Once there was a way ....

With Christmas approaching, it has been a short week. Nevertheless, progress was made over the garage, where we finished laying the logs around the perimeter and started the dormer windows and door. The weather was sunny and warm all week and so no time was wasted clearing snow although, a couple of heavy frosts required almost as much effort in the mornings before work could commence. Working at the height of the garage carries its own risks so, I was glad once we had finished the perimeter and at least put a small barrier between us and the ground.

The quad decided to play up mid week. I went to start it up on Wednesday only to find a pool of fuel on the floor of the trailer. After investigation I discovered that I had left the fuel valve open and it was only the carburettor overflowing but, after repeated attempts to start it, I managed to kill the spark plug. So on Thursday afternoon while the boys were enjoying an end of term barbarque, I went into Cranbrook and bought another one.  After draining the bowl and replacing the spark plug, it started first time but, it now needs a tune so I am searching the internet for help doing that.

Heavy snow is forecast for next week while I am away in Calgary so I have moved the trailer and quad into the garage. There is still quite a lot of wood work in there so I haven't been able to turn the trailer so the back doors face outwards but at least, when I get back next week, I should be able to get into the trailer and be able to get the quad out of the garage with the plough to clear the driveway. Work starts again on Tuesday 4th January and so it will be a couple of weeks before the next progress report. Having said that, I will publish a short blog next week to let you know how Christmas went. I am sure you will all be dying to know.

This is becoming my favourite view of the cabin as it is ideal for getting a good perspective of the property and its surroundings. You can see the dormers over the garage taking shape and this was taken before I moved the utility trailer from beside the wood piles into the garage.

From inside, the dormer windows look very different. The roof will slope down between and on each side of them and we can almost see the height that the roof will be at. I made a model of the cabin so I could see what the roof formation will look like but I forgot to take a photograph of it before I left the property this evening. I will photograph it next week and include it in my next blog page.

On the other side of the garage you can see the start of the shed (long) dormer with its French window (leading out on to a deck) and two standard windows. You will have noticed by now that I have gone for long windows throughout the house (except the bathrooms and kitchen for obvious reasons). This is to make the most of both the views and the sunlight.

From the outside you get a better impression of what the dormer fronts will look like. The sides will be stud walls with log siding put on. The impression will be that the dormer side walls are solid log.

At the back of the garage you can see where the French window will come out and the foundation footings that the wood stilts will stand on to support the decking - more of this at a later date.

The same wall but from a different angle.

And finally, the trailer at home in the garage with the quad (behind) and its trailer on the left.

Well, with Christmas only two days away and a new year approaching, thoughts turn towards family and friends who will be absent this year. So I send to all those who have been kind enough to read this blog, comment and offer words of encouragement, a heart felt thank you and best wishes for a Merry Christmas and a Happy and Prosperous New Year.

Thoughts also turn to the path that lead me here and whereas once there was a way to get back homeward, Blighty and Sarah seem a long way away now.

Eight Days a Week

The construction industry, it seems, is no exception to the mad rush up to Christmas and I am endeavouring to get as much done as possible before the inevitable pause until January. So it would be handy to have an extra day in the week. Nevertheless, it has been a good week with significant progress completing most of the joist work but, significantly, getting the ceiling on the garage to enable work to commence on the area above it this coming week.

The weather has also been kind with only one snow flurry leaving a couple of inches of snow, which was quick and easy to sweep away. This weekend the temperature has risen above zero for the first time in three or four weeks but a little snow is forecast for tonight. The roads have been clear but, would you believe it, two days after I had my windshield fixed another stone flew up and dinged the wretched thing again. Fortunately, it is only a small mark on the edge of the shield and if it doesn't spread across the screen I will wait until the spring, when the gritters will have finished laying the ammunition for these things, to get the glass replaced again.

From the far end of the garage looking back towards the main cabin. Visible is the ground level dividing wall, the kitchen on the left and the stairwell underneath the tarp.

