ONWARD

Up go the loft walls and notice the new loft window configuration.

Also we are trying a new way of placing the roof rafters. Instead of bird mouth cutting each rafter twice we are going to use metal tie downs to secure the rafters. I think much faster and easier for those lacking in talent. (namely me!)

Number two is moving along

Number two is now framed and sheathed on the first floor. The deck is now on and the steps and jump pad will go in tomorrow. Also tomorrow we will begin putting on the loft area and the roof. I hope to see this unit dried in by the end of the first week of August.

Mischa and Brendon are working very hard everyday and doing great work. I can see a major increase in their skill levels from the first day they were here. They have done most of the work on number two with only a minimal amount of supervision from me.

Number one shot gun shack nears completion

The number one shot gun shack is within a day of being ready to inhabit.

There are many cosmetic things yet to do but Brendon will move in and we will
finish later.

The door is in as is the temp kitchen and the loft with access ladder.

We have now started on the deck/floor for number three so we can stack materials on it thus getting them out of our way in the shop.

We will have the floor done by Sunday and then will go full tilt for framing and drying in number two.

The summer weather is still great. Highs in the mid 80's and lows at night down to 50. Although it is beginning to get very dry.

DRYING IN NUMBER 1

Brian has been gone for two days now and we are missing his help.

Mischa and Brendon have done the roofing on the first Shot Gun Shack with some small help from me. They did a Great job of it. We installed the tubular skylight and just need to get some ridge caps and the roof is complete. Two of the five windows are installed. The building is completely wrapped in felt ( tar paper ) it will be completely water proof when the other windows and door are installed.

Today's post will include pictures from the roofing process and three shots showing the visibility of this cabin from 100 ft then 75 ft and last from 50 feet away. Note that it is nearly invisible from 100 feet.

Brendon will be moving in by next wed/thur and going into full retreat. He gets the first "dried in" cabin (still unfinished inside) but that means he will get the last totally finished one.

Final day, Mother Photo

Today was the last day for me at OGM this month, it's time to go back to California for awhile. Two of our young hermits are going into full time retreat next week, while one will continue working with Roger during the building season. Here's a photo of the young men at site #2, for their mothers to see - they are indeed healthy, whole and apparently happy. I am especially keen to convey to their mothers that these fellows are being well looked after. Mothers are extraordinarily important.

Terran and I affixed the foundation posts and girders, built the joist frame, installed splash guard, rat wire, insulation and decking of cabin #2. We managed to put one wall up. At the same time Roger, Brendon and Mischa were working on weather barrier and start of roofing of #1. One window was installed and that unit will be dried in shortly.

The weather changed again - a new front blew in with a lot of wind. The tall Douglas Fir tree over #2 produced a continuous litter of bark and small branches. Mischa was hit by a small branch at site #1, and a 100 foot Aspen was knocked down across the road near our neighbor's driveway.

This wind also carries me away from OGM, back to work and the SF Bay Area and my usual sedentary life, long enough for my blisters to heal before I return for more OGM construction fun.

Blessings to all!
At the end of the work day we took a group photo of the 5 workers - Mischa, Terran, Brendon, Roger and Brian.

Porch - Day 2, fire

Today was a kind of weird day, where I felt a bit "off" emotionally and everyone else seemed to be grouchy or quiet or anxious. Fortunately it seemed to pass after about mid-day.
Yesterday during the start of the trials of the porch rafters I built a starter rafter as a template and then a handsome beetle came and alighted upon it and would not leave despite our prodding and coaxing. Terran and I decided he was a special insect associated with building and named him "Template Bug". Later Brendon came around and told us he was a northern pine beetle, responsible for decimating forests of the North East.
Well. "Template Demon Bug from Hell" is perhaps a better name. I tore through 4 or 5 planks trying to figure the proper cut and angles for rafters, and didn't get it right. I even tried bringing in the CAD software out to the cabin to figure the cuts for me and still failed to get it right. Finally I was reduced to the Medieval practice of scribing a copy of the profile from an available edge, and that worked OK.

After all this the porch roof *finally* assented to being built. I spent more hours on the rafters for the porch than I did for the entire remainder of the roof. Pictured here is Terran tidying up after one of my disasters. Clearly there's more for me to learn of the secrets of rafter framing on twisted/bent/warped beams and girders.
While Terran and I grappled with rafters, Mischa and Brendon finished the footers for cabin #3, and Roger framed up the girders and posts for #2. Despite the rafter woes things are still moving along. Here's a picture of the sheathed & decked #1. I'm off this site now, on to #2.

With the roof on #1 decked it was time to move the center of operations to #2, and I spent the afternoon trying to get electricity set up for the new site, eventually tracing my troubles to a dead circuit breaker. