Where Have I Been?

It has been some time since I last blogged about our log home endeavor. I'm still here only some things have changed. When I last blogged about our log home it was during the spring. We soon became very busy at work and could not get back to building. As the spring turned to summer we were hearing rumors at work that our jobs would be changing somewhat in the near future. The picture above is of a new warehouse the company that I work for has built. The new warehouse, houses a state-of-the-art picking and sorting system that will greatly change the way I do my job.


I'm a truck driver and we deliver and unload our own loads. The new warehouse will change the way our loads are loaded hence changing the way we unload. To make a long story short I'm looking at either working 11 hours a day, 6 days per week or taking a pay cut of around $15,000 per year. Needless to say I'm not going to work 6 days per week for the rest of my life. Which brings me to the dilemma we face with building our home.


With my future so uncertain I'm just unwilling to take on a mortgage. With the housing bust that we are going through, our current house is not worth what it was two years ago when we started planning. We just don't have as much equity as we use to.


All that being said we're probably going to make a smaller building some thing a long the lines of a 26 x 26. This will probably be used to house the future business that we are about to start. I will be posting more about that in the near future. We're trying to get everything lined up first. Check back for more info and new blog that I will start for it.

Mule Days

Today our family attended the 9th Annual Mule Day event held near our home town. Being fascinated by the pioneer life style this was a special treat for me. Well not only for me, but for the whole family. It is amazing to see how my great grandparents would have farmed. I thought I might share a few photos from today.

Planters and Plows
Bottom Plow
Disc Harrow

Bottom Plowing

Our Wood-Mizer

Monday we picked up our Wood-Mizer LT15. The whole family was excited to be getting a sawmill.

Cody checking it out.
Cora keeping me company as I put it together.
Me and Cody starting it up for the first time.
Making my first cut.

A few words about Wood-Mizer:

I have been blown away with this company. I have wanted a Wood-Mizer for sometime and knew the company had a very good reputation both for their sawmills and customer service, but I had no idea they were this good. The mill is way better than I had hoped for, it is top notch and then some. They take no short cuts in the design or the construction.

Nathan and the crew at Wood-Mizer South went over and beyond to serve us. With mills ranging in price from $4,000 to $46,000 I would have thought we would have been treated like small potatoes. But they treated us as if we had spent the big money. When we left with our mill I felt as if we were now a part of the family. Wood-Mizer is an A++++ company!

Wood-Mizer

Last Saturday Wood-Mizer had an open house event at their Wood-Mizer South location in Newnan GA. We made the 2 hour drive to see the demos of the mills. I have been contemplating weather or not to buy a mill or have someone come and custom saw all the trees we have been cutting.

I have wanted a Wood-Mizer for about 10 years but could never see the need to make that kind of investment into something that I would only use on occasion. Building a house is a good occasion. :)

My intention was to go to Wood-Mizer to see the demo on the LT15 and make up my mind as to weather I was going to buy a USED Wood-Mizer or settle for one of its cheaper rivals. I emphasized the word used because I never buy anything new like cars, trucks and the like. I have learned that lesson the hard way. I don't like eating the depreciation. I would rather someone else take the butt kicking on the depreciation. That way I can buy something used and turn around and sell it (if I have to) for close to what I paid for it.

Little did I know what kind of deal we were going to get there. For starters Wood-Mizer has the LT15 discounted almost $500 and for the open house they would include a free box of bands (blades) with the purchase of a mill, a $300 value. To make things better they had drawings for door prizes. Most of the prizes were hats and stuff, but the grand prize was $500 towards options with the purchase of a mill. Well guess who's name they drew for the $500? MY WIFE!!! To make a long story short we bought a NEW Wood-Mizer LT15 and saved almost $1300.00 Woo-Hoo!!! They will have it ready for us to pick up Monday if I don't have to work. More about the mill when we get it home. Here is a video of the LT15.


The LT15 demo mill
Our Mill

Spring Is Here

I just wanted to share some spring colors with you. The first two pictures are a before and after shot of the front yard of the parsonage. Big difference! Most of the people at church didn't know that the dogwoods and azaleas were there.


The parsonage before we cut trees.
Spring after the trees were removed.
These are some azaleas I planted for mama about 20 years ago.
Bumble bees are buzzing. Notice the one in the picture.
Dogwoods
Dew berries will be here soon! :)

Progress With The Trees

We started cutting trees at my mamas house last week. We have two or three trees left to fell after three days of working. We are bringing home a load of logs each day. Most of what we are cutting here will be used as saw logs, some are too small and will be used for railing or furniture later on.

Before we started thinning

After most of the trees have been cut and three loads of logs have been hauled away.
Load #3
Three loads of logs.

Cody helping me stack logs. He is a big help.

