Cabin Building - Day Ten

Clear skies today so we started hauling down the rest of the lumber needed to make the beams and doing the measuring. Well, that was just darned special because we found out that almost half of the 8-footers aren't quite 8 feet -- grrrrrrr.  You sorta expect to get at least 96" in an 8 foot board, not 95 1/4" or 93 7/8"!! And most of them aren't even close to square on the end -- more cuts for us. So we ended up having to make about eight trips to the pile (instead of two) to find boards that were actually 8 foot or longer -- which resulted in blowing the boots on the ATV drive shafts, so we have to be super-careful now because we still have to get into the village and back one more time if and when the truck's brake lines ever come in. And we still need 8 more to make the last beam :(  At least we can still use the not-quite-8' boards for the rafters, or I'd be royally pissed off!!

We did manage to get two of the 16-footers down, so we can at least square up the first floor frame in order to get the jacks bolted in and the beam set properly.  Assuming, of course, that we can actually get the beam laminated correctly since it also appears that most of our wood is varying widths and depths too! Everything is just, oh, 1/4 to 3/8" different. Seriously, whoever was working the mill that day must have had way too much Nyquil!!  Good thing I didn't start assembly-line cutting like I normally do and decided to wait until everything was down there... looks like we're going to have to measure each unit individually against the final height/width/length we want it. The best we can do is get things lined up flush and level where it counts and attempt to hide or fiddle the goofs.  *** SIGH***

And, to top it all off, the bucket that we had all the tubes of construction adhesive in filled up with rain when the tarp shelter gave way... so all those cardboard tubes are soggy now. Hopefully they'll dry out enough to use in the caulk gun and all of it isn't wasted ($$$$$).

Oh yeah, and for a special treat... Ripley punctured and chewed through the last bottle of antifreeze (don't worry, it's the "safe kind" in case she did ingest some) so when the ATV started overheating hauling lumber, we could only put water in... that will need to be fixed before too long!!  Freakin' dog chews anything and everything made of wood, rock or plastic -- you can't hide stuff from her either because she's as tall as I am. One of the reasons that the tarp shelter gave way was because she'd eaten the heads off 2 stakes and pulled out 2 more (still can't find them, she's probably eaten them!).

On a postive note, we finally unpacked and inventoried all the Strong Ties that we got from the awesome folks at ConnectorsOnly.com and they're all there and in good condition!  Mark K. -- you guys ROCK!! Since we had some design changes between when I ordered and now, we've got some extras; but you never know when you're going to build something that needs a connector or two LOL!

Oh well, at least we're a few more steps closer...

Cabin Building - Day 9

Stopped raining for the time being.  Spending most of our time managing flood issues and drying things out.

Positive notes: We got the masonry bits and concrete anchor bolts in the mail today, so we can attach the jacks to the concrete piers and then set the sill beams.  We did get the brake fluid in the mail today, but no brake lines or bleeders... so the truck is still out of commission and we can't haul the rest of the lumber yet :(

We can laminate the beams as soon as it's dry enough for the adhesive to cure and we aren't sinking in the mud working, but it's all kind of pointless until we can get at least a few of those 16-foot joists down there to square things up. Otherwise, we've just got some beams sitting on piers, that can't be attached because we need to make sure they're square, which we can't do until we get the joists.

Cabin Building - Day 6,7 & 8

No progress.

It's been POURING. Puddles are amassing, and the mud that was finally drying out is melting again. Truck parts didn't arrive on Friday, so she's still out of commission.

Cabin Building - Day Five

Slowly moving materials and tools back to the build site in small loads on the ATV. Have to be careful not to damage the it while waiting for the truck's replacement brake line or we'll be completely without a vehicle with no way to get into the village to pickup the parts... which would not be good :(

A few more small trips in the morning and we should be ready to build the laminated sill and header beams. I'll probably get that started while G takes the ATV down the highway (30-ish miles) to check the Post Office for our parts delivery.  Pray pray pray the "overnight express" really is overnight this time and we can fix the truck over the weekend to get the lumber that's too big for the ATV back to the site.  Really, it's just not safe trying to haul back 16-footers strapped to the ATV like joisting lances -- LOL. And 4x8 sheet goods? fuhgeddabowdit!

