Oct 20th, 2008 - Fifth Course

Thanks to Don's help over the weekend, the fifth course was completed in a few days. Roberto pounded in the rebar, amazing what such a little guy can do with that sledgehammer. Every course up adds 14.5 or so inches in wall height and feels like a dramatic difference. Five courses up means seven more, almost halfway! My parents came up again and my dad helped Jeff, while my mom babysat Brooke. Here, he is answering a question Jeff had asked about the chain hoist.

They also finished peeling the ridgepole, which proved to be an easy job. The log had dried out enough that the bark just came right off. This is the tree we had cut down from the property to grade for the parking area. We were lucky to have it, as its just the right size for the ridgepole.

It had been sitting in one place for a while now and Jeff wanted to roll it. I arrived as they were getting ready to do this. I parked in my usual place just below the log pile, but when I saw what they were about to do, I thought better of it and moved the car. My dad suggested we tie the log to this tree in case it wanted to slide when it rolled.

These both proved to be wise precautions because once Jeff trimmed a few branches and rolled it over, it started sliding down the hill with amazing speed. In a split second, it was far from its original resting place. Fortunately, the rope finally stopped it before it reached the road. If the car had been there I think Jeff might have had a heart attack. So, all was well, and it was pretty exciting to watch.

In other developments... We'd talked about the possibility of hiring a crane at some point, but hadn't gotten around to meeting with a crane operator to discuss what could be done. Jeff called a local crane operator with a 40 ton crane and discovered that this would be a good solution for moving and placing the ridgepole and other interior support poles. This can be done with the pulley system, but would be far from easy. We just hadn't been sure whether the crane could be used so far back from the road or if it would be cost effective.

But, after meeting at the property, it looked like once he did some grading to make a level pad to work from, the crane could achieve what we needed. Its $125 an hour, but it would be worth it. We'd also be able to get him to move a good portion of the logs up to the site which would save time on stacking the rest of the courses.

So, next Monday the rest of the logs will be delivered and Tuesday or Wednesday the crane will come to do all the stuff I had described. Wow, that will be an exciting week!