logcabinfromscratch

We bought 28 acres and decided to clear one acre for our garage and cabin.  Warehouser had logged the property in 2006 so it will be another 30 years for the trees to be harvestable.  Not probably going to be logging when I’m 90 so I’ve come to terms with buying my trees elsewhere.  Bonnie and I walked through the 12′ high newly planted douglas-fir trees trying to visualize where our buildings would sit.  Our friend Ken was scheduled to bring his huge excavator out in a few weeks but I couldn’t wait.  So I started in with my chainsaw and jeep.  I’m sure glad Ken showed up when he did…it was slow going doing all the clearing by hand.  It makes you appreciate how hard the pioneers must have had it back in the day…and they even used hand saws!  

After Ken showed up things went quickly.  Everything opened up nicely and we could see much better where the cabin and garage would go. With a real steep bank on our north we had to hire a GeoTech to tell us how close we could build our cabin.  60′  Originally I wanted to build our cabin so close to a river/creek that we could hear the water rushing by.  But after looking at so many properties I realized that it would be hard/expensive to find such a property.  River front property is either in the lowlands or in a ravine.  Both have their problems…lowlands are difficult because of flooding…ravines provide little sunshine.  So we are happy to have compromised.

Lucia and I share a tube.

We have half a mile of river most of which is wild and hilly so even though we could have built down by the river we decided to build up on our knoll…with a wonderful view of the Olympic mountains!  My plan is to eventually build a gazebo or even a tree house down by the river.

During the clearing process we collected enough trees and bushes to create two very large piles(approx 30’x20’x12’high).  I hadn’t planned on the burning of these piles to be any problem at all.  Hummm…  I started out early one morning before light…thinking I’d be done by evening.  Not only was it not totally burned by that night but it took three more days to finally call it done.  During that time we had to get creative.  We rented a gas powered industrial fan to keep the air flowing good and thus causing a nice ‘hot spot’.  We also used a bug sprayer to add diesel to the fire…Bonnie seemed to enjoy the pyrotechnics!