Trapped in cordwood

Our long silence does not mean that we've finally mortared ourselves into our walls! We're just in a building frenzy, trying to complete as much wall area as possible before the calendar puts an end to it. After that we'll update this blog with detail and process notes and photos.

We finished the 8th panel on Saturday the 12th. We could move in for the winter with 8 panels, as that would give us three "bays" closed in, if we install a temporary wall at the west end of the completed panels. But we made so much progress on the 9th panel yesterday (we're getting better at this, and faster*), that we are now considering the possibility of a 10th, which would give us 4 bays---all of our living area except the utility and project rooms.

See the rough floor plan below. The gray exterior border represents the 18" cordwood wall. The small black rectangles are posts; there are a total of 14 cordwood panels between the posts. We have completed the panels bracketed with red: three on the north, three on the south, and the two large east panels. As of yesterday, we had about a third of the cordwood done on the 9th panel (the next south-facing panel). If we complete another north panel, making 10, we can move our temporary wall west by an entire set of posts.

We've extended our "stop" date to the 19th, which is surely pushing it in terms of approaching frosts. What do you think: is it worth taking a chance that frost might affect the set of the lime mortar?



*Joe and I, working alone, mixed and laid up six batches of mortar, in addition to cleaning some logs and sifting some sand.

What a crew of six can accomplish

TWELVE batches of lime-putty mortar. That's what Isaac, Heather, Joe, Ian, Heidi, and Holly mixed and laid up today.




Wha' da ya know? It's raining! Boy, we really needed that!!!



Isaac, Ian, and Joe built and set the front kitchen window frame while waiting inside behind the tarp for the monsoon to end.

Life can sure change all in a moment

So . . . we've lived in our current house for almost exactly a decade: longer than either of us has lived anywhere else in our adult lives. It's where our youngest daughter spent her high school years, and where our youngest son has lived since he was nine. We had planned to try to sell it, when our cordwood house was nearly ready to move into. But life has a funny habit of not working out as planned. Our house has been---unexpectedly---sold, to the satisfaction of both seller and buyer. Now all we need is a place to live!

We had planned to start laying cordwood last spring. We worked on painting and repairs in our current house, so that when we were ready to sell it, it would be ready to sell. We enjoyed the activities of our youngest child's senior year in high school, and concentrated on college preparations for him.

We were ready to start laying cordwood. Then the rains hit. As I write, it has been raining pretty steadily, with few breaks, for about two months. No one around here has ever seen anything like it.

We have 14 panels to fill in with cordwood---although we could probably move in with just eight panels and a temporary wall. But we have to stop laying cordwood no later than mid-September, because the lime-putty mortar won't set up properly in a hard frost.

We have already been blessed by "help from the sky." Isaac and Heather have been awesome!!! Karen and Clive!!! Ian!!! However we are here to say that if any of our readers have the slightest interest in learning how to build with cordwood, NOW IS YOUR TIME!!! We stand ready and waiting to teach you everything you would ever want to know (as well as stuff you wouldn't). Come on out and experience the zen of cordwood . . .

Moving cordwood: don't underestimate the tortoise principle

Joe has been hauling the cordwood from the cutting site to the building site. Via rather small tote sleds, without the help of a snowmobile, horse, or even our Newfie. Why? Here is how our decision process went:

We want to begin the cordwood infilling as soon as possible in the spring. Cool, we thought; we'll order sand and lime and be ready to roll as soon as hard frosts have passed. We'll have to allow time to bring the wood over from the cutting site . . . which will mean driving the truck to the cutting areas where the wood is stacked . . . the access roads to which are not likely to be dry enough to drive over till June . . . aarrrgghhh, another flaw in the plan. Better to get the wood out now, while the ground is frozen and snow-covered.

Our first idea was to get the wood out with a borrowed snowmobile and tote sled. Sounded good, but not a viable option for the landowners, since our snowmobile tracks would very likely have had the effect of quickly incorporating their land into the ITS system and attracting every sled for miles around. We finally decided that we'd try the long slow route of hauling wood out with hand-pulled sleds, one small load at a time. When we made the decision, we figured that we might only get a third of the wood out before spring, but that would still give us a jump on building and Joe had some time this winter.

What we didn't expect was the progress that can be made with slow, steady effort. With a good pair of snowshoes, as well as some much-appreciated help from Isaac, Joe has already moved two-thirds of the cordwood from the cutting site to the building site five miles away---including setting up wood racks inside the Sunnywood frame---with a plastic sled, a homemade wooden sled, and an small pickup. This has been a lesson in the value of incremental but consistent expenditure of energy (and way cheaper than a membership at the gym). We have also learned that low-tech solutions can sometimes be very effective: having done this, Joe doesn't believe that using a snowmobile would have been any faster, or that much easier. It does help that the wood has already been drying for a year, so it is considerably lighter than the first time we handled it.
Loading sleds:


Working against gravity:


Working with gravity!:


To Sunnywood:


Inside to stay good and dry:

Buttoning up for Hannah

With tropical storm Hannah on the way (which is expected to drop three to five inches of rain) we decided to cover the plywood roof sheathing with tarps until we are able to install metal roofing. Our thought was that tarps would be reasonably fast and easy, and we had other things in our lives to tend to. But it was windy, and the tarps were awkward and required more securing than we thought. As a result it took pretty much all day, and we could perhaps have applied roofing felt and drip edge in this time instead. Live and learn. We also took the time to spread hay on the fresh loam skirting the house and covering the septic, to try to keep it from washing away in the storm.