1-9 October, 2011 Wood Cutting, Grandkids, Canning and (sigh!) Saw Repairs

We've had lots of rain this week making it difficult to get much done outside.  I've seen this kind of weather settle in and it just kept up this drizzly type rain until it got cold enough to turn to snow then kept on with that!  We've got almost enough wood cut for the winter since I already had a couple of cords left over from last year but I'd like to have some extra if we can get to it.  You can't really have too much on hand.

Susan rode her bicycle in to the post office a couple of times.  She loves riding and it saves gas money.  We usually walk in a couple of times a year but haven't done it yet this year.  It's fifteen miles round trip.  We always get a chuckle out of the sign on the door stating it's the "Main Post Office" in Fortine.  Fortine consists of a tavern, an elementary school, one church, an antique store and a volunteer fire department.  Plus there's about a dozen homes in the town.  How many post offices do they think we might have?

Time to harvest rose hips.  We have lots of those around this year.

Susan picks them, dries them and saves them for making tea.

We had two days of good wood cutting weather this week and used them both.  We took the trailer and pickup with us one day.  We started early and worked until almost dark. 

My stihl quit due to a plugged fuel line so I had to finish up with my little mini-mac. I take it along in case I get the stihl stuck and have to cut it out.  I've cut a lot of wood with this little saw but it kind of chews through the wood while the stihl just falls through it.  It was too far to drive back for our other saws though so I used this one. We filled the trailer but didn't get the pickup full.  The mini-mac quit after we got about two-thirds of a cord in the truck.  I expected it to because it does that when it gets hot.  That's why I take it along for "just-in-case."   Since the Stihl was out of commission too we decided to head home with what we had. (Which was still almost two cords.)

Susan has accompanied me on every trip this year.  She stacks brush and carries the wood to the truck.  Needless to say, it makes the job go much faster.  The other great thing about having her along is that she actually prepares real meals during the day.  She brings her propane stove and cooks so we have a hot meal for lunch.  Today it's chicken and dumplings left over from the night before.  The dog is, of course, looking for a handout.

We spent some time in Kalispell and got to visit with some of the kids and grandkids.  This is Jonathan and his little sister Anna.  Jonathan made a steering wheel  for the bike trailer and is "driving" his sister around the yard.

Anna decided to use her own car but didn't get far because Scott wouldn't move.  He thinks he's a full service gas station attendant and should check the oil ... if he could just find the engine.

Hannah and grandma.  Hannah has discovered the digital camera and loved having her picture taken so she could look at herself in the camera window.

From Grandma she went to mom for another photo op.

After the Stihl quit I decided to get the other saws going.  The Craftsman 18 inch had a pretty severe gas leak last year.  I finally found that it was the gas cap leaking so I did some investigating.  It had come loose from the retainer last year and Tristan put it back on but we didn't know that a valve had fallen out of it.  We were using it at the time so it was covered in sawdust.  We just finished up with the other saw and came home.  I had a good chance to look it over this week and that's when I found the problem.  I emptied the tank in hope that the valve was in it and it was.  Now I just had to put it back together.

The little rubber valve goes over the hole in the center of the cap.  It's supposed to let air in from outside yet keep the gasoline inside.  I put it together and it still leaked so I took it apart again and flattened the metal retaining fingers and re-installed it.  I had to tap it in with a hammer and small socket this time but it stayed tight and doesn't leak now.  The larger end goes over the valve and is retained the same way.

Our fire-fighter son had to dispose of some old coats and pants (they rotate them out after so many years of service) so he gave us each an outfit.  We're slowly putting together our own "fire department" in case we have a fire out here.  Hopefully we can contain things until the real fire-fighters get here which in all likelihood would take 45 minutes to an hour.  We're primarily concerned with wildland fires in the summer.  We keep fire extinguishers in the house and the shack in case we need them.

The cat is doing it's "kata." ... Or should I say "cata."

We introduced the cat to the grandkids' stick horse.  The cats reaction ... "Man, only a mother could love something as ugly as you!!"

