Snug as a bug...

Now that winter has really arrived, I have begun working on the interior of the shop. A neighbor gave me an old wood stove he had in his barn. After I cleaned and repainted it, replaced the firebrick, and bought new stovepipe, I cut the hole on my new roof and installed the chimney. I have ordered a couple of fans to attach to the stove to provide hot air circulation in the shop. Even without the fans, the old stove does a decent job of warming the place up.
I have installed four high output flourescent light fixtures in each bay, and am in the process of running the wiring through steel conduit for all the fixtures and outlets. Once that is done, I'll be able to clean up the place and put my tools and machinery in place.
I tried to dig the trenches for the sewer, water and electrical conduits, but the frost was just too thick for my little backhoe. Denny Weaver brought his big backhoe up and did the job in no time. Once all that is hooked up I will begin building the bathroom. Wow! Heat, lights and running water - not too shabby. The only thing missing is the stereo.

Putting a lid on it...

We finally got lucky with the weather. The sun came out, temps rose above freezing, and we were able to finish putting the roof on the shop. We are grateful to our neighbors, Denny, Dave, Suzanne, Shannon and Pat for their assistance. With the exception of fitting the trim corners, we are finished with the roof. Now I can concentrate on wiring the shop and installing the bathroom. It will be nice to take a few days off and let my sore muscles recover.

Raising the roof...

We have finally begun installing the roof panels. So far this the most challenging phase of the construction. We are now in the winter weather cycle, where waves of moisture are constantly coming from the Pacific across Oregon and Washington. The mornings will be wet, and the afternoons may be sunny and dry. This makes scheduling a work crew just about impossible, so Susan and I will have to figure out how to move the 6' x 40' insulation rolls and the 3' x 21' steel panels up to the roof by ourselves. When the roof is the least bit damp, it becomes very slippery, and can't be walked on. I found this out the other evening when I was installing the ridge cap. The sun went down, and moisture immediately formed on the roof panels, making it nearly impossible to get any traction. I was quite happy to get back into the lift and get back to solid ground. Unless we can get a string of dry days, this part of the construction could take a while.

Another milestone...

We finally got the last wall panel installed today. The weather was sunny and mild, so we took full advantage of it. I also graded around the east and north sides of the shop and got rid if a lot of the standing water from the recent rains. I then laid down a layer of gravel, which I hope will improve the muddy conditions. Another couple of sunny days without rain wouldn't hurt, either.
The inside of the shop is looking really good. As we progress with the construction, we have fewer and fewer parts and pieces stacked on the floor. The only materials remaining are the rolls of insulation for the roof, the roof panels and the ridge cap. We are excited about starting on the roof, and are hopeful that we will have good weather for the next several days.

Never a dull moment...

When we got up this morning at 6:00AM, the moon was illuminating the landscape and the stars were twinkling in the heavens. We were looking forward to a productive day, thinking that we would be able to finish the remaining end wall and get ready to start installing the roof. Old man winter had other plans for us. By the time we arrived at the shop, the skies had clouded over and the snow began to fall. Fortunately, it didn't last too long, so we still thought we had a shot at getting the end wall covered. We were wrong.
Since the weather was supposed to be good, the concrete folks decided to schedule the pouring of the basement walls of the house. The road going up to the house looked pretty good yesterday, but I had a couple of loads of gravel delivered just in case. The combination of the unexpected snow and the weight of six loaded concrete trucks soon turned the road into a slippery mess. I spent the entire morning spreading gravel on the hill, which allowed the trucks to get up to the house site. The basement walls are now poured and, aside from removing the forms, there will be no more work on the house until spring.
The weather cleared up a bit, allowing Susan and me to get half of the south wall covered. I had to spread another load of gravel around the shop, which also had become a sea of mud. We will install the remaining panels as soon as the weather permits, then begin on the roof. It's exciting to see the shop finally taking shape.

Slowly but surely...

Work has been progressing on building the walls for the shop. With a little help from our friends, we managed to get one side wall and one end wall done. Then Susan and I did the second side wall by ourselves in only two and a half days. We have been dodging rainstorms for the past week, which has slowed our progress considerably. The area around the building has become muddy, necessitating the placement of additional gravel around the shop. We hope to have the final end wall done in the next two days. The 10x12 garage doors are scheduled to be delivered tomorrow. Having dealt with sprung garage doors before, I'm letting the door guys install these babies.

Ready for the walls & roof...

