Peeling, Peeling, Peeling, Peeling.....

Our life completely revolves around peeling logs right now. We're going to the property every weekend and at least one night during the week.

Scott tried out the bark spud and liked it, so we got a second one.  Now we have his and hers bark spuds - it's so romantic....

We have abandoned any cutting or splitting and are focused exclusively on peeling. We figure we can do everything else once the logs are naked. This weekend we're already noticing that they are getting harder to peel than they were in the beginning. We also got our hands on a couple of draw knives, and I'm getting the feeling that the later we get in this project, the more we will be using them - they can muscle off what the spuds can't get under any more, and can deal with the bark that shreds when you pry it off.

This is a hard, miserable, hot and sweaty process. I can't say for sure, but I have to believe this is the worst and hardest the labor will ever get on this project.  Raising the timber frame and the roof trusses will be heavy lifting, but there's so much less of that.  Otherwise, everything else will be smaller after this. :)

I also have to believe that if you can get through this process, you will know that you have what it takes to build the house.  I'll revisit this statement when the house is done and let you all know. 

This weekend we had a great time, and got a lot of work done. Friday, we were joined by my cousins, who wanted to see the property and try their hand at peeling.  Saturday, we put up our new awning (with a massive amount of swearing, shouting and bickering), and worked under that until late in the evening - after which we sat dazed in front of the campfire and scarfed down half-heated hotdogs before falling into bed.

(I know I sound like I hate this process, but actually, I'm loving the HELL out of it!!! Grousing is just part of the fun.)

When we started, we were putting the peeled bark into our trailer and trying to keep things relatively contained and organized.  Now?  We have gotten to the point where we don't give a shit where the bark lands  - it's a total free-for-all, and we'll deal with the mess later, after the bark is off the logs and we don't have to worry about that anymore.

On Sunday, some friends of ours came down and helped with the peeling, AND we got several more logs cut up into 16" pieces.

I was told I should title this section: "Friends We Used to Have"

Our friend Eric, in the second picture there, was around when we did the apartment buildout and he said that he's going to punch Scott in the face if we try to move again after this. He's really enjoying himself, I can tell.  :)

While we cutting up some of the logs, we found this awsome face in the logs:

We're saving these whole, and I'm hoping that when they dry, the faces will still look good. I'm also hoping they don't crack while they dry or any other random self-destruction.  I would love to be able to put this into my walls on either side of the front door.

We're well over half way done now.  We haven't been able to get a solid count, but we figure we started with around 400 hundred logs, and we have about 114 logs left to peel. If we don't finish peeling next weekend, we'll at least be really, really close.  After that, all the cutting, splitting, dunking and stacking seems like child's play.