Thursday, August 12, 2010


We finally cut into those big sticks we've been looking at in our yard. We should wrap up cutting on the two large posts today and start fitting the bents. That will make for a good time. Also Jeff Kimber from Precision Dirt Works is going to dig the footer holes for me next week, and Richard Bird dropped off the steel hold downs yesterday. So we are off and running on this shelter. Stay posted for a raising date. It would be great to do that around some sort of harvest party.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010


The long awaited WWB truck bike is here and in full form. We will be using it to run down to the lumber yard for smaller items, that we don not need a truck for. It was custom made by our very own Mike Lowham. He builds these on the side and I believe this was number 4. One of these years we ought to enter the 4th of July parade and ride the truck bikes.


Scott and I are using this week to move forward on the Pushroot Community Garden Pavilion. We are using a version of the plumb bob scribe method to layout the bents. This structure has two bents, each w/ only one post. We are using some really big sticks for the posts. The pavilion was designed to use these two 12 x 26 salvaged Doug Fir posts. They came out of a old Amaco building in Casper Wyoming. The purlins will be from the same building and the other timbers are from the yard and assorted origins. In the photo you can see the monster post on the bottom and the brace above Scott's head and the rafter in the back. Here Scott is transferring the brace info (shape and faces) to the post. This is mostly based on the French method. Check back to find out when we will be raising this.

Thursday, August 5, 2010

The boys and I wrapped up the aspen ceiling of our addition today. I'm really pleased w/ the way it turned out. The dark grain of the aspen looks nice as a accent to the Doug Fir timbers. Floors next.