WINTER ARRIVES TOMORROW

Not officially, but in spirit. Temps day after tomorrow are forecasted at four above in the morning. So I'll show you what little I've done to fend off the cold. Then I'll show you a bit of barn work that I hope to complete before the real snow arrives after Christmas.

 

 

The Atlanta 60 pot-bellied stove I bought last year has finally been installed in the living room, and boy, does it run circles around the gas heater! Cheaper, too. The old coal insert is a great place to store the fuel.

 

 

Perks of the job. Antique cherry cutoffs from a flooring project were too small or too sappy to use in the shop. Trust me, I got some shop wood, too. At the top of the pile are 90 degree wood elbows, which are being cured for shelf brackets. Briar, bittersweet, and grapevine. My major crops! We have concords up here, as opposed to the muscadines down south.

 

 

A rick on the right and the pile of 500 year old antique longleaf pine cutoffs on the left. Cutoffs are for the firepit, which hasn't seen any use since spring. Got too hot too quick. The rick supplies the shorter pieces for the woodstoves.

 

 

So does this pile of cherry and birch, both plentiful on the farm.

 

 

Another acquisition from last winter finally installed in the shop. It does not get the surrounding cabinetry hot, either. Thing weighs almost three hundred pounds and takes a while to heat up, as opposed to the Atlanta, which gets hot very quickly indeed. There is a special insert for the thru-the-wall pipe, and note the cap to the left. I had all these attachments since 1997, bout time I used them.

 

 

Chimney without cap installed. The ladder sits on a pile of yew and dogwood, the signs made up the floor of the barn.

 

 

Speaking of the barn, here it is in early fall. The 1710 structure on the left, if you remember, has its front wall detached and leaning out towards the camera (note the plate with the bolt just below the eave; that's where the cable holds it in place).. But in September, I noticed it leaning towards the newer 1860s barn on the right (a separate structure). I had to do something before the snow loads took them both down.

 

 

Enter a trusty come-along, a large chain bought when I first got here, and a binder clamp. They  

connect the 1710 barn sill with the 1860s girt timber.

 

 

See?

 

 

Transferring the stress from the cable to the chain. That's what binder clamps are good for.

 

 

Sill plate. Timber-framed, 7x7 inches. It ain't goin' nowheres.

 

 

Scaffold to reach the roof, stifflegs to support the rafters as I work to remove eight layers of shingles, original roofers, and original cedar shakes. A nasty, dirty job.

 

 

But the stifflegs allow me to support the ladder in addition to keeping me from being killed by the falling roof. Which, of course, it didn't.

 

 

A good portion of the front roof removed, and one section of the back begun.

 

 

A month later, half of the back section is gone. The timbers and sheathing are all good on the gable end and rear of the structure, and will be kept in place with braces until spring, when I will remove the front wall and rebuild the structure.

 

 

Looks like a lot of work for one person, and it was, but it was done in two days spanning two months.

 

Next: The Kitchen Wainscot!