eating the root balls completely off the tree.  I've learned that others have had this problem with gophers as well. 

Since getting the gopher probe and bait I've seen no new hills around the orchard so I'm thinking I got rid of them for now.

[OlJarhead]

I should note that I have been using hardware cloth 'rings' around each of the trees up until this passed winter when I forgot to put them on again.  However as mentioned above, my trees are not ringed but rather devoid of any roots about 6 to 8 inches down.

[OlJarhead]

Had a busy and yet not so busy weekend at the cabin

My plans, of course, were changed when I realized we didn't have water (again) inside the cabin.  I was puzzled as I thought the problem was cows beating up the pump house wiring but this time it wasn't the case.  Instead if was a leak (evidenced by the small sinkhole near the water main).  So I dug up the main, found the leak but couldn't repair just yet.  Repairs should be done next weekend.

We needed to relax a bit since the selling and buying of a house was stressing us out but I did get more done   Just not what was planned 

At some point as I was just finishing up bucking some branches smaller so my wife could clear them away she said "it's too bad you can't level off the top of that stump and make a table out of it..."

Challenge accepted and met


I grabbed some 3x6 and made a small table top I'm going to call the 'field bar' and frankly I love it

Of course then she said "you'll have to make some stump stools now too!

Hmmmm     

[troy]

Nice looking table!!

[OlJarhead]

Thanks Troy   It was kinda fun to make

[Adam Roby]

Very cool, but you know once the stools are done you'll have to build a gazebo around the table...  there may be no end to this project. 

[OlJarhead]

Very cool, but you know once the stools are done you'll have to build a gazebo around the table...  there may be no end to this project. 

LOL aint that the truth!

[OlJarhead]

After moving out of our home and moving all of our stuff into another storage unit (two now) we finally made it to the cabin for a weekend of relaxing....or at least someone relaxed while I worked! LOL

I managed to get some mowing in which was desperately needed though I only managed about an acre or so but at least that much was done...I also fixed the water (valve was broken) which meant I could have a shower after getting covered in dust when mowing and then I finished making the railing for the loft (still needs finish work but it's in place now).

My wife was able to assist in putting this railing together so it went a bit better and the new log clamp was excellent


Truth is I could do a lot better but this will work for now.


I've learned a LOT making this railing   For one, using curved rails makes predicting baluster length very hard in a perfect world my 34" balusters would be fine but with these bent rails they were short or long depending on where I put them.  My mistake was impatience   Later when I have a shop and can take my time I can see making this much nicer but I doubt I'll take them down now! LOL

My guess is that my deck railings will be much better   Still, I like these and will stain and varathane them soon.

[OlJarhead]

By the way, the rough work on the post here was done with a chainsaw (the 45 degree cut etc) and a grinder was used to sand everything and do a little shaping on knots etc.  The tenons were with Lumber Jack tools home kit and the forstner bits suck (I'm looking for much better ones)

[OlJarhead]

http://www.amazon.com/Designed-Intelligently-Outside-Available-Temperature/dp/B008Y9U266/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1435503490&sr=8-5&keywords=low+profile+window+fan

This looks like it might be a good option for the cabin!  We got up to 86F (briefly then it dropped to 85F) inside the cabin yesterday though it had gotten to about 100F outside which wasn't too bad but I noticed that even with all the windows open and the ceiling fan on high the cabin stayed warmer than it was outside after the outside air temp dropped below 80F.  It was 79F outside and 85F inside.....dropped closer to 70 outside and still 80F inside and so on....with the windows all open it finally got down to 71F inside (this morning) but it was 61F outside.  So it seems I need to come up with either a window fan to drive in the outside cool air or something like the above (uses a max of .5A) to get the cabin cooled down in the evening.

[OlJarhead]

Of course it might also help if I finished the venting on the cabin as I have not yet drilled out the eve vents which are currently blocked.  I have bird block screen to install but as I have not drilled out those vents there is no way for the cool air under the eves to be drawn up by convection as the hot air rises an leaves via the ridge vent....so ya, I need to get to work.

However, I tweaked my back again this morning   Something I do with regularity when I am not in shape and keeping my core (abs) strong.  So I took some Ibuprofin and the wife dumped the icy hot on and wih luck in an hour or so I'll have the pain down enough to load the car and leave and will have to consider things like eve venting on the next trip.....

[nailit69]

Not sure i'd vent my roof with screened "bird blocks" out there in the woods... if there were ever a fire, that convection could pull hot embers into your roof and with no way to extinguish them you place would almost certainly burn to the ground.  There are some newer venting products i'm seeing out on the jobsite that install in the roofing... it's to meet fire code too.  Midway probably carries it or something similar for metal roofing.  I might use it on my cabin.

Living in a small cabin... i've been able to figure out a couple of things to keep this place as cool as possible.  I rarely use the A/C at my place unless the temps hit the upper 80s.  When it's 100 out, there's just not a lot you can do w/out A/C but the obvious ones are good insulation, good windows opened early in the morning to pull in all the cool air you can. 

