Working around (or out of) the rain---and cordwood heros

You can see a bit of how Joe has rigged the tarps that cover the wall openings as awnings to work under in this season's never-ending rain (of course, the sun came out for these photos). Isaac and Heather are our cordwood heros! Before long, they'll be teaching us what to do.
This picture of how neatly the cordwood wall meets the ceiling/roof belies how difficult and time-consuming that piece of the work really is.

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 . . .

Friends---and first complete panel

Friends Karen and Clive joined us for a day of cordwood, and were initiated into all of the mysteries. We have decided that they are the best new pointers of cordwood mortar EVER---even Jaki Roy of Earthwood would approve, I think! Their section of wall will stand out when the house is done, to be sure.

We also filled in the top of one of the two nearly complete panels, making our first complete panel! Fitting and filling in at the top is very time-consuming, and uses a LOT of mortar.

30 batches of mortar later

We had our two days of summer, and it's raining again. We have managed to make a bit of progress, though.

Laying cordwood at last

Rain be damned---we are laying cordwood! And very glad that we decided to build a timber frame with cordwood infilling, rather than building load-bearing cordwood, because we have a roof to work under. The folks in the Daycreek forum---particularly Bruce and Nancy---have been most helpful and we have achieved very good LPM (lime-putty mortar) mixes, with the help of some bagged dry sand. When the mix is good, you can feel it and hear it while you're mixing.

We are using 18" log ends, and following Rob Roy's suggestion, going with approximate MIM (mortar-insulation-mortar) widths of 5"---7.5"---5" (to leave a half inch for log-end relief when pointing).








The corners around the posts are kind of funky: we use 6" log ends on alternate courses. From the outside there is no difference: we just need to remember to leave room for insulation on the inside.