B&V ordered a case of mixed vegetables from the case lot sale at the Fortine Merc.  The only thing was it didn't specify that they were frozen instead of canned.  Wouldn't be a problem for most people but living off grid they don't have a freezer or refrigerator!  No real problem though.  Susan just ran them through the canners (two) so now they're canned mixed veggies.  The price was so good that we ordered a case for ourselves.

We had one jar break in the canning process.  When this happens we have to be careful of disposing of it.  There'll be glass in the food so we usually put them in a bucket and take it to the dump instead of putting it in the compost pile or feeding it to the chickens, dog or goat.

We found some moldy food in a dumpster and saved it for the chickens.  They love that kind of stuff.  We have to tie the dog up because she'll run them off and eat it herself.

I thought I'd make some falling wedges out of some scrap 2X4's I had laying around.  I set up a guide board on the radial arm saw ...

and started cutting.  These work okay but don't last as long as the plastic wedges you buy.  On the other hand they were free other than a few minutes labor and a little gasoline for the generator.

We like getting out in the woods early to cut firewood.  It's beautiful out there.  The sun was just cresting the mountain top and was shning through the fog.  The trees broke up the light enough to make it interesting.

One of the places we cut wood on Saturday.  The little red dot at the base of the tree is my hard-hat.  I'm cutting the leaning tree down.  Since it's already leaning on the tree beside it I'll cut my notch and then cut almost all the way through to the notch.  I hooked the chains up to the base and backed the truck up to the chains.  I was able to pull the base up on the road which let the top fall between two healthy trees. ...  This is our third tree for the day.

I pulled the second tree it out on the road, unhooked the chains, moved them to the base and pulled it back to the chainsaws.  Susan paced this one off and it's about 70 to 75 feet long.  It doesn't get much easier than this.  This is the second we dropped that morning.  The first one we dropped across the road. (I got this picture out of order!)

Number three for the day down and on the road.  It's faster to take the branches off with an axe than to use the saw and I get to use a different set of muscles which make it easier also.  My stihl worked long enough to cut down the first tree then the fuel line plugged up again.  I had taken the carburetor apart and blew everything out so something must be stuck in a fuel line.  I'll have to take it apart agan when I get home.  Today though, I have my 18 inch Homelite saw with me. It's only slightly faster than the mini-mac but at least it's running.  It takes a lot of fuel though.  I went through almost a gallon of gasoline to cut one load.

Four tree down, cut up and loaded.  Time to close up shop.  This is the way a load of firewood should look like.  I'm putting the back gates on the rack in preparation of heading home.  It's nice to see the springs sagging a little on my one-ton Dodge.

Susan's tying the Homelite saw on top of the laod along side the spare tire and stihl.  The axe handle is sticking out the back below the hi-lift jack. The picnic basket and tool box are on the floor of the truck.  We still have to load the dog so it's a little crowded in the cab.  This is Saturday afternoon.

I went hunting yesterday (Sunday) and saw this spring bubbling up water.  We've had a wet summer overall and it's nice to see the spring flowing so freely.  It's often dry this time of year.

Scott is visiting us for a little while and finally gets to meet the dog on his own level.  Odie adores Scott and was very gentle with him.  She was usually crawling when she got near him.

I took about two dozen pictures but these two were my favorites.

25-30 September 2011 - 2/3 Cord of Kindling, Onions,Wilderness Camper and Firewood Trailers

This is our coffee maker.  Our youngest daughter gave this to me for my birthday and we love it.  it makes three cups of coffee, doesn't need any filters and needs very little clean-up.

Susan has been putting in lots of hours the last couple of weeks on re-organizing the cabin and outbuildings.  We have things stored that we haven't seen since our move out here nine years ago.  This is one of the boxes.  These are some large tin cups for period authentic camping.  I have some of the smaller sizes out where I can use them but only one of the large ones so these will be added to my collection.  There was also some web gear in the box.  I may be selling most of mine since I have civilian counterparts that I prefer in most instances.

We've had some cold nights and winter is on it's way so I pulled the pipes and drained the water pump for our water tank.

We had one day of rain that was heavy enough to keep us inside so I took some photos for an article I got approval for.  It's how to make an endless bow string so I have my jig set up on one of the kitchen counters.  This is the first stage to get the length correct for the rest of the process.

