More Sawmilling

This is just a quick entry to narrate the few new pictures. What wasn't cut into beams was cut into 1-1/4 inch (or 5 quarter) boards that will be the roof under-layment on the house. They will be laid over the timber framed rafters. These boards will be seen from inside, so we will probably want to get them milled again before we use them, i.e., planed on one side and possibly shaped on the edges with lap joints. But that is a decision we don't have to make right away. You see a lot of off-cuts in a pile in the first picture, but most of that has already been cut into 1 inch square "stickers" for spacing the lumber in the stacks. There is still some waste that will go to the fire pit for campfires.

Green lumber takes about 1 year per inch to cure in a solar kiln. The first kiln we built worked well. The beams we stacked in November 2008 all look great, so we built another one for the 5/4 boards and we will be piling all the new beams on top of the others in the first kiln shortly. The fresh cut beams weigh an estimated 500 to 800 lbs depending on the dimensions and wood type. All but one of the beams is pine. There is one 8x12 beam cut out of a large oak. I am betting that one weighs at least 800 lbs. Now we have to start looking for some more logs to drag over here so we can start the process over. I think we have about half of what we need, so the search for more lumber is on. Most of the pine trees that went down last year from the wind events are already going to be full of pine bark beetles, so hopefully we can find some more oaks and poplars for the next round of cutting.

There are still a lot of unwanted trees laying around and we have started making some inquiries and scouting around. This recent progress has been rewarding. It is exciting to see all the hard work of getting logs here finally made into the wood products we will build with. We may not be able to make the entire house from discarded forest products, but we have already made a good start toward lowering the environmental footprint of the house. Recently, a friend of mine worked on the construction of a 3500 square foot house. The owners were able to occupy the new home in less than 4 months. The embodied energy of that home with all its industrial wood products and other modern chemically laced materials puts it in an entirely different energy class than our home of less than half it's size. Our timetable may be closer to 4 years than 4 months, but it is comforting to know our house is part of the solution and not part of the unsustainable building model we have adopted over the past 75 years.

Milling Timbers

We finally started getting some timbers out of the logs that have been laying on the ground since the summer. There were about 30 in all. We were a little worried that they would have started to rot or have pine bark beetle infestations. There were a few of the beetle grubs throughout, but not enough to worry about. The wood is beautiful. We got about half way through before weather and some mechanical failures on the saw slowed us down. After a tune-up, the saw is running great; then more weather delays. This has been a very cold and wet winter so far. It may not be out of the ordinary historically, but probably the coldest in a decade or so. We have also seen more snow than us transplants are used to.

The house plans came a huge leap forward when we consulted with a professional timber framer based in Maryland. He was willing to look at our plans and tell us where we were right and where and how we could improve the engineering. You can find more about CraftWright Timberframes @ http://www.craftwrighttimberframes.com/ This consultation gave us the information we needed to make the best use of the logs when cutting. Our cut list for this round is mainly 8x10 and 8x12 timbers at 16 feet lengths. We still need a few 8x8's which is good because not all the logs are big enough to get the larger sizes. Ultimately we will need a few more of the big timbers when this cutting session is done. Also, we will need more long logs to cut the 6x8 rafters in 20 foot lengths. We need about 12 of them. I hope to be making some more trips into the woods for recently downed trees before the winter is over. There are still a lot of them that came down last March in the windstorm we had. I dragged out a lot of the easy to reach ones already, so there will be some creative log moving going on.

We can make use out of almost any log, however. The interior roof decking will be 5/4 boards that we cut from the logs while making timbers. So far we have a pretty big stack of those, but we will need lots and lots of boards. Almost all homes were sheathed with boards this way in the past. Now days plywood and OSB fiber board take on this function. When done right, some pretty solid homes can be built, but the old style wood board sheathing is far more resilient and structurally sound for bracing the frame. I have seen many conventionally built homes running into serious maintenance and repair issues in as little as 10 or twenty years. Conversely, there are countless examples in this country and around the world of traditional construction lasting well over one hundred years. Many still held together strongly with the original wooden pegs!

Our goal is to emulate this timeworn tradition and build a home with character and staying power as well as one which is very efficient and inexpensive to maintain. Integrating rainwater catchment, greywater recycling, passive solar home and water heating and lower embodied energy natural building techniques into the plan will ensure a low carbon footprint for years to come.