Sept. 28th, 2008 - Second Course

Jeff spent several days pulling logs up the hill and to each side in preparation of stacking the second course. This is the most time consuming and least fun part of the process. You can see the log balancing precariously on the front left corner of the house and get an idea of the challenge it is. Acutally its tied and pretty well controlled so its really not as precarious as it looks.

He gets anxious to lift each log up when he gets it in position, but it seems to be better to do all four at once. Plus, this week we had to wait for the city and engineer to inspect the first course before any more logs could be stacked. The city inspector, our friend Micah, came on Tuesday, signing off on it. But getting the engineer to the property was another story. It was actually not necesary for him to see it, as long as the city checked that it was built to the plan specifications. So, since the engineer was conveniently out of town, Michah suggested we just email him pictures. Good idea. It took awhile for him to respond, but he did sign off on it and finally, by the weekend we had the ok to go ahead on the second course.

After bit of a frustrating week, Jeff was excited to get to the property on Saturday and lift logs. Overall it went pretty much as it should. It is amazing how well these chain hoists work lifting these huge 1000 pound logs.

Sometimes they need a bit of a nudge to get past the other log and as you can see below, Jeff positioned a 2x4 so the log would slide over it and around the other overhanging log.

Brooke and I hiked around and took pictures, she loves it there.

Once the log is stacked, Jeff climbs up there and drills holes in the log.

He then inserts the rebar piece and sledgehammers it into the log below. We'd bought a demo hammer that was supposed to be able to pound the rebar in, but it wasn't strong enough. It would have to be done the old fashion way with the sledgehammer, but Jeff says it works pretty well. He does plan to start hiring a laborer every few days to help with the hammering.

So, after a full weekend of lifting logs, hammering, and drilling, he was pretty tired. The body part that suffered the most was his butt from straddeling the log and sliding along as he worked. Guess he'll get used to it.

So, the second course is up!

The log pile is starting to get smaller and the second load will arrive in a few weeks.

8 logs stacked 40 to go... Yes, Jeff has remeasured and recalculated ceiling heights, deciding we can do without 2 courses of logs. This saves time and money and we think shaving a little height off will actually look better too.