heritageharvest Underground Cabin

[UK4X4]

"It was there over 100 years ago. This leaves us with a pre dug uphill patio  . It is about 20' wide and 40' long"

now here's something I was mulling on

100 years ago there was no such thing as a back hoe or digger, to dig a hole that large would have been quite an undertaking.

have you made sure that its not a natural water run off that was simply enlarged .....ie a seasonal river bed they lined on both sides and built over ?

[heritageharvest]

Yes we have, we know for sure it was the foundation. We also know it was done by hand. There are the rock piles of what they pulled out everywhere back there. I'll take some photos for you tomorrow. Our neighbours mother still remembers the old place.

[rick91351]

For anyone that has milled their own lumber,
we are wondering if there is some sort of calculation that can be done to detrmine how much lumber we can get from pine trees that are 3' in diameter. We would be using them for wall boards.

Also wondering how tong they will need to cure before using them.

Sawmilling lumber can be some what disheartening.  Some times you are faced with a great deal of we did all that and only ended up with that.  If you heat with wood you have no waste if you do not mind burning pine. 

How long boards have to cure is a subject to its self. 





These two units were stickered by my grand son and I.  How long they have to dry depends on weather, wind, humidity and ambient temps.  We are blessed here in this area of Idaho with ideal air dring weather.  How long does it take?  I cheat I have a moisture meter.  Prime conditions here four months if we are getting showers up to six months or more.....

Stickers are small boards ripped uniform width and thickness like 3/4 inch thick by an 1.25 inches wide more or less.  Uniform thickness is more important that width.

Measure out our pile bottoms like 4X4s you should have five and the ground should be level and 4x4 should be equal distances from each other.  If you are stacking 1x12s you place three down then a course of stickers.  The stickers go directly over the 4x4s.  Add the next course and sticker again directly over the other sticker and 4X4.  So that is five stickers per course.  So as you can see it will take a huge amount of stickers.

When the boards are dried then we break them down to plane or make molding or something out of them.  But we keep the sickers in very good guarded condition because they are reused many many times.  I make a pile top out of 2x4 and some heavy timbers and cover that with a plastic tarp.  I used to use slabs off the logs but I seem to like this better.  That keeps the weather off and stops the sun from warping the top boards so bad. 

             

   

[ben2go]

Motivation and inspiration.

[Redoverfarm]

   Rick might find you some old roofing tin to replace the tarp with.  Speaking from experience mind you. The tarp will breakdown on the sun.  Shoot they break down anywhere.  Mostly find them good for temporarily use and that is about it.  I covered several hundred bf of Wormey Chestnut and the tarp gave way before I noticed it.  Was only able to salvage about 1/3.     Don't mind ruining pine but 100 yr old stuff is hard to come by.

[rick91351]

  Rick might find you some old roofing tin to replace the tarp with.  Speaking from experience mind you. The tarp will breakdown on the sun.  Shoot they break down anywhere.  Mostly find them good for temporarily use and that is about it.  I covered several hundred bf of Wormey Chestnut and the tarp gave way before I noticed it.  Was only able to salvage about 1/3.     Don't mind ruining pine but 100 yr old stuff is hard to come by.

The one thing I do not like about the metal roofing strangely is the permanency.  Not that I am short on storage space but it is just some thing else sitting around.  All that lumber is now stored up at the ranch ready to be milled.  Those plastic tarps,   Bless them    are now doing duty in occupying the country sanitary land fill.  Actually what works best here is covering pile tops with lumber wrap.  However all my lumber warp is gone. 

Before we lost all our saw and planer mills here.  The mills used pile tops - 1x12 nailed underneath with five or six four foot 2x4.  On top of those was lumber wrap and over that were 1x4 batts or battons over the cracks of the 1x12s.  Planer mills would have acres of bunks like that stored, drying - four high if I remember right. Each had a pile top on it.   

They worked great but we do not get the moisture you do.  If we get an inch of rain here in 24 hours it is like in the news and a disaster.  An afternoon of sprinkle your way is a real down pour here.  10% - 15% humidity and people here wondering when it is going to stop.  Oh my word and it is so muggy outside!  All our farm ground here would be a wasteland without irrigation.  Here you could not even do dry land wheat and do much good at all.