Cleansing The Job, Consolidating Waste, Drying In A Roof, A Risky Rope, Solar Thoughts & Settling The Unsettling
It is nearly dawn and the roosters are crowing their morning song as I slowly sip my espresso and let the fog of sleep fade. It is also another chilly late spring morning so I once again have the recirculating oil heater turned on and am enjoying the relative warmth of the tent before the sun comes out and starts warming things up. I am a little surprised that I slept the few extra hours that I did because I pretty much took the day off yesterday and wound up sleeping not just most of the afternoon away but also much of the evening as well.
All of the rest and taking a day off was quite nice even though I spent most of the day doing a bunch of little chores around the shelter site like cleaning up all the 'waste' lumber produced while I was cutting lumber for the cabin. There really has not been much in the way of waste thus far and everything pretty much fit inside of the cardboard box that my compound miter saw came in. I also cleaned up under and around the solar shack (where I have been doing most of the lumber cutting) and even raked up a bunch of new 'duff' material comprised mostly of saw dust and leaves that I later spread under the chicken coop to act as an absorbent there.
Basically I tidied up a bunch throughout the day and did my best to de-clutter the job site so that all the 'waste' material was organized. I also disposed of any trash generated by the cabin building process like empty tubes of construction adhesive, little plastic tags from the ends of the lumber, random plastic from fastener boxes and so forth and so on. None of it was all that bad or even all that large (as far as trash goes) but there sure was a bunch of it mixed in with some lumber cut-offs inside of a five gallon bucket. The bucket itself is so brittle and dry-rotted that it kept shedding little plastic pieces every time that I moved it and once I find something to replace it with I think that it too needs to get disposed of. That bucket has been shedding pieces of plastic for months now and I just keep picking up the little pieces when it happens because after all the bucket still holds stuff and has been useful thus far!
Anyway, I decided to take a big risk and moved all my potted black locust seedlings to the edge of the pine forest where I have those raised garden beds and other flower pots. I had been keeping them close to the dog yard fence by the main gate but noticed over the last few days that they were no longer getting much sun there. The reason that I was keeping them so close to the dog yard was to help ensure that the deer did not find them and eat the little fledgling trees' tinder leaves. Although I have yet to see any deer tracks near that garden area there is a small herd of them (comprised of maybe four of five deer) that routinely pass by the shelter site once or twice a day in the woods below it.
I am still considering creating a garden area inside the dog yard but lately I have been thinking that it might be more suited for growing black locust seedlings in before moving them to the pine forest or the fenced shaded garden once they get sapling size and begin developing thorns. Once again my main concern with growing anything inside the dog yard is the chickens and like I have said before I am loathe to build a fenced enclosure inside the dog yard itself just to keep the chickens out. What I have been thinking of doing instead is getting some poultry netting and using it to keep the chickens out of the garden while they are roaming around and when they are put up in their coop I can remove the netting to maximize any available sunlight.
Well, I abruptly quit writing on this yesterday so that I could get to working outdoors so here I am back at it again the following morning. The sun has yet to come up and all that I have done since waking is make some espresso and begin clacking away on the keyboard as I sip my morning espresso. As far as the coffee goes I have been mainly just drinking it in the mornings when I first wake up and not so much throughout the day or at night. I do not think that I made a conscious decision to slow down on the stuff but I assuredly have done just that over the last few months. I cannot say that I have noticed much difference aside from falling asleep earlier at night because I am not using it to counter the fatigue that I often feel at the end of the day.
On a different note, it is looking like more rainy (and stormy) weather is going to move into the area today. The remainder of the week looks rainy as well so I did everything that I could do yesterday to get the cabin roof fully dried in even though I had been hoping to take the day off and rest up a bit more after taking the previous day off. I managed to get all the fascia installed before noon when the sun was overhead and it became blistering hot on the roof. I did not spend too much time making the fascia 'perfect' because ultimately it will just be covered by the large metal rake trim (or drip edge) and will disappear from view but it did come out rather nice even with the roof's funky angle and a few spots where the framing I did was not quite square.