The best trick by far has been Hops... Golden Hops.  I planted some Golden Hops on the west side of my house about 4' away from the wall along the deck walkway and built a trellis for it to grow on and extended it with some plastic geo-textile mat attached to the peak of the roof.  Mine hits 25' usually by the first week of June, everyone stops to admire it and always asks what it is.  I let mine get about 10' wide but it will get bigger every year if you let it.  It's 250+ sq. ft. of shaded wall not absorbing that heat for 1/2 the day... it helps a lot.

Long story short it dropped the temps in my place by at least 10 degrees, I think the secret is the airspace behind it.  It grows really fast, won't tear anything up, dies out each year, and looks really great all summer long (w/watering) and if you like to make beer...  just sayin.  I rigged mine up on ropes and pulleys so I can raise and lower the geotextile mat from the ground, it usually takes 20-30 minutes to set it up and 1 hour or so to lower it and strip the old hops off at the end of the year.

[OlJarhead]

After long last I now have a garage!  One big enough to be a shop (800sqrft)

So, while I'm not completely moved in and settled I was able to get some work done on trim that I've been holding off on for some time.



Yes that one piece is a bit warped but I'm hoping to use it still because it has so much character.  Not sure it will work but I'm thinking I might be able to screw it down tight and then plug the holes to hide the screws since it's for window trim.


This stuff is all blue stained windfalls that I milled up with a chainsaw about 4 years ago and have been waiting to rip down and make into window trim   We love that beetle holes and stains specially when it's stained with Golden Oak and varathaned.

[OlJarhead]

Took a stroll around the property last night and found some great prints.


Little big for a yote so I'm saying 'wolf' on this one.


Bobcat I'm thinking.


Yote -- notice how small that one is.


Cougar!


Another cougar


My view last night

I'm hoping this trip to get some morning milling done to catch up on all the milling I've missed this year and then I think I'm going to build a bed frame the way Don did his

[MountainDon]

I've always wanted to get some shoe treads with big bear paw soles... 

[OlJarhead]

63F in the cabin this morning   Coffee brought that up to 64 so I've opened up the windows again in hopes of bringing it back down a little.  This is how cabin air conditioning works   You get the cabin as cool as possible over night and then lock it down before the days heat starts to come on by closing windows and curtains and limiting use of the door (either in or out but darn sure don't keep opening the door) that way the nice cool morning air in the cabin will remain throughout most of the day and give some respite later when it's 90+ out and you're beat from working in it

That's cabin life

[rick91351]

.......................... give some respite later when it's 90+ out and you're beat from working in it

That's cabin life

Sound like growing up....  only air co we knew was someone that had huge $$$.  But hey we lived....  Mostly in the rivers - canals and ditches...

I still love just going out and shading up by the creek when it gets like that and watching the hillsides for the stuff that make the fore shown tracks.....

[OlJarhead]

Sound like growing up....  only air co we knew was someone that had huge $$$.  But hey we lived....  Mostly in the rivers - canals and ditches...

I still love just going out and shading up by the creek when it gets like that and watching the hillsides for the stuff that make the fore shown tracks.....

Yp me too!  We NEVER had AC when I was a kid and for a while we lived in a trailer and that was murder -- took till 3am to cool down.

It's 90 in the shade now and predicted to get HOT today but 66 in the cabin so I'll take a break after milling some 2x stock down to 4" and 6" rough for the bed frame.

[nailit69]

Growing up... the only person we ever knew w A/C was Grampa and it was in his Lincoln Continental.  We've been lucky enough to live in PNW for most of our lives and never had to use much A/C... until this year that is.

Your place is looking great Ol'J... the garage is always a nice place to work on a hot day. 

I've been trying to get back up to our place but life keeps happening around me and messin up my plans.  I was hoping to have a shell up by the end of the summer and was waiting on some extra money to build and now I don't have the time to do the work before winter sets in. 

I'll probably just hold off until spring.  I think i'm just going to go up and backfill my foundation and do something on the inside to protect the footing from freezing... straw bales around the interior perimeter is about the best I can come up with... anyone have any other ideas?

[OlJarhead]

You may find, like me, that you can build right into early December up here (if you're hardy folk) but life, of course may yet be in the way!  That was my problem this year.  Selling our home, buying a new one 80 miles closer to work (as in within a few miles of work) and moving took 4 months out of my year!  I pretty much lost my milling season, mowing season and some great cabin work weather but that's ok, I now have a nice big garage I can use to make things for the cabin in the winter   With heat even 

[OlJarhead]

Some time ago, perhaps 4 years, MountainDon built a frame for his queen sized bed.  After reading his posts I filed it away in the back of my mind that someday I would do exactly that (or darn close to it) and finally, after long last I set about copying Don's great idea (thanks Don!).