Standing in the main bedroom (over the study) looking back across the main living area to the kitchen on the right, the room above the garage and the stairwell again. Two joists are missing from the area just on other side of the tarp and another two long ones for the landing at the top of the stairs, which will protrude another four feet above the living area. These are all on order and I would like to think that they will arrive this week before the break for Christmas.

The garage ceiling is supported by I joists sitting on joist hangers at the walls and a single beam consisting of four 12" x 2" plywood joists, which runs the length of the garage. 

The floor and second dividing wall of the 'intermediate/utility area', between the garage and the main cabin, have yet to be put in.

Looking back into the garage from the utility area.

If the truth be known, I am looking forward to a break for a few days at Christmas. The body is in need of a bit of R&R and some food that hasn't been put together by rough hands in too much of a hurry. I am hungry but in the words of Robert Service...

And hunger not of the belly kind, that's banished with bacon and beans,

But the gnawing hunger of lonely men for a home and all that it means;

For a fireside far from the cares that are, four walls and a roof above;

But oh! so cramful of cosy joy, and crowned with a woman's love —

A woman dearer than all the world, and true as Heaven is true —

(God! how ghastly she looks through her rouge, — the lady that's known as Lou.)

The shooting of Dan McGrew - Robert Service.

So, I am off to spend Christmas in the best house of ill repute in Calgary - only kidding. I am going up to Chestermere however, which is near Calgary to spend it with friends Jeanette and Elizabeth, who is coming over from Vancouver Island. They were both, in their day, pioneers in their own right in the logging industry in the 70s and 80s and shouldn't be compared (as far as I am aware) with the "lady known as Lou". Nevertheless, two very interesting ladies who have a tale or two of their own to tell.

It's getting better all the time

Mark and I were the only people working on the cabin for the vast majority of last week.  Owen has two other projects which require resourcing and trying to keep all his customers happy is proving a challenge for him and a frustration for me. That said, Mark and I made steady progress putting up the remaining posts, beams and most of the joists to support the upper floor and I took full advantage of the opportunity to sand some of them before they were put in place. Not all the joists are up in the main cabin area yet and we still have the garage to do, and these, because they will not be seen, will be I joists similar to the ones used for the basement ceiling. I hope that all the cabin and garage joists will be up and secure by the end of this week.

With help from a friend, I managed to rig up that short cable for powering up my 240 volt power tools, which I mentioned last week, and I am now happy that I will not have to replace them all. It also gives me the freedom to work independently at the weekends if I wish. I haven't done so this weekend because, frankly, I was knackered and sore. On Friday I managed to fall off a ladder from the height of the upper floor and landed on the wretched thing that was supposed to be helping me up but decided at the last minute to slip away (on the icy floor) from under my feet. I think it frightened Mark more than it did me but the result was a tender back and a sharp reminder of the potential for injury that is never very far away in these conditions.

Friday was altogether a bad day. On the way to the cabin in the morning a stone (or something) hit my windscreen, thrown up by or having fallen off a passing truck.  Shards of glass sprayed off the inside of the screen into my face and it was very fortunate that I was wearing my spectacles or else some of them would have gone into my eyes. The good news is that the windshield was replaced the next day, and thankfully the cost was covered by my insurance (mostly). By lunchtime we also ran out of glue (again) and we broke our remaining tape measure, which we needed to size the joists accurately. So we finished early and called it a week. Nursing a few bruises, I decided to have a lazy weekend and have spent most of it reading, which is a pleasant change. (A man called Intrepid, by William Stevenson - highly recommended).

The joists over the study area are all in place and mostly sanded down. The joists for the other side of the cabin can be seen beneath the temporary flooring in an attempt to keep the frost and snow off them.

Seen here are the posts and beams for the landing - in place, with the joists above the entrance visible on the left. Mark and I needed help lifting the beams that will support the landing. It hasn't been possible to plane or sand all the frame-wood because some of it has ice from the frost and snow still on it and in it. This clogs up the sand paper very quickly and so I shall have to wait until the ice melts and the wood is dry before I can finish it all.