Once all that was done, I set about rigging up a safety rope that was anchored to the ground via the head of one of those ground anchors that secure the building to the ground, tied it to the scaffolding halfway up the tallest wall (so it was not tugging directly on the anchor) and then threw it over the peak of the roof so that it could dangle down the length of the roof's surface where I could hold onto it whilst working. With the rope in place I was then able to finally remove all the walk-boards and the roof jack that I had attached to the roof while doing the framing and sheathing. After working up on that roof so much lately I have my footing figured out pretty good so traversing it was not all that bad without the walk-boards as long as I kept my center of gravity low and kept a little tension on the rope looped around my waist.
By the time that I got the rope installed and all the walk-boards removed the sun was beaming down from overhead so I changed gears and worked in the shade getting as much of the zip-system flashing tape installed on the walls as I could given their incomplete state. As far as taping the walls go, the scaffolding that I built gets in the way of installing it everywhere that I wanted to but there was no way I was undoing all that scaffolding just to add a few more feet of tape. It is worth noting that I would have had the rest of the zip-board sheathing that I need to finish the exterior but on the day that I was scheduled to go to the building supply store last week the person that I was going to ride with got into a pretty bad vehicular accident which totaled their vehicle. Thankfully they (and everyone else involved) were okay but it assuredly left my friend unable to go to the store and they have spent the last many days recovering from their injuries which mainly seem to be the routine whole body ache that a body feels after such a collision. Crumple zones, a seat belt, an air bag and luck are probably what saved my friend's life (or at least saved them from massive injury) in that instance because getting hit by another vehicle at fifty miles per hour (roughly eighty kph) packs quite the punch to say the least.
Back to what I was getting at there. With the wall sheathing as taped as I could get it I could then switch to taping the roof but by then the sun was so bright there was no way that I was taking my sun-burnt self (even wearing a shirt and shade hat) up on that roof. I wound up waiting until a little after four in the afternoon to get up there and begin the tedious process of hammering all the nails flat, removing any debris from the cracks between the sheets, sweeping everything off, methodically taping all the seams and then using a paint roller to apply pressure to the pressure activated flashing tape. It was a bear of a job to do with just the rope as a safety line and honestly I got more tripped up by the rope along the way than anything else.
As with most things like that it was nice to have the comfort of the rope in case I fell but it is best not to fall in the first place and always keep in mind that if I go slow and take my time everything will be okay. There were a few wobbly moments when I was fumbling with the tape, the scissors and the rope (while working up at the peak) that made my stomach lurch but it was only because I accidentally looked down and thought about how if I fell off that way the rope would not help me at all because that was the side that I had it tied off to! Aside from those few times of mild vertigo everything went rather smoothly. The shoes that I was wearing sure helped a lot and I was happy that my slip-on Merrells and my Muck boots both have a bunch of traction on the zip-board and tend not to let me slide as long as I maintain good footing and avoid stepping on any sawdust. My feet are feeling cramped and have been ever since I began working on the roof sheathing and putting so much strain on them but overall it has not been discomfort inducing enough to really slow me down.
It is yet another morning here and I am gradually waking up all the way to what is looking like it will be an overcast and possibly rainy day. I should probably be getting outside to start working before the rain arrives but thought to take a few moments to get this entry all caught up so that it does not nag at me throughout the day. Not that I have a whole lot to report or anything but I am trying to remain in the habit of making a few additions to these entries each day. With how much that I have been working lately it is tricky to devote a bunch of time here but the irony of having lots to write about (because of all the ongoing projects) and not having much time to actually write... is not lost upon me. As with most things it is just something that I have to make time for.
So, early in the day yesterday I strung up a tarp the best that I could around the second floor of the new cabin to help keep the rain out. The tarp was not quite big enough to cover everything but it does cover most of the seams where the first floor sheathing begins so that is good. I also went around the building covering up a bunch of the over-driven nail heads and any blemishes in the zip-board with flashing tape which came out pretty well even though hacking that tape into small pieces without ruining the adhesive side is a bit tricky. I pretty much just use a pair of fish shears to cut the flashing tape which cuts it super well but eventually deposits a bunch of adhesive on the blades that I have to clean off before too much dirt and debris can get stuck in it and gunk up the scissor blades or even worse cause them to get malformed. I might give those blades a deep cleaning later once this project is done but for now I have been using the blade of a chisel to scrape the adhesive off when it begins to be an impediment.
