Back steps

So last winter, after we moved into The Log House in December, the Hubs had to use the rickety temporary construction steps out the back door to feed the boiler.   In advance of the heating season this year, the menfolk decided to build a nice new sturdy set of steps.  I was expecting just simple little stairs, but I returned from work to this:

A wee little deck!   I *may* have squealed a little with joy.  

Over the following week, Bob - and an assortment of friends and family - completed the decking and the steps.  

No, the cat didn't help much.

Now I can grill on the deck like a real 'Merican and not in the woodshed.   And the Hubs won't fall to his death in a snowbank this winter.

Which would put a real damper in my plans for a new back door.  Heh.

Roasty toasty 2

Long-time log devotees will remember that we are heating The Log House with wood in a gassification wood boiler.  Which, if you allow it to get cold, needs some coaxing to be roasty-toasty again.   Fortunately, The Husband loves this kind of nonsense   -- er...   necessary work.

Theeeere she goes

I love radiant floor heat.  It is SO! WARM!   Except, I have a sneaking suspicion that The Hubs will make me learn how to feed the boiler soon.  Ugh.  Sounds like work.  

Old Mother Hubbard ...

... went to her cupboard to fetch her poor boiler some wood.   But when she got there....

... her cupboard was bare, and so her poor boiler got none.


But then her husband fetched some wood from the big woodshed and made her help unload and stack it.

And this old mother remembered why there were no treadmills necessary 100 years ago.  And that she hates manual labor.  And is lazy.

The end.

It's beginning to look a lot like....

....  a North Country winter. 

Especially considering that it has only snowed a couple of times this winter and that sorry excuse for snow has immediately melted away.   Definitely NOT like a North Country winter! 

But today was cold!  Snowy!   And so we headed up to the log house this morning to stoke the fire before the poor cold house froze up.  {As always, by "we" I mean Bob.  I am not good with fire.  Or splinters --  I mean wood.}  

And then we headed home for grilled cheese made with local Mcadam cheese and my father's homemade bread, and a marathon house- and tree-decorating afternoon.   Ta-da!  Now we're festive outside AND in!  

Of course, ask me how festive the snow makes me feel in March. 

And then cover your ears.

Woodshed with a ta-DA!

That husband!  I've been asking him for a week what's been going on up at the log house, and he's been noncommittal, at best.  So I go up to fetch the boy today after work and lo and behold, there's wood in the woodshed, which now has a nifty sliding cedar door.  To wit:

Cool, eh?   Remember when the boiler house didn't have a woodshed attached yet?  Here's a view to refresh your memory:

See the white door in the left wall?  It's the same white door in the pic above that.  The radiant floor heat system works like a charm, and now the boiler shed and woodshed are all set...    how's about some, oh, I don't know....  STAIRS in my house?   No?  Oh, okay.   What's next, then, husband?

Kitchen cupboard framing thingies?  That works too.

The woodshed that ate New York

*sob*   This woodshed has ....  *whimper*  EATEN my cute little boiler house!  

OH THE HUMANITY!!!

Er.  Just kidding.  Isn't it great?   Time to teach the boy how to chop wood now, I guess.  BOY!  HEY BOY!

Oh.  I see you're still busy pulling nails from those boards.   Well, hurry up.  Daddy says he's repurposing those boards into pallets ...  for you to stack firewood on.  On which you'll stack firewood.   Yeah, that.

More! More! More!

{sing-song}  Wooooodsheeedddd!

Today

Rain, then sun, and a beautiful start-of-fall evening.  Mmmm.....

and this:

Woodshed progress, baby.

Woodshed

Well, it will be the woodshed.  Phil is very supportive.

SuperBob

Our friends Matt & Liz from our old life in Merry-land visited us this weekend.  *sigh* We love them.   Anyway, it was a short visit, but we managed to force a trip up to see the log house, as we do with anyone we can wrestle into it. 

We showed them the gassification wood boiler

I made Bob pose for a picture with them by the southeast corner of the house:

They discussed chimneys and spiders and such:

And then The Hubs geeked out on them wood-wise and showed Matt how to use the sawmill:

Here Matt tries his hand (it actually takes closer to 4 minutes to mill one board, not including positioning, but I truncated it a bit ...zzzzzz...):




I've known it for years, but Matt and Liz now think of Bob like this, apparently:

Phil

Meet Phil:

You don't know him?  Let me back up:

No?  Still not ringing a bell?  How'bout now?

See our half-a-heating-shed out back of the house?    We finally got the fill in there to the left of the shed that already contains the gassification wood boiler.  Now it's all level and ready for Bob to build the other half of the woodshed.  

Blah blah blah --  all I know is that this side of the house is all cleaned up and fine lookin' now.  Er -- well it will be once it's no longer an active construction site and I can convince my green-thumb father to help us landscape. 

A home.... for the boiler

Well someone's home is almost done!   And that someone is our gassification wood boiler.  All that remains to be done, The Husband tells me, is to put an interior wall in the empty space and put a ceiling in.  Oh, and extend the whole area with some fill and put down more concrete and build the other half of the shed for the wood storage...  but that can wait.  The half that the boiler will live in is done.  ish. 

Whaddya think?

Back in business!

Can I just take a minute to thank Johnny and Chris?  Thanks, guys, for working on our house for us while Bob was lying around doing nothing these past two weeks.  Sure, he had pneumonia, and then pleurisy.  But that's no excuse.  I mean, c'mon!   So, thanks guys. 

The Husband did go up to The Lake yesterday and they made use of the 60 degree weather to put in the concrete pad for the woodshed/boiler house.   He's paying for it this morning, though!  His poor lungs and muscles were not prepared for the physical exertion.  Eh - he'll get over it.  He's hardy. 

Here are some pictures of yesterday's work:

The west gable is mostly framed up.  Bob is debating whether to put the windows in now or wait until spring.

Inside shot

Outside shot