Here you can see the framing for the partition wall that will separate the main cabin area from the garage. The cabin flooring will actually extend six feet into the garage and this 'partition' area will accommodate a number of small sub rooms/areas. From left to right along the wall; door into a cloak room for the main floor; a door between the main cabin area and the partition area leading, through another (fire) door, into the garage; a wall behind which will be a utility room; a recess for a fridge/freezer; and finally, a door into a walk-in pantry.

This view shows the same wall from the garage side. The second partition wall will be six feet closer towards this end of the garage and will be the main fire break between the garage and the main cabin area. The side door into the garage seen here on the right will lead directly onto steps or a ramp (haven't decided which yet) going up to the fire door leading into the partition area. 

The broth (stew) turned out to be a great success, so much so I have decided to repeat the exercise again this week with some minor variations to keep it palatable. I am looking forward to the time when I can keep a pot on the wood burning stove, for which I have now received a quote. I am hoping to be able to invite the installers up to the cabin in early January to plan the installation.

Some days you just gotta let it be.

I am going to turn in now and have an early night and hope I wake up in the morning feeling better than I did this morning. But I mustn't complain - it's not the English way.

The long and winding road

The team didn't reassemble again until late Wednesday and on Thursday Kyle and I planed off the rough from the joists that will support the upper floor (too difficult to explain to Canadians that the second floor is actually the first floor in England - a bit like trying to explain cricket). It took a long time and it was hard work and I don't think Kyle is going to volunteer to work with me again but, our efforts now will pay dividends in the long run because it would have been much more difficult to do this work once the joists are in place. We worked a full day on Friday and got the first posts and beams in place and the cabin interior is continuing to shrink as we put more into it. Mark had a very nasty attack by a flu virus and so we were a man down for two and half days and because of his prodigious work rate he was sorely missed.

On Wednesday, two weeks of clear skies and sunshine were forecast and so it was no surprise when I woke up this morning, expecting to get straight out to the cabin to sand off a few beams, only to find 4" of snow everywhere.  It took me an hour to clear it off the floor, hampered by all the wood now sitting on it ready to be cut and put in place for the upper floor. Fortunately, it was also minus 8 degrees C and the snow was dry and powdery and didn't start to melt until after mid-day, which gave me plenty of time to get it cleared. I also left the basement window protectors off overnight so some snow got into the basement as well, but this will evaporate away in a couple of days.


It is getting to the stage now where I can do useful work contributing to the build by myself at the weekends and towards that end I have moved most of my tools from the lockup in Cranbrook into my trailer. Luckily, I brought with me to Canada some plastic shelving that I had in my garden shed in the UK and I have assembled this in the trailer for the tools. The challenge now is to work out how to rig up some wiring so I can use my 240 volt power tools here (the Canadian electric system is primarily 110 volts). I know just the man who can help me with this little challenge.


I have started a nice winter broth to keep me going all week. This will ensure I get a decent meal every evening for the least amount of effort. It sure beats the hell out of snickers bars, peanuts and biscuits (even if they are cooked twice).

Well the forecasters got the blue skies and sunshine right, they just forgot to mention the snow.  Michael Fish would be OK here.

Looking down at the property over my neighbour's driveway.

Standing in the prow looking back towards the front door.

Looking from the front door through and across to the study area.

From outside the front door - you can see the first stud wall that will partly shield the stairs to the upper floor.

Last Sunday I zero'd my two rifles. I had forgotten just how much fun shooting is. I managed to get a nice half inch grouping at 50m with the .22 and but didn't do quite so well with the .303 at 100m. Anyway, I am now content that at least I can hit a barn door if I am close enough. I wanted to go out again today but really needed to sand the beams that we have already put up, before the joists go on top of them and make it more difficult to get at them - maybe next weekend. I did however manage to take the quad out for a short ride mainly, if I am honest, just to give it a run because it has been sitting in the trailer all week and its small battery will go flat if it is not used regularly in these temperatures. I went up to see Ron Cavers who is house sitting in the other log cabin here, had a beer and came back down the cliff hanging on like grim death.