Since there is rain on the way I went ahead and moved some building materials from where I had them staged by the shop tent to inside of the cabin to help keep them out of the weather. I had also noticed that a rodent kept getting under the tarp where I had the materials stored and building a nest atop the sheet goods. Since I have been continually removing sheets of material and using them on the cabin I was finding a new nest every few days and sometimes the very next day after destroying it. All in all that is no big deal but the rat kept urinating on the material as well and it smelt so frigging foul each time that I had to get some of the material that I often held my breath. I actually saw the rat itself once (a midsize juvenile one) but have only seen its mess since then and although I have ran the dogs over the area the big tarp is always in the way of them catching it. Anyway, it was all around good to get the material moved because I was then able to wash the clean side of the tarp really well, get it dried out and folded up so that it will quit killing the fledgling grass that I have growing in the area.
Late in the afternoon I went on another building material supply run and also went for another trip to the grocery store where I could replenish my woefully depleted larder. I am unsure if I mentioned it before but ever since beginning the cabin building project some twenty-five odd days ago I have been shoveling in food as steadily as I can to replenish all the calories that I am burning. These kinds of 'high consumption' times are nothing new to me and I know to just eat whatever I am craving and not let my usual rationing of things leave me operating at a calorie deficit. Even though I have a bunch of tricks to do work on minimal calories (caffeine, a slow pace, micro-movements etcetera) I do tend to get moody when I am hungry and its best to just avoid that altogether if I can.
Well, it is yet another day and this one is quite rainy so I actually slept in a few hours and got some much needed extra rest. I do not know if the rain will slack up soon or not but I am thinking to take it easy today either way. At this point in things I should maybe take a whole week or more off but given that I am more or less halfway done with the cabin build I just have to keep plugging along maintaining my momentum and seeing what all I can get done each day. As of now, I only have to frame in the door and window (perhaps windows) and fully seal up the exterior before moving on to doing the interior work.
Getting the remaining exterior sheathing installed on the second floor of the cabin yesterday really wiped me out but I at least got it done and also got most of the joints taped with flashing tape. If I had really pushed myself I probably could have finished applying the tape but I was feeling super fatigued by then and did not think it all that wise to put myself in precarious positions atop the ladder trying to reach hard to reach places. On the side of the cabin with the roof's peak I wound up using a combination of both the ladder and my homemade scaffolding to get the sheathing installed and honestly it was nowhere near as difficult as I thought that it would be.
The side of the building that was really challenging to get the exterior sheathing installed on was the downhill side and even with the use of a sixteen foot (four point eight meter) ladder I was still unable to reach the uppermost portion of the wall. I wound up having to crawl up on the roof, clutch my 'safety' rope, hang over the fly rafter (eave) and use the nail-gun whilst precariously hanging over the building's edge to get the last of the sheathing secured in place. It was more than a bit stomach churning to say the least and has me thinking about building some kind of box that I can anchor to the ground and rest the ladder on (or somehow secure it to) so that I can more easily reach the top of the wall when I go to install the flashing tape on it which I still have not yet done.
Anyway, the rain does not seem to be letting up but during a brief lull I went out to take a look at the interior of the cabin and thankfully it does not appear to be taking on water like it was before when I only had the first floor's exterior sheathed. I did not crawl up through the (yet to be installed) attic ladder's hole and check on the second floor but my plan is to go up there with a flashlight once the rain slacks up to look for any leaks. Although I did a pretty good job of taping off the roof I did notice yesterday that my safety rope had abraded the tape along the peak's fascia and I will assuredly have to add some more tape there to remedy that. As with most details like that I added it to my punch list lest I forget it along the way or merely lose sight of it needing to be done.
Such are the perils of being my own general contractor, engineer, architect, laborer and foreman not just for the framing but for all aspects of construction. In this instance one of the landowners has been contributing some brain power to the project as well which is kind of nice because I do not feel like I am doing at alone and trying to juggle too much or over-extending myself. It really is a pretty cool project given that we will be covering the roof in solar panels and more or less setting up a power generation and storage facility by utilizing both the solar shack and the cabin itself to house everything. As much as I am looking forward to being energy independent again in life I am way more excited about using the electricity to mine cryptocurrencies, charge power tool batteries with and hopefully charge whatever kind of electric vehicle that I wind up with. As far as that last bit goes it is a distant goal but I really want to find something that I can putter around the place with and be able to power it off the solar rig.
