Poppy's 16x16 timber frame cabin

[poppy]

Mark and Jim, I don't mind the kid talk and pics.; not so sure about the mods., but this site seems to be pretty flexible. 

I did start the whole thing with that grandkid photo. and yes my grandson has a vivid imagination; could have something to do with lots of books and very little TV.

[Sassy]

Glenn is one of the worst offenders for hijacking a thread...  

BTW, cute grandson...   

[ben2go]

That pic had perfect timing,priceless.

[poppy]

Got to the farm on Sun. and decided to walk back the neighbor's logging road to see what I could see.




They pretty much just bull dozed a road with little regard for any usable trees; kind of a rape and pillage system.




The loggers are taking all hardwoods, no cedar; and this is representative of what I think they are going to leave behind.  May yield a curved timber brace.




Beyond where they are currently cutting I ran across this huge tree that split and fell; you may have to look closely to see the right side half that is laying at roughly a right angle to the left side that destroyed another tree on the way down.




More rape and pillage.




This is a tree I found interesting; could make for a couple of neat braces.

So I talked to the neighbor on Mon. and he said I could salvage anything I wanted.  The loggers didn't show up, so will try to talk to them on Tues.

[poppy]

Well, I talked to the logger yesterday and he said they would be leaving tree tops and smaller limbs, so I will have plenty of potential timber brace material; mostly white oak.

The owner had told me the day before that the logger would not cut anything smaller than 6" and I found out what he meant.  The logger told me that they were pretty much "clear cutting", and even he questioned why the owner wanted that, especially when it came to the hard maples.

I almost cried when I heard that.  Talk about your rape and pillage. 

I can't figure out why, in this low market, that my neighbor needs that much money.

This is the guy, I may have mentioned before, who is the wind turbine expert and consultant.

He has very little living expenses since he is totally off the grid; save a land line phone.

     1. Cistern and septic.
     2. Wood heating.
     3. Wind and solar set-up with all electric appliances and no propane.
     4. Satellite dishes and antennas for free TV.

I just don't get it, but I'm trying to figure a way to work this to my advantage.

With Don_P's suggestion, I may be able to buy some of timber from the logger, since he essentially owns it and is giving the owner half of his take, if I understood them correctly.

I haven't got it worked out yet, since I would like some 12' red oak planking, and they have mostly white oak that they cut into 8' or 16' logs. 

Will keep you posted.

[poppy]

With all of the sad stuff on the logging operation, I forgot to mention some of the possitive.

My neighbor has agreed to let me harvest a large standing dead cedar, and I should also be able to snag some other cedars that the loggers pushed over.

I will need to get that done before he contracts the cedar out.

Anyway, back to the cabin.



I neglected to take a pic. last week on the method for extending the joists for the bumb out, so here it is.




And I broke out a real chisel that was an auction find.  That is a 1" size.  I have others that will be used later.




Some of the blocking with 2x6's.  Why 2x6 dimentional with full sized 2x10 joists you ask.    It will become clear much later.




Trial fit for the north side sill plate.  Needs some tweeking yet.  It will be installed after the timber sill is in place.




Looking at the bottom side of the sill plate and the notches for the sill timber.

[RainDog]

Hmm... what's he building out there in the woods?

What's he building out there?

[Redoverfarm]

Poppy have you ever ran across the old style nail pullers or do you have one?  I went to an auction the other day and they had one.  I bid on it and the spotter is the only one that saw my bid and it was sold to another person at my minimun bid of $5.  Auctioneer was a real jerk and would not re-open the bid.  I sent the company a rather spicey E-mail and told them I would not be returning for any future auctions.  Did get a reply and re-sent another.  It wouldn't have been to bad if it was not something I needed.

[poppy]

No John, I have not seen an old nail puller at any of the actions I've attended and there are usually tools at every one.

Too bad about the lost bid, but if WV is anything like Ohio, whoever the auctioneer sees takes precedence over all other bidders, even if they bid higher.  It's the law here and by law the auctioneer can't reopen the bidding.

That's why I usually try to get the auctioneer's eye when bidding on something I really want.

[Don_P]

Reminds me of a charity auction I went to. I got his eye and pointed to him and my eyes, watch me. I was bidding on crane time and for a worthy cause and was going to pay full price. The auctioneer looked away and didn't let me bid against myself when I won earlier than I thought I would  

Cedar would be a nice score, I don't run into it often. It grows down the mountain and over the nat'l forest but was eradicated from the local area because it carries cedar apple rust. Ever see one of the teleospores? Looks like an orange medusa hanging in the branches.

Mk + Q = M&L, synoptic: one set of eyes

[poppy]

No question the cedar is a good score.  It's not really big stuff, but I should have enough for the porch posts.

Way before I found this site, I made a big cedar score at an auction.  Over 1000 bf for about 30 cents a bf.

It's all stored in the old house in 3 rooms.  No pics; will have to wait until it comes time to fix it up to use for siding.  Also have some pretty wide cedar boards from this find that will likely be porch flooring.

[TexstarJim]

With your broad selection and incorporation of all these different boards and lumber, you're going to have quite a unique cabin poppy.  I can only imagine what you will do with the interior once you get to that stage.  Hopefully you can gather up some pretty wood from your neighbor's logging leftovers and put it to good use.  Excellent job poppy!

