Winter of 2004

My grandson Connor and I start cutting and skinning a couple logs.

Connor also helped me pour the four 3' deep corner pads to rest the cabin on.
But then he lost interest and I was on my own...

Three logs set now!

Door Frame set! (My youngest granddaughter Maddy is just a few months old)

Going up! I just got the north window set...

A lot of work!!!

I'm cutting the trees from the woods around our house.
Then it's hard work, dragging them to the cabin,
debarking them with a draw knife, getting them up on the wall, and notching them onto the logs below.

Starting the roof (those first two rafters were a challenge to get set by myself!)

4-20-08
I had some of my logs cut into lumber for the gables and interior of the cabin.

5-7-08
I put the gable wall studs over my porch today.
It's taken me four years to get this far just working on it when ever I could.

6-28-08
Just finished the roofing today! Now on to the gables...

8-28-08
OK, I got the gables finished today! I plan on doing the door and two windows next...

9-15-08
I have the door and the north window installed. Now on to the south window.

10-4-08
Change in plans after some storm damage...
I had (They had insurance!) 2 huge willows by my house and two smaller ones by the cabin cut down!

10-8-08
OK, now I have four trees down to clean up. A lot of work but
I'll have plenty of firewood to keep me warm for a long time!

11-22-08
I have the storm damage repaired and almost all the trees cleaned up
and I ran the chimney through the roof while I was up there.
Now I want to make a couple storm windows before I start chinking the inside with saplings.

12-4-08
Now that I have both the south & north storm windows installed
I'm going to wrap the cabin in tarps so that I can hook up my old
wood stove inside and hold some heat in while I'm debarking and
installing those saplings that I'll cut next and use to chink the inside.

12-23-08
Well I got the cabin wrapped with tarps but I forgot about the roof vent.
All the heat goes right up and out it without the insulation on the ceiling.
So I'm going to do all the insulating of the ceiling and gable walls next...

1-5-09
I have the insulation installed and while I have a temporary work platform placed
on the tie beams I'm going to put boards on the ceiling and gable walls before chinking.

OK, it's cold out there! I'm going to Florida for a while to warm up.
I have to power wash the boards before I put them up so I'm going to
wait until it gets a little warmer to do that outside...

4-27-09
Well it's back to work on my cabin now. I've started putting boards on my ceiling.
I'm putting 45° angles on all edges so that it's easier for me to keep both ends of
the board in place by myself while nailing it to the ceiling.

5-16-09
I had to do some Spring clean-up and other yard work. But I got that almost done
and now I got back to the cabin long enough to finish the south side of the ceiling.
Now I can move my work platform to the north side and get that done. But first I need to
get some more boards cleaned, edges cut straight on 45's and parallel to each other....

12-1-09
OK... I had to finish remodeling the outside of a rental house by installing vinyl siding
this summer so I didn't work on my cabin.
Now I'm helping a friend work on his house this winter (he helped me side my house)
Next summer I plan on finishing my cabin!!!

Before

After

12-20-09
Hey I did work a little on my cabin this year after all!
See the wreath in the window!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

2-5-10
My friend has company coming up to visit in his home for a while and he
doesn't want us to make any more mess there until they are gone. (Imagine that?)
So I got to work on my cabin a while. I finished the ceiling in the main room today.
I want to cover the end gable in the picture below with some interesting vertical boards next

2-26-10
I'm almost done covering the gable with boards that
were cut from a big willow tree that blew down on the island
I'm using the first cuts that don't have straight edges over the joints of other 20" wide boards.