On the last trip we got the railroad ties in to use as post. These are basically 7 by 8 inch beams of wood soaked in tar and as a rule are pretty good for standing up against rot and bug infestation, I guess time will tell. Anyway, I drove down on the night of the 5th of August and unloaded the load the lumber I had for the beams and cross member supports, a pretty uneventful trip and kind of relaxing for a long day.
Dean showed up Friday morning around 9:00 AM and after a quick cup of coffee or two we loaded up the trailer with about half the lumber I hauled down. This made for a pretty heavy load and we were a bit concerned about being able to get it in with all the rain we’ve been having this summer. Get it in we did and didn’t even get stuck, we saved that (getting stuck) until “after” we unloaded the trailer. Go figure, loaded with 800 pounds or so of excess weight and the ATV hauls the trailer in like its nothing, unload the trailer and we get stuck in a mud hole….
While Dean hauled the limber I got to haul in the portable Auger with a 12 inch bit and it worked out really well. We got to the site, off loaded the lumber and set up the auger for our first post. So far so good, until we got about 3 feet down, “hey Dean, where’s the drill bit extension?” reply, “we ain’t got no drill bit extension” Ooops. I forgot to mention to him that when he picked up auger and drill bit to get the 18 inch extension and of course the folks at the rental place didn’t bring it up, so, no extension. OK, no biggie, drill as deep as we can then use the manual post hole digger. Turns out it wasn’t needed anyway, the deepest we got was to the 3 foot mark and then the underlying soil was as hard as rock, probable because it was rock
So by 6:00 PM Friday were both pretty tired out, but we did get 7 of the 15 post placed and compacted in. We also decided that were going to pour some concrete footers around the post at ground level to add to the overall strength and support. So back to camp and dinner, when dang nabit, I forgot to take the steaks out of the freezer for dinner, good thing Dean brought down some pre-made spaghetti, Thanks Marquise (Deans wife) for dinner.
Saturday morning I got up at 7:00 AM, what, I never sleep in that last, I guess I was more tired than I thought. Humm, so I made a nice breakfast of bacon, eggs and potatoes and we loaded up the second half of the lumber and headed in to finish up the post. Another easy trip in and everything was good. Started drilling and had placed 12 of the 15 post when Dean’s sister and company show up to visit. So there’s an hour spent socializing, they were great folks to get to know. John (another John) jumped right in and gave us a hand and we got those last three post placed in record time, well record time for our normal speed. Leave it to say neither Dean nor I are speed demons when it comes to digging holes in rocky soil.
By the end of the day we had all the posts set and some temporary supports up. So we cleaned up the site and headed back to camp to cook the steaks I did remember to take out of the freezer this time :<) I actually got up by 6:00 AM Sunday morning and started cooking breakfast and so we could load up gear and head in early. There wasn’t much left to haul, fact is we didn’t even use the trailer, just loaded up the ATV’s and off we went. My hopes were that we’d get the post and maybe one beam up by the end of the weekend, but by Jove we got all the post and all 3 of the main beams glued, screwed and set. Wow. So what you say, what’s so big about setting three 24 foot 6 by 12 inch beams, well let me tell you. Since we couldn’t haul three 24 foot long prefab beams in we had to build them on site and since we didn’t have a crane to lift them on the post once they were built, we had to build them on the post. Dean’s creative mind did help here as I was looking at these posts and envisioning us getting 90% of the way done and one them suckers falling off the darn post, now that would have been a cluster (you know what) to try and solve. Ain’t no way I’ll even try to lift that beam up. A little scrap wood and a couple of support saddles are built and were off to the races, by 2:30 PM we had all three of the main beams build and placed with temporary braces, a good weekends work. The best part was sitting or standing on the beams and enjoying the view of the mountains and valleys, just makes me want to get the cabin done now so I can sit on the deck with a cup of coffee and watch the trees grown. Next trip is to add the porch beam, set the floor joist and place the floor decking. Photos of the trip in progressive creation. [flagallery gid=58 name="Gallery" skin=StylishGrey]
Share on Facebook