[poppy]

Thanks again Jim for the kind words.  I have always strived to do things that others don't do plus I want it to look good while not costing too much.

An on-going goal is to use as many wood varieties as possible that are indiginous to southern Ohio.  It's always a bonus if the wood is found in the county.  The only exception so far is some Teak flooring slated for the head.

Unfortunately my neighbors wood variety is not as unique as mine unless I'm missing something.  Even though he has 40 acres and I have 10, there seems to be more variety on mine.  For example, I seem to have more black walnut, hickory, and red oak.

That won't stop me, however, from walking his land frequently to see what the loggers are leaving behind, or finding dead stuff that they don't want. It's nice that he is cool with me salvaging whatever I can.

I can't wait to get to the inside myself.  I already have at least 6 or 7 wood varieties set aside for the inside and keep looking for more.

[poppy]

Open note to Don_P:

I really enjoy your sometimes cryptic and off-beat responses and side comments.

It took me a while to figure out Mk + Q = M & L.  The gospel Mark plus the gospel source scholars call Q equals Matthew and Luke.
And the three gospels Matthew, Mark, & Luke, are called the synoptics.

There I go again, hi-jacking my own thread.  Can I blame it on you, Don? 

[Don_P]

Yup, I turned left. I realized I was carrying coal to Newcastle. Comments on another thread tripped my squeeky cog that made some connections start clicking, Thank you  .

[Mike 870]

Here you go Poppy, it's the mother load!

http://dayton.craigslist.org/mat/1478378505.html

JK, looks like they want the WHOLE thing dissasembled.

[poppy]

Thanks for the craigslist link, Mike.  That is indeed the motherlode.

But they are going to have a hard time actually getting any money for it.  Very few people, me included, would want to tackle this job, even if they were giving it away.

[poppy]

After being away for about a week, I was eager to see what the loggers had left behind for potential use by me.




This is the top of a maple stump.  It reminds me of something. 

It looks like the loggers have been looking for maples.



This is what was left from one that they singled out for harvesting away from other cuttings.  They cut off 4 pieces looking for good wood I guess.  Just wasting good spalted maple if you ask me.  Notice the split running up the trunk.




This is the top end of the left log.  The very top just bucked itself.   

Hopefully, they will leave this log for me. 

[poppy]

Here is a small tree destroyed by the loggers that I have been trying to identify.  It's not like any tree on my land, but if it is totally unique, then I may try to salvage it.



I didn't find any obvious leaves that were different from the oaks and maples in the vicinity.  It's definately not persimmon or sassafras and doesn't appear to be any kind of hickory common to this area.

Any idea what it might be??? 

[poppy]

Got most of the joist notching done except for the stone section, and decided that it was time to stage some more timbers for later sawing.



Dragging the largest log past the job site.




These two logs will turn into 6"x8"x16' timbers and become the main loft beams.


Back to the cabin and some blocking and other detail.




Included here are some spacers that I forgot on the other side of the floor frame.




Also remembered that there was some 1" insulation board that could be used here.  I didn't do it on the other side, and it's probably over kill, but it's fun to use materials that may not have any other use. 

[Don_P]

Dunno on the mystery tree, try looking up Kentucky coffeetree but I don't see any seed pods or compound leaves on the ground, it is dioecious though, girls and boys, so it could be a boy. Another thought is a cherrybark oak but I kinda doubt it. Grab some twigs if you can it might help narrow it down. The VT dendro site is good and pops up on google.

[PEG688]

Any idea what it might be??? 

Maybe Sycamore? 

Here's a link and a small bark photo from that site,

  http://www.huntington.edu/thornhill/checklist/commontrees.htm



 



The Sycamore has large simple leaves with 3-7 lobes.  Its bark is mottled with white, green, and brown and its fruit becomes fuzzy when pulled apart.   The sycamore is commonly found along stream banks and in bottomlands.  It is used mostly for wood pulp.

[Redoverfarm]

Looks like a "black" or "wild cherry".  The sap wood will be light and it will graduate darker toward the heart wood.  

Wild (black) cherry has smooth dark reddish-brown bark with raised horizontal lines, often confused with black birch. (Scratch and sniff the inner bark of a twig; birch smells like wintergreen, cherry like bitter almond.) Older cherries have bark broken up into large, uniform flakes.







Read more:

http://forestry.about.com/od/forestphotogalleries/ig/Dormant-Winter-Tree-Gallery/Black-cherry-bark.htm
http://botany.suite101.com/article.cfm/identifying_trees_by_their_bark#ixzz0Xz2qfeTX

[poppy]

Thanks guys, for the replys.

Don, my Audubon tree guide doesn't show Ky Coffee or cherrybark oak, so I'll look up that web site.

Peg, it's definitely not Sycamore, which is in other parts of southern Ohio but not around me.

John, it would be cool if it is cherry; I would try to use it somewhere in the cabin if so, but cherry is not very common around me.

I thought it might be Slippery Elm, but I will look more for leaves and will also check out the bark and twigs more closely on my next trip out.

The specific area where this tree was felled is in a valley surrounded by white oaks and a few maples; probably about 750' elevation.  Not really near a stream, but a natural drainage area that flows after heavy rains.

Happy Thanksgiving.  I'm off to the daughter's house to give my 11 & 16 yr. old granddaughters a hard time.  I tell them that it's my job.    

[Mike 870]

My father in law says if it's not a pine he's almost sure it's black cherry.