First I went to one of my piles of milled lumber and dragged out a bunch of rough 2x stock in 2x6 and 2x8 sizes.  Most of it was milled 2 or 3 years ago and sitting under tarps so it was high time I made use of it. 

I ran it up to the mill and edged it down to 2x4 and 2x6 (rough) because at the time I wasn't sure what Don had used for his rails and figured if it was 2x4's I could always use the 2x6's for something else.


I have a few of these sorts of piles of wood around the cabin so I'm able to go out and find the thickness I need and just rip it down to the width desired etc   It's great to have a small mill and your logs to mill.


After using my 13" plane to take off the rough edges I then ran the stock over the jointer to take out the cant some the stock managed to get when I was edging it (seems I hadn't noticed the boards were canted when I edged them on the sawmill)


Oops! 


Much better


Once everything was ready I first nailed two 2x4's together to make my 4x posts and then assembled the box with deck screws.  Nothing fancy, just good old simple.


I do like the blue stain though and while most of this is meant to not be seen I'll probably stain and varathane anyway; besides that will preserve it better.

Thanks Don for getting back to me on the rails.  I'd looked more closely at your pictures and was pretty sure they were 2x4's so went with that but was happy to learn I was right.  Seems the 2x4's have plenty of strength too though mine are rough sawn so actually 2" thick and 4" wide which may help a little.


Finally I screwed the two 30x80 frame boxes together and put some 3/4" OSB flooring on top though I only had enough of the flooring to cover 5 feet of each box so I'll be filling in the last 20" with some 3/4" pine I have laying about

Last night was the first night testing out the new frame (I put some temp 3/4" pine in the gap I need to fill today just to get by) and I must admit I am very happy!

The height was chosen by measuring the largest tote we put towels in and it was just shy of 13" tall so I made the gap under the bed 14" making the total height 18" (18" minus the 4" rails).  Now we can put clear totes under the bed with winter clothes, towels etc and store them there rather than stacking them here and there to get them out of the way

[OlJarhead]

Next step is to remove all 12 batteries from the power system and haul them home to replace   We're going to do all 12 at once.

Since I'll be removing them all I'll work on the battery bay and wiring to get it cleaned up and maybe, just maybe I'll work on the console for my remotes and stereo (remotes for the solar equipment that is).

My plan is to set the buss bars on opposite sides of the battery bank so there is no chance of crossing them and to run the remotes for the inverter, auto gen start and the Tri-Meteric meter all over to a 'console' by my chair in front of the wood stove where I'll also mount my stereo.  I may have to bring them all home to work out placement etc in my new garage shop and bring them back with me ready to install... should be a fun project

[MountainDon]

One thing I have found to be very handy are my wrenches that have the handles well wrapped with insulating tape. The battery terminal nuts need a 1/2" wrench as do the bolts and nuts that connect the cables to the buss bars. I bought two individual 1/2" combination wrenches so I could have a dedicated pair left in the battery house. Only the closed end of the wrench is not taped. So when I forget to watch the end that is swinging around as I loosen or tighten it can contact the other buss or whatever and I do not get the shower of sparks, the wrench welded and so on.  I used 10 mil PVC tape that is used for taping underground gas pipe fittings. It sticks well and has not come loose.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

12 GC-2?   

Ours are still working okay for the most part.  They are now one month into their 7th year; 73 months of service, albeit is part time use service. They normally are connected to the charge controller all the time, even when we are absent. That ensures they stay charged. Last week when we were at the cabin we were ahving so much lightning activity that I had the incoming lines from the PV disconnected much of the time. (I have a 12 foot separation between the CC and a power pole that has the end of the 300+ foot run from the PV.  It allows a gap that I hope is large enough to prevent a lightning jump if the PV array gets a hit.)

Anyhow the forecast was for a week or more of continued lightning activity. That prompted me to leave the system with the incoming line disconnected. The batteries were virtually full; 99% by the meter. When we get back there in a day or so I'll take some sp. gr. readings to see how they have fared just sitting there with no charging or discharging. I have not left them sit w/o being on charge, mostly float, since the lightning hit.  I'm reasonably sure they will be fine over a short time.


OTOH the ATV sat un-used for a month in July. It was self discharged enough to not have enough "grunt" to start the ATV. A new AGM battery will be soon installed.

[OlJarhead]

You've taken better care of yours   I've drained mine a few times and recently when checking sg readings I found some cells were very low but then I knew that was coming from my last checks.  These are only 5 years old but very abused and my plan is to replace them all and treat them right.

I also plan to install about 40amps more of solar charging but I need to get the roof on the deck first and that may not happen this year as I've not had a chance to do any milling etc in order to facilitate that.  Now that the weather is SO hot I won't mill because the lumber will dry too fast and warp on me.  So I'll have to wait another month or so before I start milling again but I have the logs ready to go.  Once I get milling I can start planning on the roof and maybe even get it done this fall but I'm not holding my breath.

I will probably buy the panels soon though so I get them at a decent price.  I'd hate to wait and see them go up!