The Fantastica Chronicles (Day 36-42)

Day 36. (TFC Going A Whole Day Without Physically Working, Educating Folks About Steemit & Having Lots Of Good Conversation)

Although I woke up early today and got a rapid start to the day (without too much fuss from my recent sinus infection) I just could not seem to ever get it together enough to actually start working on things. I guess that I really needed a break from physical activity because I sure got one.

My last few posts on Steemit have done rather well and I have understandably been pretty damned stoked about that because over the last month I have not felt all that awesome about my financial scenario and given what a massive expenditure that the moving process was I have been 'skimping by' for the previous five weeks hoping/stressing that I can somehow scrape together enough funds to get a shelter built before winter. So making some nice earnings from Steemit has really got me rather jazzed up about not just the platform itself but also about my contribution to it and how thankful I am that I have kept sharing to it.

I have been gushing my enthusiasm to my fellow homesteaders here about how well my Steemit posts about my adventures at their homestead are doing and although several of them have expressed interests in joining the platform today one of them finally decided to join it and create their own account.

Initially I helped them to sign up for an account via the usual means but partway through the process something on the site did not seem to be working properly (which made creating a new account impossible via that means) so I went ahead and paid the three Steem it cost to create an account via my own account which as it turns out is a heck of a lot simpler process for account creation. So eventually I got them an account created and now they are working out what they want to put in their introductory post and what they want to focus on overall as their main topics of contribution to the network itself which I think is pretty awesome because they are being incredibly thoughtful about the entire endeavor.

On a different note there is a guest to the homestead that arrived early in the day and although it is someone that I had met several times before they are someone that I never truly got to spend a lot of time with having actual conversations. We sure had a long litany of conversation today spanning a full spectrum of intellectual discussions that I seldom get to explore with others so that was incredibly nice and at the end of it this evening I felt as if my brain had gotten all the exercise that my body failed to get today which in and of itself is a rather marvelous feeling.

Anyway today did not leave me with much to write about but it sure left me with plenty to think about as well as one heck of a sense of well-being and that everything here is going to work out just fine. I hope that everyone is doing well and has a nice day/night.

She is watching the trail that leads to the camp and giving me 'the look!'

Day 37. (TFC Carrying Building Materials To The Shelter Site, Getting Some Help Moving Heavy Stuff, Accidentally Making A Nice Bench & Stacking The Remainder Of The Cut Firewood)

One thing about living in a tent is that I am rather quick to get out of it in the morning and almost instantly ready to wrap up my morning routine and get to doing the days itinerary. Five weeks in a tent is pretty much five weeks too damn long for me but all in all it has been working out well enough that me and the dogs are quite comfortable so I should probably abstain from griping too much about it, enjoy the nice weather while it lasts and plug away at getting a proper shelter built before the cold weather arrives in force.

With all of that in mind I started hauling building materials up to the site that I have been preparing beyond my camp in the woods. I didn't overdue it with trying to carry a bunch of materials at one time so I settled into a many hour process of hauling up one or two items at a time and stacking everything in such a way that it will be easily accessible for building with and sorted by size and type of material. All in all it was not as arduous of a task as I had thought it would be but I sure made a heck of a lot of trips back and forth.

Late in the afternoon I got a helper for a brief period of time and together we were able to make several trips back and forth to the shelter site and move some of the heaviest material together which made my day altogether less back breaking and I now have the majority of what I need to get started building now moved to the site.

I still have to get the pre-built decks, the pre-built insulated panels and the plywood moved but that will take several helpers and I don't actually need them quite yet to get started with constructing a shelter so hopefully tomorrow I can start the process of digging footers or at least get everything laid out with a tape measure and prepare for footer digging. We will see how it goes because honestly this sinus infection is really slowing me down and I just need to see how I feel tomorrow before I decide on tomorrow's itinerary.

At the ass end of the day I got the last of my firewood (that I previously cut) stacked on the now rather large wood pile and although most of it was smaller logs and branches it sure will make some nice kindling once it gets cured.

Anyway that is about it for now and I am going to wrap this up, do the inevitable editing/posting and call it a day well done. I hope that everyone is doing well and has a nice day/night.

I really like how this bench came out and it is conveniently located near the main trail and work area.

Day 38. (TFC Adding A Torpedo Level To A Chainsaw, Gathering The Tools, Digging Holes, Debarking Logs With A Draw Knife, Setting Posts, Installing A Header & Having One Heck Of A Productive Day)

I don't even know where to really start with describing today and I also don't want to get into some overly long explanation of all the steps that I took doing things throughout the day at the new shelter site area. I got up early though and made a pretty fast start to my day by immediately putting my boots on and psyching myself up to get done as much as possible.

