We've been arranging work so we can take Fridays off and have 3-day weekends to work on this, which is good because other stuff keeps coming up on the weekends (GOOD stuff, stuff we want to be doing...), and having the Fridays always gives us a little edge on the weekend.
It's also nice because the weather has been UTTER SHIT this fall. I'm not kidding - in ONE week we went from pretty consistent days of 85 degrees and humid, to very consistently 30's (THIRTIES, PEOPLE), and DRIZZLE. It's just been miserably cold, and damp and crappy every weekend, and pretty much all the days in between, too. It breaks my heart - I had visions of glorious, sunny Autumn days of crisp leaves and sweatshirts, taking a break from splitting to share sandwiches and beer sitting on logs and admiring the fall beauty. NO.
On the weekend in question, it was drizzling and gross when we arrived at the property - which sucked enough, but when we turned into the driveway, we were greeted with this:
Our awning completely died (I mean, LEGS UP IN THE AIR dead. Like a bug.), and one of the stacks collapsed. That last bit isn't so surprising, the previous weekend we had run out of cinder blocks and did a couple of makeshift ranks on some pallets with 2x4's nailed to the ends. (None of the awesome design ranks failed.) (And you can't see the crappy drizzle in the photo, but it was icky).
After a bit of time pouting in the truck and licking our wounds, we finally ventured out into the drizzle to rebuild the spilled rank - which involved a ratchet strap to keep the whole thing from exploding again...so we'll get that back next summer.
Next, we made an executive decision. One I hope won't bite us in the ass. We're going to do the Borax dip treatment next Spring. Everything we've ever read talks about doing this as part of the splitting and putting up process of readying logs to dry (The Borax treatment does several things - it helps to protect logs against rot and insects and it's also a fire retardant. And in our case, we're also kind of excited about its mold killing properties.) However - it also talks about the logs needing to be somewhat dry so they can soak up the Borax solution and draw it deeper into the wood. Well, thanks to the shitty weather we've been having (and the hot humid summer we had last week), our logs haven't been dry since...EVER. Not since they day they were a twinkle in their seeds' eye were they EVER anything approaching even slightly dry. If we threw them in a vat of solution right now, they would proably ADD to the level of water.
SO - next spring, it's not like a 30 second dip in some solution will take us back to square one moisture level wise, and we think if we do this early, once things stop freezing, they should have plenty of time to finish drying by July or August when we're likely to start the actual infill. Plus we have a moisture meter - if they don't pass muster by then, we spend a couple weeks in a bar getting some zen perspective on an additional summer of cordwood, and all the awesome opportunities that will afford us. (Like putting up new wood if we have to burn half of ours due to mold).
I'm pretty sure leaping into this half-assed and unplanned part way into AUGUST has created shitloads of extra work for us. But then....I did say this was a test of whether or not we could handle the build. If we can't deal with this, and the Borax in the spring, we should give it up and start selling campfire bundles at the KOA. (Ya know - look at the pics below - if we did that, we'd be fucking millionaires and could buy damn near any house we wanted.)
ANYWAY - we got that stack fixed and ratcheted, and then recycled the awning into a tarp and put all those ranks to bed for the winter. (And concerned as I am about the Borax, I was SO DAMN relieved that I won't be touching those logs again this year.) We draped the awning canvas over the stacks and used boards to nail it down so the wind is less likely to destroy it over the winter. Screw you, wind, we're not putting up with your shit.
This actually involved another executive decision I'm both concerned and relieved about. We're leaving those logs right where they are all winter. In a happy and just world this would be ideal, because they are already stacked and they are in a good place for next year when we do the infill - BUT, this being the real world filled with assholes and also with people who don't make a ton of money and heat their houses with wood....I'm somewhat concerned that our wood pile is gonna get raided over the winter to the point that we won't have enough to finish the house. Our original plan was to haul it over the hill where it would be more hidden, when we did the Borax dip, and re-stack it there. I confess to being deeply relieved we aren't doing the haul and re-stack bit.
But, let's face it - who really thinks we're going to get that whole cordwood infill done next summer? Show of hands in the comments? Yeah, we're trying to get realistic about that, too. If we can get the back half of the house done next summer, we could actually board up the front half and work on the interior walls, etc, over the winter. Not LIVE there, like I was hoping, but at least not have to just stop. SO, if we had to put up more wood next fall, it wouldn't be the end of the world.
