Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Masonry Heater Innards
















We got everything roofed over, sheet metalled, and stuffed with straw this weekend and Dan put on our super duper $1 door and the bullet heater. Jeff and Dave, the crew from Gimme Shelter Construction in Amherst, have been hard at work in our little straw shack, putting up the innards of our masonry heater. They got here yesterday with a trailer of tools and a truckload of assorted bricks - concrete and firebrick and flue tile. And a Christmas present from me to me - originally I thought we had taken the bakeoven out of the plans, but they brought one, so by golly now I'm having one!! You can see the progress from the pics - instead of going straight up the chimney, the hot gas that a fire produces circulates up and around the bakeoven, then down to the front of the heater and around the side to the chimney through a heated bench. Once the interior stuff is done, then a local mason will face the whole thing in brick and build up a chimney for us, after the holiday probably. Then we may have a little rest till the big timbers come and the weather allows putting them up - we'll see. Also, we were recipients of an early visit from S. Claus - he left us a brand new ladder!!

Sunday, December 2, 2007

Robert Burns was so right...








About the fate of the best laid plans of mice and men. We've gotten so much done, but none of it has worked out quite as planned. After the floor was done Uncle Jim's crew, headed by the super accomplished Chuck, who I am now ashamed to admit that for a while we called " the furry one" due to his rather bushy beard, returned to grade over our perimeter insulation and make things shipshape dirt wise for the winter. That guy can do ballet with a Caterpillar tractor - it's a sight to behold. Then Dan and Dad and I put up a temporary bracing and roof structure, Dan wrapped the inside posts with house wrap, and put up some of our super duper scrounger sheet metal. We got a load of it from a guy up by Colfax for less than you would pay for a Coke per sheet, thinking we would use it to cover the cordwood in a more secure fashion. But now it's covering our teeny weeny straw house!! Friday we got 97 bales of straw which I thought was too many but somehow turned out to be about 25 bales shy of what we need, and Mom and I stacked most of them inside the structure, first covering the bottom layer with plastic so it doesn't stain our beautiful but very slippery concrete floor. Then yesterday Matt ( Brother Most Fantastic) came out and helped me put up the plastic roof in the snow. I had gotten a silo cap from Farm and Fleet that I thought would cover the whole thing, except that geometry is not my friend. A square silo cap will not fit over your octagonal framework as perfectly as you think while standing in the aisle at the store, trying to do math in your head. It held through the six or so inches of snow we got, but only through the grace of God and some judicious use of bracing and tape. So today we shoveled - the outside, the inside, the roof, the driveway... And reinforced the plastic at the edges so it will be OK for a bit. The new plan is to use more of our sheet metal offal to roof it tomorrow. Inside it's quite pleasant and will be even more pleasant when we have the bullet heater going. We're going to give it a trial run as we roof tomorrow. The masonry heater folks wisely and blessedly postponed a week due to a more urgent job and the snow, so we should be ready for them next Monday, God willing and the creek don't rise, or the snow don't fly.

Friday, November 9, 2007

Floored!!








We have a floor!! And just in the nick of time - this morning we had snow, pretty wet fluffy snow. It's half melted already after an hour or so, but still - I know it's time for it, but I'm not super keen. Or maybe it's just that I'm still super tired. We worked like banshees to get ready for the pour - originally we thought it was happening today, but then Wednesday Jim said Thursday was the day, so we set the interior posts quick like on Wednesday. Matt, Dad and I did three in the morning before Matt had to get to work, then some of Jim's crew showed up to save our behinds and set four more before they got called away to a Menards emergency. Dan and Dad and I did the last one and then Dan and I worked like crazy to put down the vapor barrier and insulation for under the floor. We put Jim's generator through its paces for lighting since it gets dark so early now and wore down Mom's bread knife some cutting insulation(serated blades work better for some reason). The generator gave up the ghost right about when I did at nine, but then we got up at 5:30 to finish up the last dregs of insulation. Sixteen sides is a lot of corners and wierd angles - we chose it because it gives you the most enclosed space short of being completely round, but boy was it a chore!! Like a make your own puzzle piece game, only in the dark and cold. Then yesterday we got it all squared away in time for Jim's crew, but the generator's starter button had died, so we were in a quandary about power, but Dad came to the rescue. He had a temporary electrical box all wired up for us that he hadn't installed yet, so we quick slapped that on the post and hooked it up lickety split, and after a minor moment of heart stopping nothing before we reset the ground-fault button, we had juice!! Then the concrete truck showed up an hour early (after being nearly two hours late for the first footing pour two weeks ago), but Jim's crew was ready inside of ten minutes and the mud started!! It all turned out lovely, false starts and all. They say Providence protects sailors, children and fools - I think we've got fools and sailors tied up in a bow. This project probably looks like a ship of fools and somedays it feels like it for sure, but then with a lot of help from family and the Man Upstairs it all comes out !!

Monday, November 5, 2007

Gales of November







The wind is definitely frisky out there today!! The weekend was great - productive, but as usual some roadblocks occurred. Our posts won't be here till later this week, so the pouring this week is probably not going to happen, although as it stands the weather might actually improve a little late this weekend/early next week. I'm crossing my fingers. As you can see from the pics from yesterday, we have the exterior insulation up on the footings and have evened out the pad. Now it just needs to quit blowing for a bit so I can put down the vapor barrier and insulation! And power - perhaps Tuesday or Wednesday we will have usable power at the site. Deb and Matt both came out this weekend and helped immensely. Dan I think was relieved to go back to work after having last week off - he didn't get too much of a vacation!! Even Lauren helped, pulling nails out of the concrete forms so we could clean up the site.

Saturday, November 3, 2007

Months of Progress



























We've had so much progress to work on we've had no time to blog about it!! You'll have to forgive me for the backwards photo display - next time I'll know to go in reverse order. So...the plumbers came and laid pipes galore into our well compacted pad, then we spent what felt like weeks threading rebar for the footing forms, and then finally we got to the concrete!! Dan's Uncle Jim has a great crew that helped us make our plans work and refrained from telling us we are completely crazy!! As of Nov. 2, we have the footings poured and the big exterior uprights in place. Dunn County Electric gave us a new transformer on Wednesday that will serve both Mom and Dad's house, their outbuildings, the farmhouse and our spread. Next week we'll pour the floor inside after we even out the pad and install insulation galore. The interior posts will then go up and the masonry heater will come to fruition, and we can slap a roof on this baby!! The plan is to do temporary fill between the posts with straw bales so we can work inside for the winter. Depending on how that works we may be able to lay cordwood wall by wall as the temperature allows - we'll have to see how a portable heater works/break in the masonry heater. All in all, even when you're beat, all you can do is move forward!!


Wednesday, July 4, 2007

Welcome to the Whistlepig!!





Hello from Jessi and Dan - we've set this up so we can keep everyone abreast of our adventures in cordwood building!! The former website isn't super easy to update and would need to be moved, so we've changed venues.

As of July 4th, 2007, we have finished the sand pad that our foundation will float on and are ready to start on digging the forms for the wall bases. The plumbers will come soon and set up the drain to the septic tank and the outside spigots. Then we'll be able to pour concrete and have the stove people come - only 10 months after we originally thought we'd be able to!!

Dan has been a sand moving machine - here he is with his trusty wheelbarrow. And here is the finished pad - way more sand than anyone wants to move!!