I started my work day once my new fourteen inch electric chainsaw got here in the mail and after assembling it and testing it out on a small stick I gathered up all the tools that I would need for doing construction at the new shelter site. The chainsaw itself seemed like it would make for a great framing saw for working with round wood so I attached a small torpedo level to it so that I would have a way to tell if the saw is being held both plumb and level when I am making cuts with it. All that I did was zip-tie the level to the side of the saw itself and it seemed to work really well and makes me wonder why all chainsaws don't have built in levels because it sure makes making a 'square cut' much easier.

Once I got all the tools carried back to the woods I at first started digging footers for my cabin but then decided to 'change gears' and work on the woodshed instead because I kind of need a good place to store not just firewood but tools and building materials as well.

What I wound up doing to start the woodshed was use one of the draw knives (that I built a few years ago) to debark the first few feet of a hemlock log (that I cut from that forty odd foot piece of hemlock) and then I dug a hole for it to go in well below the frost line. Once I got the first post set I did a bunch of math and dug another hole roughly sixteen feet downhill from the first post and set another hemlock log in it.

Once I had both the posts in place I measured everything and used that roughly twenty-four foot piece of hemlock as a header. Notching out the header so that it would lock onto the posts was pretty quick with the aid of the electric chainsaw and a two inch chisel. Surprisingly it all fit rather well the first time I muscled the header onto the posts so that made things simple and I didn't have to re-cut either of the header notches.

I am glossing over a lot of the details involved but at this point I am utterly wiped out because those hemlock posts and that single header all weighed a few hundred pounds each and lacking any helpers today I was left to my own devices on getting everything moved around and positioned into place which is pretty much how I am accustomed to doing things anyway even though it is slow and tedious.

Anyway that is about it for now and I am going to take one heck of a hot shower and call it an extremely productive day. I hope that everyone is doing well and has a nice day/night.

This s how adding the torpedo level to the chainsaw came out. I actually wrote an article about it that can be found here: https://steemit.com/homesteading/@jacobpeacock/adding-a-torpedo-level-to-an-electric-chainsaw

Day 39. (TFC Digging Holes, Erecting Posts For A Shelter, Getting Some Help De-barking The Hemlock Posts & Making A Swing Just For The Hell Of It)

It was another very productive day and although I was pretty exhausted after yesterday's endeavors I am glad that I did not sleep in, got up early and started doing stuff not long afterwards because I need to continue making the most of these warm days especially since they are also slowly getting shorter.

The first thing that I worked on was to start digging the first post hole for my shelter which was not all that bad even though there were a lot of small rocks that made for some slow digging.

Once I got the first (and the most straight) black locust post into the newly dug hole I got it mostly plumb and then hammered some black locust stakes in around it's based so that it would not move. I then used a string to create a line between it and the downhill post of the woodshed which made it easy to make sure the second black locust post would be in line with the first post and the woodshed post if I ever want to connect the two buildings. After that I did some measuring and dug the second hole and then got the post set in it as well.

While I was working on getting the holes dug and posts set for the shelter some of my fellow homesteaders here worked on debarking the hemlock posts of the woodshed. They got the majority of both posts de-barked so that is good. I am still debating on whether I should de-bark the entire hemlock header as well or if it would be more efficient just to de-bark the places on it where the roof rafters will come in contact with it.

While the hemlock was being de-barked I stayed focused on digging the remaining holes for the shelter's posts and amazingly I only had to break a few rocks along the way and got all the holes dug below the frost line. Although I got all four posts installed today I have yet to concrete them in place which is good because I think that I am going to swap one of the downhill posts with one of the uphill ones because I think the uphill one will be too short after I trim a rotten spot away from it's top. I just wasn't paying close enough attention when I was selecting the post but swapping them around won't be all that difficult.

Towards the end of the day I used a section of rope that I use as a dog leash to create a swing that hangs from the hemlock header of the woodshed and had a lot of fun swinging on it. I was also happy to see just how stout the hemlock posts and header is and how little the header moved even with my weight on the swing.

Anyway I am fading quickly tonight and need to wrap this up and get to bed so that I can get up early tomorrow. I hope that everyone is doing well and has a nice day/night.

The partially de-barked hemlock posts for the woodshed.