Anyway, this whole power grid that we are working towards creating at the new cabin site is pretty much the prototype for a larger installation that we are going to be doing in one or more sunny areas around the property. There are a lot of possibilities when it comes to the other installation (or installations) due to just how much sunlight we can harness and the kinds of voltages and amps we can reach but for now we are just looking at keeping things simple, setting up a stand-alone system for the well pump and a mass production unit that we can branch AC power from to other locations around the site instead of sending high voltage DC to those locations. There are of course pros and cons to either approach but what I am thinking is that the efficiency losses from utilizing AC power (to run electricity long distances) will be negligible given the sheer volume of overall electricity that we could theoretically be generating. To give you an idea what I personally have in mind for the setup in the long run... just picture a few acres of solar panels cranking out way more electricity than we need and leave it at that.
The rain has yet to let up so perhaps today is a good day to do some writing and nothing else. I will of course have to do my routine chores at some point in the day but that stuff can wait until there is a break in the weather. I have no inclination to wander outdoors at this point and if I was not clacking away at the keyboard here I would assuredly be napping the day away. There is plenty of time to still do that I guess but for now here I am pecking out one word after another in my slow ponderous way hoping to convey something meaningful or at the very least ease my own mind in some way.
Not that my mind is all that troubled or anything because it is mainly filled with plans, lists, ongoing projects etcetera but I do realize that a lot of things in the world are going so fucking sideways that there is no way to keep up with every new development or kink in the pseudo-matrix. Yeah, it is all pretty wacky but the one thing that I refuse to do is let it in any way, shape or form derail me from working towards my goals. Oddly enough they are all the same goals that I have been working towards for most of my adult life so go figure. In other words there is a 'certainty' with which I am doing things now that is based off my past endeavors and their collective successes and failures and I really do not feel all that 'alarmed' nor 'ill-prepared' at all.
It is hard not to feel like my life was all a 'dry run' leading up to the current scenario and now that it is here I am pretty damn ho-hum about it all. There is just this series of habits, practices, techniques, routines and tasks that I have to do to achieve the quality of life that I want and generally it all boils down to my attitude and morale as far as 'getting stuff done' goes as well as the almighty time and calories! Being patient and pacing myself sure frigging helps but again I learned that along the way not so much out of a desire to learn it but out of necessity. I guess a lot of folks feel panicky at this juncture in reality and I too feel sort of 'unsettled' occasionally not so much about the world but about why I am not taking action to address that which is unsettling me.
It is like when I was working on the new cabin roof and I had to remove all the roof jacks and walk-boards that I had been walking on up there and that had been keeping me and the tools from sliding off the roof. It was so un-nerving to even think about climbing up on that roof without them there not so much because it is steep and dangerous (which it is but having worked on much more dodgy stuff... meh) it was that if I fell I am way the heck out in the middle of nowhere by myself. So, with all that heartwarming jazz in mind and knowing that the rope would be just as likely to be what would make me fall... I opted to install the safety rope just to put that 'unsettled' part of my mind at the very least partially asleep. Not satisfied with all of that I told myself to only make micro-movements while on the roof and the moment that I felt fatigued to get the heck back down the ladder and approach the task (whatever it might be) again later when I had more energy and focus. As a side note that sort of self-management and general approach to the project sure has made both this cabin build and the previous one hundred and seventy-two days quite smooth.
Okay, I think that I am just going to wrap this up and see if I can get it all edited and posted today. It would be kind of nice to have a shorter post like this one to edit than some of the larger ones that I have been doing the last several months. Weighing that tedious task ahead always gets to me until I realize just how many times before I have managed to do it to one degree or another! I hope that everyone is doing well and has a nice day/night.
I dunno what these flowers are that I found growing in the woods but they sure are pretty.
Now this is one happy dog!
The cabin roof with all the flashing tape installed!
The second floor walls with their sheathing!
I have to admit that I like how it is coming along!
Thanks for reading!
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That Is All For Now!
This post was originally posted to the Hive Blockchain here:
https://peakd.com/homesteading/@jacobpeacock/apocalyptic-homesteading-day-169-172
