Digging the Foundation

Hard at Work

This weekend we had a lot more success in digging the foundation.  We were able to get the trac-hoe hydraulic problem fixed and with of it we were able to dig the trenches all the way around.  We were even able to start putting the form boards in place for the concrete.  Lisa and John will be working more on the form boards and getting the rebar ready and hopefully we will be able to start pouring in the concrete this next weekend.
Now that we are seeing more progress each week we will be able to add more posts to this blog.

Easy Logs

Loading logs the easy way!

Normally we cut down several trees, limb them and cut them to the length we need and then we load them up on the trailer.  This entire process can take hours and hours just for one load.  We were contacted this week by a man who had be contracted to cut some trees and he decided to give them to us rather than burn them in place.  We ended up getting 24 wall logs and about 40 pieces that are 11' long that we will put on the mill and make dimensional lumber with.  The good news for us is that he and his crew cut them down, limbed them, cut them to the length we requested and then used their trac-hoe to load them onto our trailer for us.  All we had to do was back the trailer in place for him and strap everything down, bring the load home and drop them in the yard and go back for more.  What a great deal!  I have looked and the wonderful man does not have a website, but if you are in our area and you need tree removal, dirt work or even something like a mobile home moved; call Mike Ramsey he is a great guy and charges reasonable prices.

Foundation Frustrations

We have a great friend who is renting us his mini trac-hoe for a really low price and we couldn't be happier.
We unloaded it off of our trailer and decided to pull up 2 stumps that would have been loacated under the great room and ....BOOM...Ken hits our current sewer line.  So we go and buy all of the stuff to reloacate the sewer line (it was going to have to be moved anyway) and we spent the next 4 hours getting the entire house foot print laid out and making sure that all of our lines/walls were square and true.  Ken climbed back up on the trac-hoe and dug our first scoop of dirt (see picture) and then the hydralic seal blew out on one of the arms and we couldn't get it fixed until the first of the week.

Our First Scoop of Dirt for Foundation

Update: I am happy to report that we have the fixed arm back and we are now waiting for Ken to come home for the weekend and get to digging again.

Protect Your Logs

  


    Wood boring insects are a potential problem with any log home.  In Louisiana the bugs seem to be very abundant.  When we peel the logs we will treat them with a high quality insect and fungus treatment and then seal it in with a stain.  Until we get them peeled we are trying to keep the pesky little bugs at bay using a cheaper spray and so far it seems to be working fine.
  



When we start peeling and stacking logs we are planning to use Penetreat for the bugs and Capture stain, both of these products are made by Sashco.  We will eventually follow up with an additional coat of stain and a coat of clear and some caulking in the gaps, all of the products that we plan to use will be from Sashco.


Ken spraying what will be our sill logs.