Day 40. (TFC Repairing My Dog Yard Gate, Going On A Supply Run & Taking A Really Long Nap)

I awoke before the sun today and got my morning routine wrapped up rather quickly. It was definitely one of those mornings that I would have enjoyed a small fire to knock the chill off if there was not a burn ban currently due to the lack of rainfall and overall drought conditions.

Anyway my dog yard has held up really well since my arrival here except for the gate which I used some really flimsy wire fencing on because at the time it was what I hand on hand for the purpose. Even though I knew it was flimsy I didn't think that the dogs jumping on it would break it as rapidly as it has been broken. I have been mending it rather routinely ever since my second week here with pieces of rope, string and occasionally some duct tape to cover the sharp edges of broken wire but today I finally got fed up with it and patched it with a few pieces of fencing wire that is much more akin to the type of strong wire that the rest of the dog yard is constructed with.

I was hoping to get out early to do a supply run but the folks I was going with got off to a slow start so I piddled around for much of the morning until we got on the road. We had a lot of stops to make today because we all had shopping to do and by the time we got back to the homestead it was rather late in the day.

All the shopping left me feeling absolutely exhausted so instead of working more on the shelter when I got back to the homestead I immediately laid down and took a nap. I thought that I would only sleep for maybe an hour but it was well after dark when I awoke and after eating a big dinner I just want to fall asleep again.

Today assuredly was not all that productive but at least I got another month's worth of dog food and got to give my body a bit of a break from doing physically demanding labor. I also got the plumbing parts that I need to be able to run water from the homestead proper to the camp so that was good.

Anyway that is about it for now and I better get this edited/posted before I doze off entirely. I hope that everyone is doing well and has a nice day/night.

The 'I did not break the fence' look.

Day 41. (TFC Running A Water Line To The Shelter Site, Setting Up The Solar Tub, Harvesting Poplar Rafters, Installing Black Locust Headers, Squaring Up The New Shelter & Concreting Black Locust Posts In Place)

Although a big coyote pack hung out in the area last night and hence I kept getting woken up by them and the dogs I still managed to wake up early and get a rapid start to my day.

First thing this morning I used the plumbing parts that we got yesterday to setup a 'Y-splitter' connected to a two meter hose that connects to the only outdoor water spigot located at the homestead proper. I then connected the homestead's water hose and a water hose of my own to the splitter. I ran the hose for me across the rear yard and under the fence and then used the plumbing parts (that I personally purchased yesterday) to connect two sections of irrigation tubing to the hose which run another two hundred odd feet out into the woods and to that recently created raised garden bed. The irrigation tubing is long enough to go beyond there to the new shelter site but for now it would just get in the way while I am working on the woodshed and the shelter.

Since the irrigation tubing is just laying on top of the ground I had to pause before finishing the water line installation and fell a bunch of small poplar trees that would have damaged the tubing had I felled them on it. I had been eyeing the poplar trees for a while now to be used as rafter material so getting them on the ground and sectioned into usable lengths was good and probably something I should have done several weeks ago. I totally forgot to get a final count on how many sixteen foot rafters I created but I think that I have around a dozen which is plenty for the small shelter I am building.

Once I finished up with the poplar trees I finished running the irrigation tubing and used a pvc shut off valve and water hose hookup rig (that is actually for my on demand shower) onto the end of the irrigation tubing so that I would not only have an on/off valve but also a way to hookup my heavy duty water hose to the end of it. Since I didn't glue the pvc adapters together I noticed there was a slow drip so I went and hauled my solar 'bathtub' up from the homestead proper on a wagon and placed it beside the raised garden bed and under the drip so that I wouldn't waste the water.

After all that stuff I got two black locust headers (that were already notched because I used them at the last place) and got them installed atop the black locust posts for the shelter. As a side note I also swapped those two posts that I mentioned a few days ago and that worked out really well for creating the desired roof angle.

The headers went on rather easily and I only had to do some minor trimming to the tops of the posts and to the bottom of the header to get them to fit well. I had to make do with the overhang being short on one side and long on the other side because when I moved I had to trim the headers down to fit them in the moving truck. I am thinking to just add some extension pieces of black locust to the short side of the headers so that the overhangs will be equal so we will see how that turns out. It is worth noting that my new electric chainsaw worked awesomely for cutting the black locust especially while standing atop my ladder!

After getting the headers screwed to the posts I went around with a tape measure and measured everything and since the posts were only staked in place I was able to move them all to where they were 'close enough' to plumb, level and square before bracing it all off with some small diameter pieces of poplar. The real important part was the distance between the two headers and I was delighted that when I measured them I found that only one corner was three inches out of square and I only had to adjust one poplar brace to correct it.