With Christmas approaching, I realise that I have been here for nearly five months and with the slow pace this week, there was time for some reflection. On the surface here you can be forgiven for thinking that you live in a modern, developed part of the world. The infrastructure is good, there are towns with all the trappings of modern life and society, ski resorts, schools, colleges, golf courses, hospitals, TV, internet, mobile phone networks, even quirky groups of middle class liberals and green coloured tree huggers. 

But you don't have to scratch far beneath the surface to discover that there is still enough of the old frontier wilderness to make you feel as if there is some distance here between you and true civilisation. You don't have to go far off the beaten track to find yourself in real grizzly country where, without your rifle, you are definitely not at the top of the food chain.

And with this wilderness comes the people, mostly men, who still make up the frontier folk. The black sheep, the misfits, the outcasts, the broken men, the adventurers, the gold diggers, running from their shame, working out their own atonement, grimly living down the dead past, seeking excitement or fortune. All are looking for something in these mountains and forests that they cannot find in the city or where folks wear fine clothes and men shave daily. Quietly spoken men, reduced to few words, each in his own way fits, more or less, comfortably into this environment, in a parallel universe to the rest of society.

Men like John, the homeless man, who will live out this winter in a tent, or not. And Randy, my part (Red) Indian next door neighbour at the cabins, who gets up at 2.30 every morning to drive his logging truck 90Kms up the Bull River Forestry Road, up into Grizzly Country to pickup a load of logs to bring it back to the mill down the road from here. Men like Mark, who builds homes for other people but has no home of his own. Young men like Kyle who before long will have leathered skin and wrinkled eyes. Men who find more comfort in nature, the bottle or God than they do in humanity. These men are the modern Canadian equivalent of the old pioneers, lumberjacks, trappers, mountain men, all are frontier men - men without women, who follow the long and winding road of life alone. Men who look up at the night sky and think of the men they might have been, or want to be.

And slowly I noddingly acknowledge to myself that the men who come here, these men, are men like - me, because all the reasons above are, in part, the reasons why I have come here and that makes me a frontier man. So my transformation has turned once more, from middle class man about town to trailer trash and now to frontier man and very content to be so, thank you very much.

Day after day alone on a hill

With the exception of Thursday, I have been the only one on the site this week and I have felt a bit like Paul McCartney's fool on a hill, silently watching the world go round from my cocooned home in the wilderness. Half the team were away this week for the funeral of Kevin's step daughter, the weather on Monday and Tuesday was atrocious and we were without sealant until Wednesday evening. Nevertheless there were things that I was able to do by myself and on Thursday Mark, Dexter and I finished off laying the logs for the main level in the cabin and we cleared the decks ready for putting up the posts and beams for the top floor next week.

Snow came and went twice but you wouldn't have thought it would have had the time to do so twice but the temperature changed so quickly. The dirt road on the hill out of Wardner has been the only really tricky stretch to contend with and I have been thankful for the Jeep's four wheel drive and excellent heater. For a single skinned vehicle it is remarkably warm.  I now have my full arctic survival pack in the back of it along with enough rations for a week.  I think I've now worn some of my army kit more here than I did when I was serving - crazy. My cold weather flying jacket in particular has been fantastic being perfect for working in these temperatures and my arctic hat, which I wouldn't be seen dead in twenty years ago, never leaves my head.

Kevin, Kyle and Matt should be back Wednesday or Thursday but we won't necessarily have to wait for them before we start the next stage. There are tongue and groove floor boards for the top floor to make and if the weather permits early during the week we may make a start on the beam work under Owen's direction. We will need to get the next floor level on the main cabin and the garage before we can take the logs any further on the gable ends or the dormers. In case you were wondering, we have used just over half the logs and there are about 160 left for the remainder of the log work. I am hoping that there will be a few left over as I have a couple of ideas that could usefully employ any.