SIGH -- did I happen to mention that we really need to get a utility trailer one of these days?

Cabin Building - Day Four

No progress today.  I'm feeling yucky and there is some sort of critter hanging around the tent making Ripley go bonkers. So we decided to hang out here and get tools & stuff sorted out instead.  I'd hate to come back from the cabin site to find our tent demolished and our cat eaten!

But, on the high side, it gives me more time to document our building plans better and to contact the lumber yard.  They're going to deliver our last load on the 10th. If we get the truck's brake line replaced by then, we'll be good to go.

Hopefully we'll be back to work tomorrow hauling lumber down on the ATV in a million small trips ;)

Cabin Building - Day Two & Day Three

Day 2:  We rested. Went into the village to check mail and get more gas, and have a nice long soak in the hot springs tub. One of our neighbors was going in to Fairbanks and offered to pick us up the concrete to finish the piers... Awesome!
Day 3: Trapper got back with our concrete so we finished up the piers... YAY!! The foundation is pretty much done, just have to put the jacks on now (waiting for special bolts that G decided we needed, rather than the ones that I bought earlier). We also got a load of gravel spread out for the base of our metal shed, one more or so and I think we can start putting that up for storage.

Unfortunately, the forest ate one of our brake lines, so the truck is out of commission for the time being. G ordered the replacement parts "express" delivery... but this is the Bush, so there's no telling when we'll actually get them. It puts a damper on moving materials back to the site, but we'll manage somehow.  It would have been nice if we could have at least gotten the shed kit back there before all this... that's just a little bulky and heavy to drag back with the ATV safely. We really need to get a trailer one of these days!

No pics or vid today because a bad storm was rolling in while I was tidying up the work site and I had to hoof it back to the tent double-time to avoid getting drenched.

Interesting thought process...

Ok So I don't post much, since Plick enjoys posting about what we're doing, so I tend to post about "stuff" other than life.

Well so living in the bush can be fun, and can be a bit dull, so during the dull periods we tend to play various casual games (hidden object, match 3, time management). Well we recently got this game (Fishdom 2) that has what I've named the funky flute. Now for those who don't know what a casual game is, I'll briefly explain. It's a computer game that has four prime elements, it's relatively cheap, it has one main gameplay theme (manage your time, match 3 of the same symbols in a line, or find specific objects), they're available for download, they're requirements are quite broad. Being relatively cheap, so is the sound track...

Anyway this is beside what I was thinking about. So hearing the "funky flute" got me to thinking about completely inappropriate instruments playing specific songs. For example the flute normally does not fit too well with contemporary music, unless it has a folksy spin (Jethro Tull for example). Now I apologize in advance to anyone who plays one of these instruments, however if you happen to have a track with the instrument please point me at a link in a comment I'd like to hear it. Or if you think of others, post 'em as a comment, and I'll let you know what I think.

Most of these original tracks will be available on YouTube somewhere, I'm not going to link since all of them are copyright their respective owners. If you want to look them up that's your own affair.

So here's the list
Flute - Bomber - Motorhead
Mandolin- Kickstart My Heart - Motley Crue (Gotta include the engine rev at the start too)
Harp - Plush-Stone Temple Pilots
Bassoon - Jeremy - Pearl Jam
Tuba/Sousaphone - Constant Motion - Dream Theater
Clarinet - Beautiful People - Marilyn Manson
Tin Whistle - Killing in the Name - Rage Against the Machine
Hammer Dulcimer - Screaming for Vengeance - Judas Priest
Ichigenkin - Blackened - Metallica
Bagpipes - La Grange - ZZ Top
French Horn - Kool Thing - Sonic Youth

Now this may not be a reflection on the instument, I remember that a music teacher I had used to say that if a piece of music is well written it can be played on anything... I'm not sure about that, thoughts on a postcard...