Obviously there's a lot of background clutter when taken at ground level so I brought in a ladder and took some shots from it.  I typically use a tripod to keep the images sharp but I had to rely on bracing myself while on the ladder for these.  I have my elbow resting on a pot-rack that's anchored to the wall on the right side.  I'd have probably done it outside if it hadn't been raining.  Unfortunately, when the weather's good I have other things to do outside.

Frost was in the forecast one night so we brought the pepper plant in from the front porch.  It got down to 27 degrees that night so we're glad we brought it inside.  Susan has been nursing it along in the pot all summer long.

We made a run to a local sawmill to get some sawmill slabs for firewood (they're free).  It turned out to be more work than we'd planned on for wood that was just marginal.  Most of the pieces are thin and while they burn hot they also burn fast.  We (Tristan and I) had to dig through stacks of bark and other useless stuff to get to the better pieces and it took several hours to get a semi-decent load on the truck.  Once I got them home they were a pain to cut into stove length with the chainsaw so I set a board across a couple of sawhorses and used the circular saw.  It worked much better.  I began cutting by using the inverter and battery bank but the saw was taxing the inverter too much (its only an 800 watt inverter) and rather than overheat the inverter or burn out the saw due to low voltage I switched over to our, 4,000 watt generator.  It's pretty easy on gas so I doubt if I used any more gasoline than it would have taken to use the chainsaw.

And speaking of chainsaws ... Last time out cutting my Stihl was getting dull by the time we finished the load.  When we were at the sawmill I used the Stihl to trim the ends of the boards off even and must have hit something hard (like the bumper of the truck!) because the chain wouldn't even cut through the slabs.  I sharpened the chain enough to finish my cutting then the saw didn't want to run.  I got it going long enough to do what I needed and we headed for home.  The next day (Monday) I put a new chain on my Mini-Mac and sharpened the chain on my Stihl.  It was in pretty bad shape so I had to take a bunch off to get it sharp again.  After that I took that chain off and saved it for a spare and put a new chain on (the Stihl).  The running problem was a plugged air filter so a quick cleaning of it did the trick.  The Stihl's running great now which is good since it's my main saw.

This is the wood from the sawmill.  It's slightly more than 2/3 of a cord since the pieces are 16 inches long and each row measures 7 feet tall and 8 feet wide.  The front row is about 18 inches tall.  It's near the back of the wood shed which means we shouldn't need it until late spring.  It'll be perfect for that time of year when we just fire up the stove to take the chill out of the cabin and make breakfast. 

We decide it was time to put the wood stove in the camper. I'm cutting up a piece of cement board to use under the stove.

Susan cleaned out the corner of the camper where the stove will go.

The piece for the floor is down and the sheet leaning against the wall is ready for installation.

The side, back and floor pieces are in now so we put the stove in place to see how it fit.  I'm going to make a new base for it so that we can bolt it to the floor.  I'll also make a frame that bolts to the wall for added stability while we're travelling.  The stove is a small, wood-burning cook stove we found at the green boxes.  It was missing a piece (which I made a replacement for) so someone threw it away.  It has a small firebox with a lot of ventilation which means it burns wood fast but it would also work with coal or charcoal so it's perfect for what we want.  The space needing heating is so small and well insulated we're somewhat worried about it getting too hot in there rather than not hot enough.  We're trying to make this into our "wilderness wagon."  We want it to be like our life here where we can take advantage of modern technology (we'll have solar power and a propane cook stove) yet keep our independence by being able to heat and cook with wood as needed or desired. The stove's outer wall makes it safe for use in small places.  The actual firebox is located near the top of the stove which also makes it safer for use in the camper.  The top has burner plates that can be removed for cooking in a hurry or we can leave them on and use the top for making toast or keeping the teakettle hot.  The chimney will be going up through the roof.  We already have most of the parts on hand for the chimney.

