September tooth 2021
The view from the outhouse
Rain today so I have a free moment.
Kari is a Myra’s canning so I’m the boss for a while.
The adventure continues.
Sunday August 8
We went back to Wolf Lake this afternoon for more supplies.
Monday August 9
Kari and I headed down to the Kenai today to pick up the last of the quarter inch steel gusset plates and brackets that D & D Equipment Repair cut out on their plasma table.
Tuesday August 10
Don Johnson called from D & D to let me know that he had some supplies going up on a barge on Monday. I got in touch with Jody Payton and he will drop off our steel plates, propane, kitty litter, dog food, and beer on the same trip.
Wednesday August 11
Landon, Keith, and I hauled everything to Deshka Landing where it will go on the barge Monday morning and arrive Monday afternoon. Landon and Keith are flying back home to Ohio tonight.
Thursday August 12
We are headed for Silty Slough with more supplies. Myra planned to fly out but the fog rolled in. Roger came in to pick her up because we had too much weight for one boat. At the landing we split up the load and added a bathtub and another entry door to the barge load. I rode with Roger and Myra and Kari came up the river in the Wine Down.
Nice trip except the Wine Down started running a little rough at the end. Hope it is just a fuel filter.
Friday August 13
Today’s task is to unbolt the two 10 x 10 beams that we placed earlier and slide them south about a foot to attach to the other two beams that penetrate the roof of the existing cabin. The engineer should have paid more attention to the placement earlier. We selected 6 x 10s for the bottom chord of the trusses. Now back to the beloved planer to smooth them up. Roger and I reconfigured our scaffold crane and lifted 6 up. The room takes 7 and two more for the deck but we only have room for 6 right now until we tie the deck beams in.
Saturday August 14
We planed the 6 x 12 ridge beam and hoisted it up on top of the walls to be placed later. It is almost 24 feet long so it needs to be above the bottom chord of the trusses while we are getting them in place and secured.
Sunday August 15
We are building trusses. We skip the first one because the cabin roof has to be removed. There are five of one design and 4 of another to accommodate a sewing loft for you know who. We decide to build 3 of those to start. First step is to take down our scaffold crane and slide the beams for the bottom chords into place. They set about 8 feet apart on top of each post. Thus the name post and beam.
We put one against the roof to store until we are ready to build the final truss when we remove the roof. Then we set and bolted the other 5 in place. That’s only 6. The one on the north wall facing the river has to wait until we get the deck built. Clear as mud….I thought so.
Monday August 16
Today we framed the floor for the loft between 3 of the lower truss chords. One section has an opening for a stairway that bends 90 degrees at a landing. That took a little while but Roger and I gotter dun. Then started covering the joists with one inch boards that we planed earlier smooth side down because it is part of the second floor ceiling.
The barge is due here between 2 and 3. The water is too low in Silty Slough for the barge to get in so Roger and I took his boat about a mile downriver where they were unloading at Don Johnson’s. We just tied up along side and started loading the plates in Rogers boat. They are heavy and it will take two trips to get the 3000 pounds of stuff moved to Silty Slough. There we will handle it once more loading it on a wagon to go the last quarter mile to the cabin. Now unload it at the site. We should only have to handle it a couple more times before it is in its final resting place.
Tuesday August 17
We finished the 1” flooring for the loft. The engineer carefully measured the length of the bottom truss chord and carefully calculating the length of the rafters, and the length of the temporary center posts. He took into consideration the exact size of the ridge beam and also deducted the 13/16” for the flooring that the post would set on. Keep this in mind.
Then we cut 3 temporary posts to set on our newly built loft and placed 2 of them to hold the 6 x 12 ridge beam up. We cross braced them with 2 x 6s.
Wednesday August 18
Today we finished the temporary center posts and bracing for the 3 trusses. Then we planed and set 2 of the the 3 rafters on the west half of the roof. We are only going to build half the truss so we can hoist the ridge beam into place.
Thursday August 19
Today we planed and set the 3rd rafter in place. They are connected to the temporary center post with gusset plates the engineer designed. We also installed most of the gusset plates on the bottom chords so that we can fasten the rest of the truss members to them later. I was going to check the distance from the temporary center post to the east end of the bottom chord just to confirm my calculations but nobody gave me a round tuit. Keep this in mind
Cory’s parents are flying to Anchorage today. Kari and Cory are going to fly to Willow to pick up the boat he is buying. They are due back on Sunday with some plywood, Liquid Nails, and bituthane for the build.
Friday August 20
Kari is in Anchorage rounding up supplies.
Roger and I spent some time selecting the best 6×6 we had for a gin pole to lift the 6 x 12 ridge beam that is 24 feet long. We mounted a heavy angle bracket near the top with three 1/2 x 5 lag bolts. Then we attached a chain hoist to the angle bracket with a clevis. With the post standing about 3 feet above the ridge we secured it to the middle truss with angle brackets and gusset plates. One minor problem. The gusset plates holding the rafters to the center post extend out about 2 feet and the ridge beam has to be lifted over them. Roger fastened a 2 x 4 to each plate for the beam to ride out over them. Time to lift. It is going up fine about 8 feet is over the cabin. If we drop it I hope the 6 x 10s don’t break. The higher we go up the harder it pulls because we are holding it out from the gin pole to clear the gusset plates. It is about ready to clear and we are lifting at about a 45 degree angle. I’m really worried about the stress on the angle bracket and the lag bolts, not to mention the cheap little Chinese bolt holding the hook on the cheap Chinese chain hoist. At the point of maximum stress I don’t think you could have driven a thumbtack into my bung hole with a sledge hammer. Another half inch and the beam swung into place right on top of the 3 temporary posts and fit right up with the rafters. We just need to slide it a foot or so south to hang over the peak of the cabin roof.
Roger put some 10 and 14 inch lag bolts to hold the rafter to the beam. The temporary center post will come out when we finish the truss.
Time to start cutting rafters for the east side to complete the trusses. We will get a measurement, should be the same length as the other side. No they need to be over 3” shorter. Can’t be the math doesn’t lie. What could be wrong. I checked my calculations written on a scrap piece of lumber. Here it is. The top of the bottom chord should be 220 inches adjusted for the actual height of the 6 x 10. I have 224 and a half inches written down.
Ok. When we measured the bottom chord it is difficult to get the tape measure straight. It is common not to hold right on the end so Roger says holding on 2 meaning he is holding the tape on the 2 inch mark. I measure 222 1/2 and should have subtracted 2” instead I added 2”. The ridge beam is shifted 2” to the east. The first thing we say is “We can’t let Cory find out”. How are we going to fix it? We can just make the rafters on that side shorter and the angles a little different. Probably what most low bidders or the Biden administration would do. Or we can cut 2” off the rafters and the post and make it correct. Let’s take tomorrow off and think about it.
Saturday August 21
I may be one day out of sync. I know Roger and I didn’t take the day off, but let’s just say we did.
Rain is forecast tomorrow so Kari and Cory made their way up the river today in the sun.
Sunday August 22
Cory is back to work today No rain, glad the forecast was wrong. We had to come clean on my mistake. Something else the Biden administration never does. Even Cooper knows Joe has no balls, check the last photo.
Cooper likes to catch his red ball and frisbee. We decided first thing to take the ridge beam loose, trim two inches off the rafters, then trim two inches off the temporary post and fasten everything back together. We did all this with everything standing in the air. About 6 hours to correct the engineers mistake. Now I’ll be able to sleep at night.
Stay safe and healthy my friends.
Thank you Lord for protecting us.
I’ll be in touch.
Blue skies!!!
The View from the Outhouse 