With the posts and headers squared and braced I removed all the stakes holding the posts in place in their respective holes and hauled two fifty pound bags of concrete to the shelter site and applied the concrete evenly to all four of the posts. Considering that all the holes were dug down to solid rock the concrete was probably just overkill but the placement of the building is on a bit of a knoll (and on an incline) so I figured a little concrete would be a good thing in case of high winds.

Anyway I also cut a bunch more of the sapling stumps (that were created before my arrival) out of the work area and I think that I am now finally starting to get towards the end of tripping over them all the damn time. I also trimmed up some of the pine logs around the work site as well as raking up all the bark from the hemlock posts de-barking. The last thing that I did was setup a really stout work table between the woodshed and shelter and am thinking that I might try to build part of it into a table saw by attaching that old circular saw to it upside down. The details are still fuzzy on that but we will see what becomes of it.

Well that is about it for now and I am going to wrap this up, do the inevitable editing and go eat some assuredly yummy dinner. I hope that everyone is doing well and has a nice day/night.

The black locust posts and headers for the new shelter.

Day 42. (TFC Cleaning Up A Shed, Hauling Six By Six Posts, De-Barking Poplar Rafters, Figuring Out The Shelter Foundation & Getting Rained On Several Times)

I woke up sometime before sunrise and thought that I would just doze off for a little while longer but that 'little while longer' turned out to be several hours later. Overall today was just one of those days where it seems like I didn't get much accomplished because I did a bunch of various things but this evening I am sure feeling the ache of everything I did do.

Early in the day a building material delivery came for one of the projects at the homestead proper and I volunteered myself to help the other folks clear out some space in one of the sheds to store everything in and helped to carry some twelve foot long pressure treated six by sixes to the shed and get them stacked so that they can dry out before being used for their ultimate purpose of replacing some compromised four by fours that currently support the 'roof over' on one of the buildings here. All in all neither the cleaning of the shed nor the hauling of materials was all that difficult but those soaking wet six by sixes sure were frigging heavy and sort of slippery to boot.

After all that I set to work de-barking some of the poplar rafters that I harvested yesterday and although they would assuredly be easier to de-bark in the spring or summer (because the trre is growing as opposed to getting ready to go dormant for the winter) I was pleasantly surprised that the process was rather easy even considering how late in the year it is. One of my fellow homesteaders expressed a desire to utilize the bark for basket making so I did my best to remove the bark in long strands and stack it all in a pile for them. Later in the day the same person that wants to make baskets with the poplar bark volunteered to do some of the debarking themselves which was awesome because I got to work more on the new shelter.

I finally anchored the headers in place with six inch long screws and spent some time trying to figure out how to do the foundation for the shelter itself. The way I am building this particular shelter the black locust posts and headers are separate from the actual shelter within so it has taken me a lot of wracking my brain on how to construct things with the materials at my disposal which are 'sparse' to say the least. Nearly half the shelter will be constructed from my pre-built insulated panels and the rest will be mostly comprised of scrap materials from around the homestead and some pallets. My only real goal with the shelter is that it doesn't leak and it is warm so we will see how that turns out. Anyway I worked out a good way to build a foundation for the shelter and got started on it today but didn't get all that far along with it because it started raining rather hard.

It actually rained on and off throughout the day which was nice because it finally rained enough again to knock all the dust down but it sure made working on the shelter challenging because I kept having to put the tools away and then pull them all out again when the rain stopped. Anyway I am tired, sore and fading fast so I am going to wrap this up and call it a day.

A de-barked poplar rafter next to the stack of others that need de-barking.

A sneak peak at the following week's endeavors.

The little shelter is coming along well!

Thanks for reading!

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Previous Fantastica chronicles:
The Fantastica Chronicles (Day 1-7)
https://steemit.com/writing/@jacobpeacock/the-fantastica-chronicles-day-1-7
The Fantastica Chronicles (Day 8-14)
https://steemit.com/homesteading/@jacobpeacock/the-fantastica-chronicles-day-8-14
The Fantastica Chronicles (Day 15-21)
https://steemit.com/diy/@jacobpeacock/the-fantastica-chronicles-day-15-21
The Fantastica Chronicles (Day 22-28)
https://steemit.com/homesteading/@jacobpeacock/the-fantastica-chronicles-day-22-28
The Fantastica Chronicles (Day 29-35)
https://steemit.com/homesteading/@jacobpeacock/the-fantastica-chronicles-day-29-35