We spend an occasional night in the camper sleeping just because it brings so many good memories from our trips to Nevada.  We've had a skunk prowling around on occasions so I brought in my shotgun and my 223 rifle and kept them by the door in case he visited again.  Skunks, besides leaving their tell-tale odor, also like chicken dinners so they aren't good to have around.  A neighbor down the road had one get in their chicken house and it killed every one of their chickens.

I got the wood hauling trailer out and ready for wood cutting.  It's an old Chevy truck box trailer that someone gave to us.  Using a trailer saves fuel and trips so we take it when we're going to an area we're familiar with.  I dont' take it to new areas because some of the roads aren't wide enough to turn one around in.  I can always unhitch it and turn it around that way but I've been in places where I had to back a half mile or so down a road (and our roads are never straight!) to find a place wide enough to turn the truck around.  Unhitching the trailer wouldn't do me much good in those places because I couldn't get around the trailer to back up the road.

Of course it had a flat tire and I couldn't get the pickup close enough to use the twelve volt tire pump on it so I walked back to the cabin and got the 350 watt inverter, 110 volt pump and an extension cord and took them back down to the shack to air up the tire.  I hooked the inverter up to the truck's battery and ran the extension cord from the inverter to the pump.  The dog had ridden down to the shack with me but didn't think it was a long enough ride so she sat in the truck while I pumped up the tire and hitched the trailer to the truck. (Lazy, spoiled mutt!)

It had a beat up tool box on it when we got it.  The previous owners mounted the box too far forward on the frame and then hit it with the truck's bumper when they turned.  It didn't do the tool box any good as you can see.

This is a small pickup tool box we got at the dump site.  I installed it in place of the old box only I put it back against the bed to give me more clearance.  It was one lock cylinder on it but no key for it so I gave the lock cylinder the hammer test and it opened right up.  It works fine without a key now (although it doesn't lock!).  I had another lock cylinder in the old box so I put it on the other door.  Now both doors now work like they should. I can't lock them but that doesn't matter since the only time they'll have anything in them is when I'm cutting wood and I'll be there then.  I'll make a spare tire rack to go in front of the tool box.

Susan harvested our yellow onions.  They're small but there're plenty to get us through for the year.  Especially since we have leftovers from previous years.

17-24 September, 2011 Roofing, firewood cutting, and ???

Another busy week it seems like.  Susan and I finished the shingling on B&V's cabin.  We completed this side then about 90 percent of the other side before evening then finished the other side early the next morning.  Rain was in the forecast so we wanted to get it finished.

We kept Barbara and Victor busy running shingles up to us!

Our first crop of blackberries.  We planted these vines two years ago and finally they're bearing fruit.  Not much yet but they're going the right direction anyway.

The lawnmower hit a big clump of weeds and came to a sudden stop.  When it did the starter rope got jammed in the housing so I had to take it apart to repair it.  The rope was getting frayed anyway and I wanted to make some other changes as well. So ... 

I took the motor off it's original mower and installed it on another mower we had laying around.  The first mower had front drive but it was always causing problems.  It was a heavy beast to use so I switched it over to a lighter frame and the rear wheels wouldn't adjust to different heights.  Some of the internal baffles had come loose as well which meant it wouldn't throw the cut grass out like it should.

The green mower's engine did not have a power-take-off so I had to cut a place for the PTO shaft to clear the new frame.  A few minutes with a hacksaw and a couple of files did the job nicely.

I had to switch the upper handle over as well.  The engine stop cable is a different length and wouldn't function on the handle on the green mower. This frame is lighter and the wheels adjust making it easier to mow new areas.  Once the motor was mounted I took the top off and fixed the starter rope.  I needed to shorten it past the frayed area and re-wind the recoil spring.  As most thing do, it ended up taking longer than planned.

We spent an evening fishing on Marl Lake.  We didn't catch any fish but we did enjoy our time in the kayaks.  They're a fun, yet practical watercraft.

Ahh ... pancakes for breakfast.  One of the benefits of using the wood stove in the mornings is that we cook breakfast on it instead of using up propane.  A 100 lb. bottle of propane last us on average, six months.  We use most of it when canning.  Anytime we can do our cooking n the wood stove it gives us that much more time before we need to refill the propane tanks. 

