4/28/11
Hunt Update
I know I left everyone in suspense about the hunt I went on last fall. No deer! It sure was fun though. Well as fun as camping in gale force winds and rain can be. Which is very.
Beer Brewing!
I got a Groupon for a beginners beer brewing kit from Midwest Supplies. Shelley and I have been talking about brewing our own beer for some time. Two years ago she bought me Homebrewing For Dummies, but I never took the next step- buying supplies. The groupon was just enough of a kick in the butt to make us HOP in to action.The kit includes everything you need, except a brew pot and bottles. We ordered a 36 quart brew pot on Amazon and bought used bottles from the redemption center for $3.75. Can't wait to start brewing!
Chickens: Delivery
Monday morning Shelley got a phone call from the post office. The chickens have arrived! We ordered 25, all hens. They also include one free rare breed chicken with every order. Unfortunately, our rare chick died during delivery. Cause of death is not know, but I suspect foul play.
4/13/11
The Barn Project
As the snow melts, I've been thinking more and more about building the barn. I've been milling wood for a couple of months now, but I'm getting anxious to dig some dirt.
I've been using Google Sketch-up to make a cut list for milling. It's a pretty neat program you can use on just about any project, large or small.
So far I've got about 2/3rds of the lumber milled. I'm using mostly 6x8s and 4x8s for the structure itself, and lots of 2x6 decking for the plank and beam floors and roof.
Instead of tongue and groove, I plan on using a blind spline. I should be able to make a simple jig on the sawmill to cut a groove on both edges of each plank. I could theoretically do tongue and groove, but I would have to handle the wood a lot more, and make more adjustments as I go. I should be able to park a tank on top the barn when I'm done.
On that topic... what qualifies me as an engineer/architect? Nothing! But the idea of this type of timber frame, is to overbuild everything. Not only am I using timbers that are bigger than necessary, I'm also using larch (one of the strongest woods available for this purpose), I'm keeping my spans between posts fairly short, and I'm only using simple joints (almost all of which are over posts). A great resource for this kind of construction is Timber Framing, for the rest of us, by Rob Roy. Traditional timber framing requires quite a bit of skill. Many amateurs have attempted projects using the traditional method, with great results. But it takes more time, better tools, and more patients. All things I have little of.
Right now I'm having a dilemma over foundation options. Originally I was going to go with a post and pier foundation. Unfortunately they aren't good in cold climates, and often don't last as long as other options. Despite their drawbacks, they are relatively easy to install, and are well suited to soft saturated ground (which I've got). But since I've burnt all the barn debris, I've noticed I need to deal with whats left of the original barn's foundation. It was more or less a rock filled ditch. Those rocks are likely to be in my way when digging post holes for the concrete piers. If I were to dig them out, I'd be left with a hole much larger than I intended. That's not ideal when back filling on your Sonoco tubes. You want as little disturbed earth around the tubes as possible. I'd be worried about the shifting and expanding of my clay soils. Now I'm leaning towards a rubble trench foundation.
A Rubble Trench foundation uses the idea that if you eliminate the possibility for water to collect or saturate the ground underneath you, then it can't freeze and heave. To do this, you dig a trench below the frost line, place perforated pipe at the bottom sloping to daylight, and fill and compact with crushed rock. This saves on concrete, and the labor that goes with it. You can even use urbanite instead of paying for crushed rock. Then you build forms for steel reinforced concrete grade beam on top of the rubble filled trench. From their you can start building, and use it just as a perimeter foundation, or you can poor a slab within the perimeter. This does mean however, I will need to rent some excavation equipment.
RANT WARNING
I'd like to take a moment to mention why I do things the way I do. That is to say; the hard way. Its not really to be "green". I don't like that term, if its good for the environment, its generally a byproduct. The real reason is it's cheaper, often more efficient, and satisfying! Did you know that even though the US has almost identical acreage of productive forest land, 2/3rds of construction lumber comes from Canada? Some of that lumber was harvested in the united states, shipped and milled in Canada, and sold back to us! That's ridiculous! Whether or not you believe in man-made climate change, diesel fuel is expensive! In fact, fuel prices often make or break the markets for forest products these days. If fuel is too expensive, its not unreasonable to expect timber to stop being harvested. And what's it all for anyways? A spindly, crooked, waney piece of kindling for $2.38 plus tax? Sorry, its not worth it. And stop calling them 2x4s if they aren't 2x4! I guess one and a half by three and half studs don't roll of the tongue so well. I'm proud to say the stumps from my lumber are within a few hundred feet of where they were milled and used. And they are 2x4 inches! And if I were the kind of guy who would order a prefab barn, I'd probably be the type of guy who wouldn't need a barn at all. After all, the only reason I need a barn is to pursue all my DIY activities. If I were the "other guy", I'd be paying other people to do everything for me, so I could watch TV in my spare time. No thanks.