This is how it looks now from the road (track).....

... and from the back of the cabin (lake side).

Inside, things are looking a bit cleaner.  Here I'm standing where I will probably put a dining table looking over to the living area in the centre, the galley on the left and study on the right, not quite all in the picture.

From the living area looking towards the garage. There will eventually be two walls between here and the garage, both on the other side of those beams you can see on the floor. The outer wall is the barrier between house and garage (planning requirement) and the space between the walls will house a walk-in pantry, laundry, utility/mud room and downstairs loo, which will have the window you can just see on the left behind the tarp. 

From the galley looking towards the front door (behind the tarp), the dining area (when not eating at the breakfast bar in the galley) and the study/home office area on the left of the picture, again not quite seen.

Centre of the cabin looking directly out through the great room/living area.

The front of the cabin. You can just make out the covers hiding the deck foundations and you have a better view of the loo window and side door into the garage.

I have been busy in the evenings going over my thoughts for the kitchen. I can only really visualise the main floor at the moment because I am not sure of all the detail of how the roof lines are going to affect the rooms on the top floor. I shall have to wait until the beams and rafters are in therefore before I can really start planning the bedrooms and bathrooms. I am probably going to have an island in the galley with enough space for the hob and seating for five/six people. This will be the main everyday eating area and the dining table will only be used for special occasions, the rest of the time it will be an extension to the study.

The cold weather has frozen the lake a couple of times and I have seen coyotes on the ice hunting for duck and geese. Tracks in the snow have been revealing and besides the usual deer and elk I have been visited by a medium size feline predator as well as the feral cat. A redheaded woodpecker has also been a frequent visitor despite the fact that I stupidly cut down their favourite dead tree. A pair of bald eagles, with their one offspring for this year, have been around occasionally although their normal hunting area is about 20km south of here.

I also need to get out and zero my new rifle and to check the sighting on my .22. I think there is an area near the cabin that people use. Owen will know. Might be a good job for this weekend.

With a little help from my friends

It has been a mixed week.  Progress on the cabin was steady for the first three days but then we had our first real taste of winter. Temperatures plummeted to -10c to -20c and we had our first proper dump of snow. Better than slush and rain granted, but nevertheless it had a big impact. The freezing temperatures have stopped us using the sealant and combined with the snow it has slowed every process and task down. Even clearing the snow off the main floor takes a good half an hour and sometimes it has to be done two or three times a day. It has also increased the risk of injury and I almost became a casualty when a crowbar fell off the scaffolding and hit me.  Luckily it hit me on the head or it could have done serious damage!  But seriously, I was lucky, my hat softened the blow (a bit) but I had a headache for two days and the bump on my head has still not completely gone.

The forecast for the coming week is for more snow but, temperatures are due to rise and so I am hopeful that we will be able to resume using the sealant. If this becomes impossible we will have the choice of switching to using a gasket to seal the logs. I would prefer not to have to do this but the only other alternative is to suspend log laying until the temperatures rise and that could be weeks if not months and I don't want to do that.

I have put the snow plough on the quad and tested it out although, with only six inches of snow, it wasn't really necessary. However, I anticipate that it is going to become quite important over the coming weeks and I am glad that I bought the quad and plough when I did. My clothing is holding out quite well and I am suspending buying any expensive winter construction clothing for as long as possible. The exception has been that I have invested in a pair of proper winter construction boots. Keeping fingers and toes warm is critical to being able to work in these temperatures and I am hopeful that these boots will do the job. I already have good gloves but they don't last with the heavy work and have to be replaced about once every 4 - 6 weeks even with due care and diligence.

The quad complete with snow plough. The blade is raised and lowered using the winch and it can be manually turned and fixed to face to the right or left if required. Its old and slow but a good workhorse that I am beginning to really appreciate. I took it for a ride this afternoon (Sunday) to visit friends and it performed really well on the track up to the ridge above me which has now been closed to normal traffic due to the snow.

