Thanks for the insight Don.

One thing I've noticed with Hemlock is it really takes a nail. Toenailing SYP sometimes seems to do more harm than good.

"Load goes to stiffness". Is the semi rigid plane of metal screwed to purlins stiffer than several short diagonals bolted to the midpoint of a flexible post? My bet is the angle braces do not see load until the roof is gone.  

2 nails per bearing should be adequate, uplift is the greater issue, maintain a good load path of uplift connections. A catwalk in the attic or an attic floor, or a ceiling, or diagonal framing on top of the cjs at each corner would all help brace the end walls to the structure

Quote from: NathanS on June 27, 2022, 08:44:22 AMIt must have been blazing hot. What a wonder...

Hot enough to melt aluminum; a chiminea fireplace and 3 ladders. 35 cents a pound at the scrapper

Yes, as a drain.  

But may not be necessary, it depends on the design of the pump.  If it is a submerged, self priming style ... with no inlet or outlet check valve, it will drain back on it's own.

It is remarkable how close the fire came without burning your cabin. It must have been blazing hot. What a wonder...

Quote from: JRR on June 26, 2022, 12:28:16 PMWhy not drill a small "weep" hole in the pipe just above the pump?

Just as a drain you mean?  I suppose I could... good idea. Figure that would case a loss of pressure?  I just bought a pump, only automatic one I could find that would fit the hole.  It's a 1/2 HP and says it has a head of 25', so my 5' hole should pose no problem.   The kit I bought comes with some 24' of hose, so I could do a first pass with a hole and worse case just replace it should it cause a problem. 

Looking southwards down the slope with the cabin to the left. The location of the burned-down gazebo is on the right side of the image. The needles on the trees that still have needles are mostly brown with less than 40% green on most or all trees. Our forestry officer (state) believes they are done for. Same thing with our loggers' opinion. He has been logging in the area for many years, and his family for a few generations. There is some green grass in the lower meadow that can be seen through the trees.

We have contracted with the logger for the removal of most of the dead trees. The larger ones will be sawn into beams or something marketable at the pueblo sawmill. Smaller trees may be used for making stove pellets at the pueblo pellet mill. Other smaller trees will be laid across the slopes, branches scattered and the machines driven over them to push them into place, sorta. We have some seed that will be broadcast as well.

This next image is looking west, taken the same day as the image above. The large trees in the foreground should all be fine but the little ones at ground level are probably all goners.

Update after the fire.

The opinion of the county fire marshall and others with wildfire experience who have all had a first-hand, on-the-ground look at the property is that our hard work in thinning some trees and removing ground clutter of fallen branches along with the annual removal of pine needles in areas closest to the cabin helped us. A little bit of good dumb luck may have been involved too as the winds during the initial hours of the fire were consistently in the 60 to 75 mph range. The point of ignition was 1 mile south and the winds were pretty much directed straight at the property.

The fire came up the slope, more or less straight. The trees at the slope bottom are burnt black all the way up. The fire was in the tree tops at that point. The fire dropped to the ground once it hit the acres we had thinned and cleaned up. The fire still was hot enough to toast the tops of the trees 70 feet up in the air, but the tops never burned. They are still loaded with lots of brown needles. Those trees are dead. Then closer to the cabin the fire was a little less hot as there are 70 foot pines with some green and some (many) brown needles. Those will take longer to turn all brown and have the needles drop, but they are probably dead as well. We may leave a few of the ones with more green and see what happens. I peeled back some bark patches at ground level on a couple of pines and the cambium layer was yellow-brown, signifying dead.

This fire was very early in the year. We had yet to do all the planned spring rake-up of pine needles within 40 feet of the cabin. What was on the ground there was the seasonal fall/winter needle shedding. That was enough to blacken tree trunks and still cause damage to the structures that were not built with all the same fire prevention items.

This first image is a panorama shot looking south and west. Green trees around the cabin and more and more damage the further away one gets. Past the right edge of the picture is the pines are mostly burnt completely black.

This is a 10-14 day old  image, The grass in the meadow had been burned off but is coming back quite well.

Why not drill a small "weep" hole in the pipe just above the pump?