RANT OVER
So hopefully I will get the trenches marked out soon, to start breaking ground. I'll be sure to post pictures as I go. If I forget, I'm sure Shelley won't!
I've been using Google Sketch-up to make a cut list for milling. It's a pretty neat program you can use on just about any project, large or small.
 |
| Plank and Beam roof... I'll be using blind splines instead of tongue and groove... |
Instead of tongue and groove, I plan on using a blind spline. I should be able to make a simple jig on the sawmill to cut a groove on both edges of each plank. I could theoretically do tongue and groove, but I would have to handle the wood a lot more, and make more adjustments as I go. I should be able to park a tank on top the barn when I'm done.
On that topic... what qualifies me as an engineer/architect? Nothing! But the idea of this type of timber frame, is to overbuild everything. Not only am I using timbers that are bigger than necessary, I'm also using larch (one of the strongest woods available for this purpose), I'm keeping my spans between posts fairly short, and I'm only using simple joints (almost all of which are over posts). A great resource for this kind of construction is Timber Framing, for the rest of us, by Rob Roy. Traditional timber framing requires quite a bit of skill. Many amateurs have attempted projects using the traditional method, with great results. But it takes more time, better tools, and more patients. All things I have little of.
Right now I'm having a dilemma over foundation options. Originally I was going to go with a post and pier foundation. Unfortunately they aren't good in cold climates, and often don't last as long as other options. Despite their drawbacks, they are relatively easy to install, and are well suited to soft saturated ground (which I've got). But since I've burnt all the barn debris, I've noticed I need to deal with whats left of the original barn's foundation. It was more or less a rock filled ditch. Those rocks are likely to be in my way when digging post holes for the concrete piers. If I were to dig them out, I'd be left with a hole much larger than I intended. That's not ideal when back filling on your Sonoco tubes. You want as little disturbed earth around the tubes as possible. I'd be worried about the shifting and expanding of my clay soils. Now I'm leaning towards a rubble trench foundation.
A Rubble Trench foundation uses the idea that if you eliminate the possibility for water to collect or saturate the ground underneath you, then it can't freeze and heave. To do this, you dig a trench below the frost line, place perforated pipe at the bottom sloping to daylight, and fill and compact with crushed rock. This saves on concrete, and the labor that goes with it. You can even use urbanite instead of paying for crushed rock. Then you build forms for steel reinforced concrete grade beam on top of the rubble filled trench. From their you can start building, and use it just as a perimeter foundation, or you can poor a slab within the perimeter. This does mean however, I will need to rent some excavation equipment.
RANT WARNING
I'd like to take a moment to mention why I do things the way I do. That is to say; the hard way. Its not really to be "green". I don't like that term, if its good for the environment, its generally a byproduct. The real reason is it's cheaper, often more efficient, and satisfying! Did you know that even though the US has almost identical acreage of productive forest land, 2/3rds of construction lumber comes from Canada? Some of that lumber was harvested in the united states, shipped and milled in Canada, and sold back to us! That's ridiculous! Whether or not you believe in man-made climate change, diesel fuel is expensive! In fact, fuel prices often make or break the markets for forest products these days. If fuel is too expensive, its not unreasonable to expect timber to stop being harvested. And what's it all for anyways? A spindly, crooked, waney piece of kindling for $2.38 plus tax? Sorry, its not worth it. And stop calling them 2x4s if they aren't 2x4! I guess one and a half by three and half studs don't roll of the tongue so well. I'm proud to say the stumps from my lumber are within a few hundred feet of where they were milled and used. And they are 2x4 inches! And if I were the kind of guy who would order a prefab barn, I'd probably be the type of guy who wouldn't need a barn at all. After all, the only reason I need a barn is to pursue all my DIY activities. If I were the "other guy", I'd be paying other people to do everything for me, so I could watch TV in my spare time. No thanks.
RANT OVER
So hopefully I will get the trenches marked out soon, to start breaking ground. I'll be sure to post pictures as I go. If I forget, I'm sure Shelley won't!
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