Cutting More Trees

We started cutting trees yesterday at my mamas house. Today my Paw Paw was doing some work in the his cow pasture and came by and helped me load some logs. He was a big help with his skid steer.

Before

Paw Paw loading them up.
A load of saw logs. Felling a tree.

Our Log Trailer

We have been looking for a trailer to haul saw logs with. We found this one at a local farm auction. This is just what we were looking for cheap but rugged and double axle, 4' wide by 18' long. It didn't have a floor, so that gave me the opportunity to put on timbers which would put the load above the wheels for easy manual loading and unloading, also they increased the width to 6'. We will start cutting trees tomorrow at my mamas and the trailer will allow us to haul the logs home as we cut.

Cutting timbers using my home built sawmill attachment.
I made some threaded brackets to bolt the timbers to the frame. They clip into place on the bottom of the frame.
Log trailer with movable loading ramps. (I put the removable uprights on after I took this picture)

My Wife Is The Greatest

I've gotten a little behind on my blogging. With the time changing the other week, now I knock off at dark, come in and get ready for bed so that I can go to work the next morning. That has cut into my blogging time. :(
I just wanted to share with you something my wife done for me last Saturday.
I have been looking for a cheap trailer that I could use to haul logs with and there was going to be a farm equipment auction in our home town last Saturday. We rode out and looked at what they were going to be auctioning and found "my trailer". The only thing was that I had to work the day of the auction and would not be able to be there. I was trying to think of someone that could be there for me when my wife said she would go.
I don't know if you have ever attended an equipment action before, but to tell you my wife would feel out of place, would be an understatement. She insisted that she could handle it. Farm auctions are mainly attended by older to middle aged men of the farmer/business man type. My daddy has farmed all his life so I've been to a few of these auctions. I think even I would have felt a little intimidated biding against some of these guys.
She and my son were there at 9a.m. when they opened. It was a cool rainy day, and she stayed till about 2p.m. when they finally auctioned "my trailer". She had two other guys biding against her but she won it at $275. When she called me to tell me that she had won it, I was more proud of her than I was of getting the trailer. I am truly blessed to have her.

My beautiful wife of 14 years.

What she was up againstOur trailer

I'll post more about getting the trailer ready for hauling logs later.

Almost Done

Were almost done with the trees at the church. We have a few more stumps to cut and clean up a little and we will be DONE!

saw logs The longest are 17' and the shortest are 8.5'

Loading them on the rackHard workers cleaning up

Still Cutting Trees

The old adage"it will take twice as long and cost twice as much" has been reverberating in my head the last few weeks. It seems as if "Murphy" has paid me a visit. Three weeks ago I stepped down off the logs on the log rack and twisted my ankle pretty bad. Then last week I spent two days in the bed with the flu. I told you that to explain why I'm still cutting trees. :(
I've got all but three cut down at the parsonage. Now I just have to get the logs up and clean up. That will probably take my two off days next week. Then I can move on to my mama's house. What I was hoping I could do in two weeks is looking more like four or more weeks.

Before
After

Conner Prairie

Last spring while I was in the Indianapolis IN area going to the Lasko School of Log Building I managed to visit a place called Conner Prairie just north of Indianapolis. As I entered the outdoor museum I was amazed by the early 1800 hand hewn style log cabins and barns. One of the largest collections of restored log structures that I've ever visited.
I was taking pictures of one of the barns when one of the people that worked there came up and ask if I was from the magazine. I told him that I wasn't and he went on to tell me about a guy from one of the log home magazines that had just been there the day before. Not knowing which magazine he was from, I figured I would keep an eye out for the article.
It finally appeared in the April Issue of Log Homes Illustrated. Here is part of the article.

Cutting Some Trees

As much as I hate to, I'm going to have to stop working on the house for a couple of weeks. I've been given quite a few pine trees to cut down and remove. I have about 20 that our church wanted removed from around the parsonage and about that many more my mama wants cut down from her place. They are tired of picking up pine cones before they cut the grass.
I will be able to use some for house logs , but most will be cut up into dimension lumber and tongue & grove flooring, roof decking, and wall paneling and furniture and the list goes on. Now I just need a sawmill. :) $$$ A Wood-Mizer LT15 would be nice!

Another Log On

Another log was added to the wall today. This one I had to straighten by cutting it and putting it back together again. I really didn't want to have to do any logs this way but this log needed to be used low on the wall because it slightly has left hand grain so I didn't want to use it in the window openings and it was to short for the front or back walls.I used a spline made from a 2x6. I placed the cut so that in the interior of the house it will be hidden behind the bath tube. Sorry I didn't take a picture of the log before I cut it to show how bowed it was.


Cuts are made to accept spline

Nice Fit

Now a Straight Log