Snow clearing is a priority to preserve the integrity of the sub-floor; to reduce the risk of injury, and; to prevent the loss of tools and construction items such as screws, nails, etc. 

Anticipating that falling temperatures would freeze the ground and make it difficult to dig by the end of the week, on Monday we decided to dig the foundation holes for the decking that will surround the house.

We placed the foundation bases and tubing, down which the concrete will be poured.  More of this later when we pour the concrete.

We even managed to back-fill and cap off the tubes. Here you can see the foundations for the deck for the room above the garage.

If the weather had held, we would have finished the ground floor level of logs. As it was, we fell short by a couple of layers around about 3/4 of the perimeter.

Even so, we made good progress and virtually all the logs are now cut, ready to lay, to finish this level.

For those that are interested in the detail, I thought I would show the process for preparing the logs to be cut.

The tools required are generally these. For the uninitiated the second from the left is a draw knife. Like most tools one starts off using far too much brute force and energy but one quickly learns to let the blade do the work. It doesn't take long to become quite skilled in its use and consequently a big fan of it as a tool for lots of jobs one used to do with other tools.

The first task is to brush off and clean the log of all the dirt, chips, scrapings and ice. This applies to all four surfaces.

I then generally remove the strip of wood on the edge left over from the machining.  I leave a slight bevel on the edge to encourage any rain to run off rather than into the joint.

Then any remaining bark that some of the logs still have must be removed. The bark harbours disease and parasites and must be removed to prevent rotting etc.

The last task is normally to remove a lip from the underside of the log that prevents it from lying flat on the log below when it is placed on the wall. Failure to do this will cause the wall to lean. The lip is generally only 1- 2mm high but, multiply that over 18 layers and you can see the problem - a bowed wall.

Some will be interested to see that I also took possession of my 'sporterised' .303 this week. It is light, well balanced and the action is surprisingly smooth and quick. You may also be interested to know that the world record for a bolt action rifle was set in 1914 by a musketry instructor in the British Army—Sergeant Instructor Snoxall—who, using a .303 placed 38 rounds into a 12-inch-wide target at 300 yards in one minute. I am not surprised that his record has lasted this long.

Happiness is a warm gun

Some have inquired after John the homeless man. Finding him work with my builders hasn't worked out, not yet at any rate. Unfortunately, he doesn't have any building skills and that is what is needed at the moment. I, along with 2 or 3 others, keep a close eye on him and make sure he has what he needs to survive. I have discussed with him living in my trailer over the winter but he has declined the offer partly because it is 8 km from the Highway where he is at the moment. He has chosen his campsite well because it affords him easy passage into Cranbrook each day, where he has to go in search of work, charity and essentials (toilet, warmth, food, water, company etc). There is also the option for him to go into the mens' shelter accommodation in Cranbrook but he has declined that option as well. He is determined to prove to himself that he can survive the winter in his camp, with a little help from his friends. I saw him yesterday, helped him with his laundry, bought him some food and water and brought him back to his camp. I will continue to watch over him.

Now, as they say, we come to the tragic bit. The step-daughter of my master-builder and friend, Kevin, was killed last Friday, in a car crash in Utah in the USA. She was 18 years old. This brings to ten the number of teenagers belonging to the small communities with which I am associated, who have been killed in car accidents since my arrival here. This incident over-shadowed the fact that Kyle, Kevin's son, wrote off his truck last weekend but thankfully he and Matt were both miraculously uninjured. I can't help but think there is something wrong here. Our thoughts, prayers and hearts go out to Kevin and his family. But nothing can really soften the pain and sorrow that this bereavement brings and that will remain with them forever.


I have found few words that express better the sentiment of what we all want to say than those chosen by Edward III when he wrote to the King of Spain to inform him of the death of his daughter, the Princess Joan of England, who died of the plague in 1348 on route to Spain to marry the heir to the Spanish thrown. 

