7/20/08

despite sweltering weather and a lot of rain, we had a productive weekend. the porch rafters are complete, porch posts are 80% complete, porch braces are about 40% complete and i figured out the layout for the porch beams, but we haven't pulled them out. they are heavy and we'll need many hands to lift them for work. one is 24 feet long! it looks like there may be enough people by the end of this week on the land to help.

friday, peter and i put together a couple tent platforms. it took about a 1/2 hour a piece to assemble the frame and then we lugged them up to their sites with the help of moss and daisy and nailed boards to the frames to create the platform. we made them of green hemlock i bought from a local sawmill. i'm pretty sure some of the boards were only a day or two out of the mill so they were heavy! the platforms are propped up on rocks to keep them clear of the ground. i must say, it's awfully nice to sleep on the level. when we get to thinning the forest as part of our forestry program, we ought to have plenty of timber to mill for more of these. they're easy to make and light on the land. meanwhile, glitter and daisy kept up work on the porch posts, carving the tenons and reductions expertly. michel took up kitchen duties and learned how to make white sauce and used it in an innovative way with eggs and rice. it was delicious.

saturday, drew and greg pitched in with landscaping, mowing, and some carving. drew cleared the area around the stage at the old kitchen and greg managed to get a good part of the meadow mowed. it's looking well kept, grassier, less prickery. glitter, daisy, peter, paul and i worked on carving. greg and i layed out all of the braces and sawed them in prep for chiseling. it's been two years since we last made these. we scratched our heads for about a 1/2 hour trying to remember how to lay them out. after we'd figured it out i remembered my timber framing book had detailed layout instructions. sure enough, we figured it out right, but i decided to keep the book handier. greg got to work cutting brace tenons. michel continued to make lovely meals, with more white sauce. daisy made chocolate cake. yum. and we sang around the fire.

sunday i awoke early to get a jump on laying out brace mortices on the posts. it's a easier for me to do layout in the quiet of the morning. moss arrived mid-morning and began a burn pile to clean up the area around the circle. drew operated the boring machine preparing mortises for chiseling. greg continued work on braces, daisy on posts, glitter worked on his tent site, and we had some visitors from putney in the afternoon whom we met at the moondog in chester (where peter works) during lunch. mac arrived later in the day and took to work on the posts with daisy. i wrapped up two posts with mortises, peg holes, some cleanup planing and chamfering.

during the week, daisy is hoping to finish up the posts and some more braces. this will clear the way for bringing the beams in for layout and carving next weekend amidst lammas activities. we may be able to get a couple pieces of the porch up next weekend, but if not, most likely the second weekend of lammas. we're also going to pull out the peg jig to produce the handful of pegs we'll need to hold the porch structure together.

looking ahead, once the porch is up we will work on completing the upper windows and the bathroom corner, as well as framing the interior, installing plumbing, gas and electrical.

as always, it helps to let us know you're coming and we can almost always use help. register on the website in the calendar section (www.faeriecampdestiny.org).