October! No, wait.... November!!!!

First, a belated Happy Halloween to all. http://youtube.com/watch?v=Ww1grRkeg14

Look! It's a pioneer, a mummy and a skeleton!

Jack-0-lanterns.



Josh and Abby also participated in a Science Fair this month. The did a great job presenting and discussing their 'Simple Machines' that they built out of K'nex. I think Abby knows more about levers and fulcrums than I do! And Josh is an Archimedes Screw expert! They had a lot of fun.




Now for the house. The work continues. and continues. and... well, you ge the idea.

Getting ready for the hangers that hold the joists for our loft.

Gable end coming up....

Big beam that forms part of the loft framing.

In place.

King post. This is what holds up the ridge beam for the vaulted side of the house. Standing up it's about 22' high.

Ta-da!

The loft area, with joists and sheeting...

It got cold all of a sudden!

The kids are always finding some sort of project to work on. Here's a little fort that Josh was putting together.

Now we get to take a little bit of a breather while someone else does the roof framing for us. that should be done pretty quickly and we'll add more pictures of that. We've also adopted a Ford truck for the upcoming winter. We hope to make it feel at home and provide healing from it's troubled past (it was a theft recovery).

Oh, I almost forgot! We have power to the house now!!! No more hauling gas for the generator! Yay!!!

We hope everyone is having a wonderful Fall!

Comments now turned on!

I think I'll call this entry, "Wake me up, when September ends...." Lots going on, some of it even progress! When we last checked in, we had just finished up the basement framing and joists. Next came the task of putting on the subfloor. Ooops, didn't get this picture in.... this is our 14" basement kingpost being notched for the beam that sits in it.








Now on to the floor - not a lot of pictures of the process, but here it is finished. Pretty staightforward stuff, glue the tops of the joists, set down a sheet of 3/4" OSB tongue and groove and fasten it down.








The Crew on the new floor.
Why we like it here so much...

Next we finally start with the logs. First you have to attach a coupler nut to the bolt in the foundation. This gets attached to a piece of all-thread that extends up through the first 2 courses of logs. That's a lot of work measuring and drilling each log! It looks like this when finsished.

After that it's like playing Lincoln Logs. Except that the logs weigh 50-150 pounds and aren't always as 'precise' as the small version. Lots of tweaking and hopefully not too much swearing. But it starts to shape up and look like walls... Here's J enjoying the evening shade of a 5 log wall.

Each course gets 2 treatments. First you screw it down to the course below it with a 12" 'OlyLog' screw. And you have to do that every 12" along the wall. Talk about sore hands. Then you drill a hole for a dowel (and glue) at each butt joint. This helps strengthen the wall and prevent air infiltration. Here I am working the OlyLogs... That poor Dewalt drill is getting a workout!

And that takes us to where we are now. We've got about 2/3rds of the walls up. Then there will be a little more framing and then we can get a roof on!

Wall pics...

This has the opening for the prow front - a post fits into those notches.

No I wasn't drinking here, that's the front opening... or will be when we cut it to size.

My better half, hard at work.

More walls, the back bedrooms this time. After a few layers around a window or door, you extend a log through the opening to help stabilize things and to keep you on track. Everything gets cut to size later.

That's all for now. Stay tuned!

August!

Well, monthly updates wasn't exactly what I had in mind.... but better than nothing!

First off, a big......no, a HUGE Thank you for all the family who came out and helped!!! Sorry I wasn't more organized! It was good to see you all again.

Now for the pictures...



Here's the basement framing.... Yay! a bathroom!

Completed....

A 2x10 wall on 12" centers.... That ought to hold some weight.

We also had a little scare with the 'Salt Creek' fire. Thanks for everyone's concern and prayers. We 'lucked' out and the fire never even made it into Indianola valley proper. This picture was actually from Fairview. The weather really cooperated there at the end and they were able to get it under control.

We are always finding little 'visitors'. Usually the kids catch a lizard or two, but this time we found a little horny toad!

Time to bring in the heavy equipment...

With super maneuverable, 4 wheel steering, everybody wants a turn driving!

The 'big beam' - 950 lbs worth!

Fine tuning...

The floor joists for the garage hang off this beam.

Looking kind of like a house...

Whew!

Sorry for the delays in getting an update posted. Here it is!

Here's what the foundation looked like after they took the forms off.

Getting the 'under-slab' plumbing in...

Here's the house part of the basement floor poured. The garage side will be poured on Monday the 9th.

Getting the sill seal put on.

When they say they'll 'drop' a load off, they really mean 'drop'!

And that is one BIG beam. This one goes across the main span of the garage so we don't have to have support posts in the middle of our parking spaces. It's about 7X20 inches by 36 feet. Hernia anyone?

We also attended the 'Sanpete County Fly In' recently. While there we got to meet Gail Halvorsen. He's also known as the Berlin Airlift CandyBomber. Truly a great American. He gave a talk about his experiences during the Airlift and then all the kids got to make candy parachutes. Looks like Jamie is getting a head start on the goods...

And the completed ordanance!

Bombs Away!

They also had some r/c pilots there. This guy was flying a 1/4 scale acrobatic model. It was really neat to watch.

Josh and Abby also got to take another plane ride. They were offering free rides to all the kids. I think Josh and Abby got the best pilot - He gave everybody a little glass of water to hold. Then during the flight he did a negative-g dive and everybody tried to 'drink' the little globs of water floating in front of them! We all had a really good time.

The other thing taking up a lot of our summer is Baseball! Go Abby!

Great Play!

Josh at bat.

Ready for action!

And even though Jamie isn't playing this year, she still comes and cheers everybody on!!!

Love you all, hope everything is going great!