"No fellow human being could be surprised if we were inwardly desolated by the sting of this bitter grief, for we are humans too. But we, who have placed our trust in God and our Life between his hands, where he has held it closely through many great dangers, we give thanks to him that one of our own family, free of all stain, whom we have loved with our life, has been sent ahead to Heaven to reign among the choirs of virgins, where she can gladly intercede for our offenses before God Himself."

So, there is little new, it seems, when it comes to the human condition. As a generation we have been luckier than many that have gone before us, but that doesn't soften the blow of personal grief, loss and bereavement that, sooner or later, comes to us all.

Boy, you gotta carry that weight - carry that weight a long time

It has been a good week but hard work and the logs have been heavy. The team have really pulled out all the stops to move things along. Matthew has been off for a couple of days but we have been joined by Dexter who has building experience in Northern BC. He has returned to his routes to be closer to his wife who is expecting a baby. 

All in all it has been a successful week although we weren't able to work on Friday because we ran out of sealant. Actually, we would only have managed a half day anyway because at lunchtime it started to rain and that would have stopped us using the sealant.

Each morning Kevin has divided us up into teams. Depending on numbers, it is normally a cutting team (Kevin plus one if available) and two laying teams of two people each.  Between cuts Kevin has inspected our work and made us redo anything that doesn't come up to his high standards.  Twists in the logs sometimes make it difficult to keep the walls vertical and braces and the occasional use of the sledge hammer has been required to keep things straight.  Dexter's 210 lbs have come in handy more than once.

We started the week with putting a metal flashing on the edge of the sub-floor to protect the floor boarding from the elements once the logs are laid.

By the end of the first day we had laid three layers around the sides that will have conventional windows and put the frames in.

Tuesday the sun decided to come out and I took this photo of the basement while discussing options for its development with Owen. I shall probably not do anything with the basement until I have lived in the cabin for a while and have a better feel for what is needed down there.

By close of play Tuesday we had raised some of the walls 11 rows high.   A dining area and study will be on this side of the house...... 

... and the kitchen will be on the other side with a back door leading out on to a covered deck and steps down to the yard.

Braces were put on the window frames and walls to keep them vertical, with Kevin keeping a beady eye out for quality assurance/control.

Wednesday we topped off the windows leaving an inch gap above the window frames for log shrinkage.  New logs would require a 3" gap because they shrink more as the moisture in them drys out.

By Wednesday evening the structure was starting to take shape and look like a cabin (dacha) rather than the Tzar's Winter Palace, as some have been imagining.

Thursday we got to work on linking the garage to the main cabin, front (all my work) and ........

  .... rear, which was easier said than done but we got there in the end.

One can start to gain an impression of what it will eventually look like from the road.

For those that are interested in the detail, this photograph shows a plan view of one of the joints between he garage and the main cabin.  The logs are not over-lapped here because there would be deep gaps on the inside of the joint due to the shape of the rounded side of the D shaped log.  Instead they are tied together with one of the 12" screws, from the top, diagonally into the opposing log and from different sides alternately every row.  Here you can see the screw coming in from the right in the centre groove where the sealant goes. The gap between the logs will be filled with caulking.

And this photograph shows just how deep the screws go into the row below to pull them together effectively.  The screws have lasted well and to date only one has broken due to over-torquing.

The work has been hard and we have had a second casualty, Ron, who has had to pull out due to back problems.  We are all pretty exhausted by the end of the day and generally I find myself in bed by about 2130 hours at the latest ready to be up for 0630 hours the next morning.  My main concern now is the weather.  We have had more rain and slushy snow this weekend and the forecast for next week is not good. I am hoping that the met forecasters' accuracy rates stay at normal levels and actually next week will be bright and sunny - fat chance.

There is a lot of interest locally in what I am doing here.  D shaped milled logs are not common, in fact log houses generally are less common that you might imagine.  Even the planning department seemed unsure of a lot things when we went through the building permit application process.  On this development there are only two log homes, mine and one other also owned by a Brit. I quite often get visitors who just drop in to see what I am doing and my neighbours frequently come along to check on progress and offer words of encouragement.

Till next weekend.