After spending the last three or four days installing bracing and backing plates for the paneling, the shop is ready for the installation of the insulation and the wall and roof panels. Hopefully the weather will cooperate for the next few days. Today it was cloudy, cold and windy. If there is a significant breeze tomorrow, it will make installation of the 3' x 12' steel panels difficult, if not impossible.
On a brighter note, I am happy to have the door and the windows installed. I feel better knowing that that I can lock the place up at night.

Showing good form...

Susan and I finally got the last purlins bolted in place. We can now begin preparing to install the insulation and steel sheeting that will make up the walls and roof. Tomorrow we will visit the R&M Steel factory, to discuss the next steps in the shop construction with our contact there. They have been most helpful, and I would not hesitate to recommend them. You can visit their website at http://www.rmsteel.com/
I must say that I am looking forward to a day that I won't be running up and down the portable stairs and luggung steel beams around the site.
Meanwhile, at the top of the hill, the concrete forms for the house foundation are almost all in place. The pour is scheduled for early next week, weather permitting.

With a little help from my friends...

With the exception of a few purlins (the beams that support the roofing), all the steel framing has been erected, squared and plumbed. Many thanks to my good friend of over forty-seven years, John Eells, who took a week of his time to come to Idaho and help me, and to my son-in-law, Sgt. Benny Guzman, USMC, who took some leave time to give me a hand. We worked quite well together, and got a lot accomplished. Thank you John! Thank you Benny! There is still a lot to do, and I will be working on it non-stop until I complete it. There aren't that many good days left before the winter weather sets in.
While I am rushing to finish the shop, the forms for the basement walls of the house are being set up. The foundation walls are scheduled to be poured early next week.

Almost there...

Did I say I thought we'd have the framework done in two more days? Dream on. That was six days ago, and we're still not finished. Broken chains (2) on the boom truck, several small but very necessary parts left out of the original delivery necessitating a 140 mile round trip to the factory, delivery of all the insulation for the shop, and a trip to a neighbor's ranch to pick up some scaffolding have all contributed to the delay. Today we got the south end wall up after several trial and error attempts. Seems that the instructions are not as clear as we would like to have them. We now, however, have a pattern we can use for the north end wall, and are confident that we can get it all put together tomorrow. We'll see.

Getting it together...

We have wasted no time in putting the shop together. A long time friend has come up from northern California to help us erect the building. One of my neighbors has loaned me a boom truck to lift the steel beams and columns. That has really made things easy. At the rate we are going, we hope to have the entire framework finished in two more days. Then we will install the siding, roof, insulation, doors and windows. Once that is done, I will have to wire the building, build the bathroom, and install the woodstove. I am hoping the entire job will be completed by the end of the month. So far the weather has been cooperating. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we will not have any bad weather before I can get the building enclosed.

The shop arrives...

One of my concerns about our driveway is an uphill turn I call "the hairpin". I am able to tow my trailers up it with ease, but didn't know if a full sized semi could make the turn. I had been assured by Harvey, the road builder, that it would be "no problem". I was glad that he was here this morning when the truck got stuck trying to make the turn. With the help of my tractor, we were able to get it unstuck and up to the shop site. Needless to say, Harvey will be doing some more work on that corner.
The shop components were unloaded and stacked near the shop pad using a forklift borrowed from a neighboring rancher. Now comes the hard work that we have been anticipating for so long. Our plan is to have the shop erected and in use before the first snowfall. We have decided to pour the foundation walls for the house, then wait until spring to pour the basement floor.

While we were working, our neighbor, Dawn, bagged this bear on our property. It weighed in at around 225 pounds. There are many bears in the area this year, and this is considered a medium sized one. I am told that bear meat is excellent, and I'm about to find out.

It's been a busy weekend...

Whew! There was a lot going on this weekend.
I had the honor and privilege of hosting two active duty Marines for some well deserved rest & relaxation. They had never been turkey hunting, and were delighted when they each bagged a gobbler on their first day. They then made the 70 mile round trip to Emmett to purchase two additional turkey tags, and promptly filled them the next day. They thanked me profusely for my hospitality, and I thanked them for their service to our country. At the same time, one of my neighbor's daughters and her husband treed a bear on the property. It was not a large bear, so they did not shoot it.
The weather finally broke, and Saturday morning before sunrise we were able to pour the floor of the shop. It took most of the day to pour, finish and cut the slab. Now all we need is for R&M Steel to deliver the shop. At the same time, the driveway was getting covered with gravel all the way to the house site. While all this was going on, Susan and I were backfilling and compacting the footings for the house.
I need a rest.

Murphy is alive and well in Ola...

Into each life some rain must fall,
Some days must be dark and dreary.
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

It hasn't rained in Ola since June.
Today was the day the concrete was scheduled to be poured for the shop.
It's raining.
Figures.

A busy day...