Once all the damage was repaired, we said "Hey, we have a cooler full of beer and a woodstove in the bunkhouse, let's go regroup and figure out our next steps." You can guess what happened right? I'll just say it's fortunate we had enough sandwhich stuff for lunch AND dinner. I mean, come ON, everytime we looked out the window the drizzle was WORSE.
Which is not to say we weren't productive - we did a lot of stuff to the bunkhouse that will make things nicer both this year, and next, since we'll be spending a lot of time there.
We put up hooks so we could hang up our clothes. This makes it look like coat hooks, but we pretty much wear the same jeans and sweatshirts all weekend and have been just draping them all over everything.
We got rid of the minivan seat we'd been using as a bench/place to put our duffle bags, and brought in an actual table and chairs. (Also, I added a smidge of Autumn decor - if you squint, you can see it over the window. The sign, we got at Cable's Fall Fest the weekend before.)
And Scott was super awesome (because he always is, and now has a lot of DeWALT cordless tools), and built us a wood rack to hold all the wood for the stove, and clean up a mess that's been bugging me for three years.
Here's the before, so you can fully appreciate his awesomeness. (And mine, a little - I helped wth some design choices.)
Here's the glorious after, which not only solves the wood issue, but also provides a place for some other stuff that was in the way elsewhere.
NICE, Yeah?
And we built this great cooler shelf, so we could have the "kitchen" close at hand without it taking up all our floor space, or being way out in the truck.
Saturday dawned pretty shitty, too, but quite a bit drier, so we got back to the business of splitting this:
We got lots of wood split, built several more of Scott's new and improved ranks, had brunch in a bar with our great friend Rusty (who is also our general contractor), and later in the day had to make a run to Menards for some more supplies for building ranks. (And seafood nachos and a great margarita).
On Sunday, we kicked ass and kept stacking until about 1:30. We filled up two more of Scott's ranks - which is a LOT of wood. I mean, these things are 7-8 feet high - it's GREAT. (You can see what's coming, can't you? I know you can. I just don't know why we didn't.)
They're 16" deep by 8 feet wide, by SEVEN FEET TALL. I'm amazed it took five of them before the inevitable happened (on uneven ground, no less).... One started to TIP OVER.
It was crazy - we were finishing up rank number five, Scott had even stopped splitting, and we were going to stack the last bit and go to the bar to see the end of the Packers/Lions game. (Why? I don't know - we'd been listening, we knew how ugly it was - but I always have hope. I HAVE seen miracles from them.) I reached up to put one last log at the top, and slid it back until I felt it gently tap the top brace, and suddenly Scott says, "I don't know what you just did, but get over here I need help. We have a problem." I go around the end, and the whole thing has tilted backwards and is resting ever so neatly against its neighbor (who isn't really all that completely straight either), and Scott is trying to brace the damn thing. Nightmares of dominos are running through both our minds.
I'll spare you the play-by-play (it was as ugly as the Packer's game), and just say that after a lot of swearing, attemping to shim the stack (like we could wedge ANYTHING under 78 tons of logs), and nearly being crushed to death, we ultimately got a 2x4 nailed to the stack and to the one next to it, to brace it. And then proceeded to nail all the boards in the immedate vicinity to it for good measure. (There's probably enough lumber there to just build the damn house)
We did get it tarped off and solid...and are going back to the shorty ranks from now on. We are both intellient, experienced people, I have NO IDEA how in the hell we never thought these things might be a little too UNSTABLE TO STAND UP for a whole year. All I can say in our defense is that we've been a little stressed lately.
All's well that ends well - no one got flattened, the stacks are stable now (and pretty hard to rob, I think)(Hell, if someone tries to take them apart and steal our wood, they are practically booby-trapped).
Here's a pic of the whole operation I took from up on the hill:
And this awesome little teeny oak tree I found in the grass there. He looks so damn proud of his colors, doesn't he? (The pic washes him out quite a bit - he really was very impressive)
We have a weekend of cabin closing ahead of us, and then the next weekend is another one where we get to spend the whole thing at the property. We're really going to try to get the rest of the wood split and stacked if the weather will cooperate.
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