Susan had a project going to organize our DVD and VCR collection.  We still have some stored in various places but our favorites are in the cabin on shelves.  We picked up some metal shelves the right size for DVDs and VCR tapes a couple of years ago with the intent of using them for that purpose at home.  We finally got time to make the switch.  Naturally we needed to modify them a bit which I'm in the process of doing here.  I'm pop-riveting the shelves back-to-back in this photo.  The electric drill is being run off the solar power system so we don't have to use the generator.

Kid's movies are on the bottom two shelves at kid height.

The adult sections (sorry, no "X" rated videos here!) occupy the rest of the shelves.  Susan organized them alphabetically except for some seasonal (Christmas, etc.) movies which have their own section.  It was quite a job getting it done.

Once we had the shingles all put on B&V's cabin the next step was to install the wood stove.  Barbara made a base out of filed stone and mortar and we installed the stove on it.  I don't like having the bend in the stove pipe.  It would take a lot of work to move the pipe now that the roof is finished (I offered before we shingled the roof) and they don't want to move the stove forward so they're going to try it like it is for now.

I had several things to do to get the truck ready for another season of wood cutting.  I made a frame for the back of the bed so that we wouldn't have to worry about wood falling out while traveling.  I used more old bed frame pieces welded together for the back frame.  I also cleaned battery posts and changed the oil and filter on the truck.  It gets driven very little (less than 200 miles a year) so an oil change is good for several years.

Victor took the topper off his truck and we made some sides for it so that he could haul more wood.  We used left-over roof sheathing and ripped down a 2X4 for the stake pockets.  They're just a tad high for his truck.  It's a half-ton and if we fill it to the top of the sides the truck will be overloaded weight-wise.

On this trip we got "poof wood." (You put a match to it and, "POOF," it's gone!)  It's wood that burns well but fast and doesn't put out as much heat as fir or larch.  The good thing is that it's easier to get to.  Since fir and larch are the most desirable woods people concentrate on them first.  We put the "poof wood" in either end of the wood shed to be burned in the fall and spring and have the fir and larch in the center of the wood shed so it's available in the coldest parts of winter.  I should have been cutting a month ago but with the cabin construction and my sprained ankle we're just now getting around to it.

The lake in the center of the picture is Marl Lake.  It's about ten miles away as the crow flies. This was taken on the way home from cutting the firewood. 

This is the load we got.  I've already started unloading and splitting the back row.

That's me operating the splitting maul behind the blue tarp.  I actually enjoy splitting firewood.  You can work off a lot of aggression and stress with a stack of wood and an eight pound maul!

Axe handle repair time.  I have a difficult time keeping wood handles tight in any of our tools.  Our humidity is so low that the wood dries and shrinks and the axes, mauls, sledge hammers and other wood handled tools get smaller and smaller.  I usually end up replacing wood handles with plastic/fiberglass handles.  This axe was purchased like new at a yard sale for a very low price but the handle was loose so I'm replacing it with a fiberglass handle.  The epoxy bonding agent they send is never enough to fill the hole so I add BB's to take up space and add extra weight to the head.

This is another yard sale axe.  It already had the fiberglass handle but the epoxy at the head had come loose and fallen out.  I've used JB weld to repair these before but didn't have any this time.  I did have some general purpose epoxy (much cheaper!) so I tried it.  I'll keep you posted on how well it works.  I put a couple of scrap metal pieces in there to take up space and add more weight to the head.

Susan is putting roofing tar on suspected leak points on the roof.  We had high hopes for the metal roofing when we installed it but it's had a constant problems with leaks.  I've had several "real" builders look at it and we've tried everything they've suggested to fix it but we keep getting new leaks.  Susan found and fixed some problems this time that look like likely causes for the leaking.  Now we're waiting for the next rain to see if the repairs did the job.  If we can't get the problem taken care of we'll take the metal roofing off and go back to shingles.  We can always use the metal on outbuildings.

The cat and I decided to take a break from wood splitting.  It was up in the high 80's and we thought what was left would be better if tackled in the morning when it was still cool outside!  The nap was actually the cats idea but it wasn't hard to talk me into it!