Marking the house

The photo above shows where our property is. The ridge is called Mt Baldy, as seen from the west (looking east out of town). There are 3 high spots on the ridge, each at about 1500' elevation; the high point on the left of the ridge is about where our parcel is (it is actually about the same elevation as the high point on the right, just further away). This photo is taken from a corner I will drive through every day going home from work.

Today we (Becky Patrick and Katie) went out and staked out the corners of the house and garage in the clearing that James has been clearing out. (James was elsewhere, helping to teach a logging course, a subject he is becoming skilled at!) We discovered that a huge slash pile of debris and branches is centered on our future front hall, and the location for the garage hasn't been cleared far enough, so there is a huge hemlock tree standing in the middle of the future garage. We also discovered we haven't cleared far enough to the south, so our future deck is still covered with trees. It was lots of fun, however, marking out boundaries and imagining "here is our future porch" and "here is where the kitchen will be". We had both dogs with us (Tobi and Keeper), who both appropriately christened the home site, as dogs are wont to do.

Solar kiln

OK, 2 posts in one night, that's over-productive..

This is a photo of a solar kiln. All the wood was cut by Gregory (see earlier post), and carried to this spot and stacked with small spacers between each layer, and plastic mounted over the top to catch solar energy. The top is oriented to the south, and James tells me the wood has already measurably dried since being stacked. This is some of the wood that will be used to frame the house.

Broken excavator

We have a reprieve: James rented the excavator for 4 weeks, and with 3 days left on the clock, the excavator broke. (James didn't break it, a valve cracked, spewing engine fluids and mandating a work stop). So the rental company took it away and will bring a fixed one next week, but in the meantime that means this weekend we can't (ie don't have to) spend all our time clearing land. Which is a good thing, as James is helping teach a logging course tomorrow (how to use logging arches and low-impact equipment to harvest trees without raping the land) for the Northwest Natural Resources Group (which helps foster green logging...).

The photo above shows the tree at the SW boundary of the house (which is the master bedroom). James tells me that's the only tree left standing (I'll see it tomorrow when I go to the site). I carried this picture on my camera so I could show it to friends and say, "See, this is my future bedroom!". What a view, eh?

The neat story about this particular tree is that 2 years ago, in December, Patrick's Boy Scout troop did a Survival overnight on our property and spent the night in the open without tents or overnight equipment. That tree, with the orange tape around it, was the center of their "camp", where they set up a cooking fire (and roasted strips of "deer" meat, actually beef that the leader passed off as deer). (Becky had a piece of it, thinking it was deer, but because beef gives her tummy aches, was in distress for the rest of the evening...). The boys set up shelters and make lean-tos out of branches and ferns, some of which were still standing when we went to clear the land.

Logs to lumber

We are logging trees on our property that will be cut up and used to build the house. This is a photo of Gregory Guest (son of Greg's Mobile Milling Service), running the portable mill on our property, getting ready to cut up a Douglas Fir that James felled (see excited James standing behind the mill!). We think we will be able to frame the entire house with wood logged off our own land, how cool is that?! The property has been designated a "Forestry Stewardship Council Certified Forest" by the Northwest Natural Resources Group (which gets us a green designation), and has a mix of 30-year-old red alder, hemlock, and Douglas fir (it was stripped 30 years ago by the previous owner). After the logs are cut, James is stacking them to dry in a solar kiln (future posting). You should see the huge pile of sawdust next to the mill.

Boy toys

We got our permit for clearing the land a few weeks ago; since then James has been renting the ultimate Boy Toy: an Excavator. Here he is grabbing and clearing a tree as he clears the homesite for future construction. Note the log across the lower left of the photo, which is about to be lifted up by the excavator. James is (barely) visible in the cab.

Building the home

Welcome to the blog as we build our home. "Wapiti Woods" has been a project for the last few years; we first saw this property in Nov. of 2005 (the day we first saw it, the neighboring meadow was covered with elk scat). "Wapiti" is a native American word for elk, alternately pronounced "Wah-pih-tie" or "Wah-peet-tee" (which echoes our name), and is translated to "white rump" (as elk appear), or in the vernacular, "white butt". "Wapiti Woods" seemed a natural name for the acreage.

The picture above is the SW corner of our future home. It is also the hemlock tree overlooking the firepit that the Boy Scouts used for their survival campout 2 winters ago, and is probably about to be plowed under within the next week or so. Stay tuned for future pictures of this same site. As the Realtor told us, "It takes vision to see what this property can become".