The concrete trucks arrived before sunup this morning to pour the footings for the house. Because of the positioning of the house on the hillside, a concrete pump truck was used to deliver the concrete to the forms. The operator controlled the boom and the pump by means of a control box with two joysticks and a row of switches suspended from a strap around his neck. I have pieced together several photos to illustrate the size and reach of the pump truck. Remember that you can click on the photos for a larger view.
While the crew was pouring the footings for the house, I continued to work on backfilling and compacting the shop pad. Tomorrow I will install the plumbing for the water supply and the drains, and level the pad to a uniform depth of four inches below the top of the stem walls.
I was pleasantly surprised to see Harvey Church's truck laying gravel down on the driveway. This stabilizes the larger base rock, making it much easier for the heavy trucks to traverse the road.

Fill 'er up...

We are almost back to where we were over a month ago. The stem walls have now been poured and the forms removed. We are in the process of backfilling the trenches that were dug for the footings and walls. It is critical that the backfill dirt be tightly compacted to avoid settling after the concrete floor and entrance ramps have been poured. Susan can be seen running the gas powered "ground pounder" compactor. It is a slow, noisy, dusty, arduous job, but she makes it look easy. How many wives that you know would be willing to work this hard on a construction site? I am truly a lucky, lucky man!


Due to uncertain weather forcasts for later this week, the shop floor is now scheduled to be poured early next week. That will give me plenty of time to level and recompact the gravel base and get my under slab plumbing installed and inspected.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

Thanks to the efforts of over 450 firefighters from as far away as Canada and New Mexico, the Ola Complex fires have been put out, and things have pretty much returned to normal.
Susan and I completed the three wire fence on the eastern side of the property, and progress has been made on the shop construction. The footing for the stem walls has been poured, and the forms for the stem walls are in place. The walls are scheduled to be poured tomorrow. They will then have to set for a few days before we can backfill and compact the dirt in preparation for the floor to be poured. We anticipate that the dirtwork will be finished by the end of the week, and that the floor will be poured either this weekend or early next week. In anticipation of this, I called to have the shop components delivered on the 15th. They informed me that unless someone else canceled, they were about four weeks out for deliveries.
Either date will work, because we will be working on getting the footings and foundation for the house poured and waterproofed, French drains installed, then backfilled and compacted. Whatever happens, there will be plenty to keep us busy.

All fired up...

We interrupt this blog for an important message - The world is on fire!!

A week ago Thursday a lightning storm came over the butte from the west. As soon as I heard the thunder, I began putting on my wildland fire suit. Before I could finish lacing up my boots, Susan spotted a fire high up on the butte about 1 1/2 miles away.. She took a picture of it from our driveway when it was less than 15 minutes old. You can see by the size of it that it was spreading very quickly. Ola is a very small community. We have five fire vehicles, all at least 25 years old. Every able-bodied man is a member of the volunteer fire department, and everybody turned out to fight this blaze. We fought it night and day for three days before the forest service took over. The photos above show some of the fire, but can in no way adequately communicate the scope of it

After seven days, the Cherry fire, as it was named was finally contained, but not before it had consumed 58,555 acres. To better give you an idea if the population density in this part of Idaho, not one structure of any kind was lost.

The fire is now out, and things in the valley are slowly returning to normal. We are fortunate that our land was spared. Susan and I went back to work rebuilding the barbed wire fence that separates us from the Boise National Forest. The concrete work for the shop and house has been delayed by the fire. Hopefully we'll be pouring concrete next week.

Life's a ditch...

One step forward, two steps back. Today was one of those days. After we spent several days prepping the pad for the shop, it was determined that due to soil instability around the edges, it would be better to do a two stage pour instead of a monolithic pour. This requires a ditch for footings all the way around the pad. That adds up to a little more than 200 feet of ditch, and a lot of wasted time and effort. Something tells me that this won't be the last setback we'll see on this project.

Let's roll...

After several days of filling, leveling, and rolling, the shop pad is nearing completion. We are planning to do a monolithic pour, which means that the floor and the supporting foundation, or stem walls as they are called, will be poured in a single pour rather that pouring the foundation first and then the floor in two separate pours. The critical part of a monolithic pour is getting good compaction of the pad around the edges. This is questionable with this pad due to the large amount of fill needed to level the pad. Susan is enjoying learning to operate the various equipment used in the construction process. Here she is using a large roller, and a smaller compactor called a jumping jack, or ground pounder. Another 6:30AM start to avoid the 100+ degree midday heat. We made it to 1:30pm today. We will often return in the evening for a couple of hours and work until dark. Needless to say, we're ready for an early bedtime after our day's work.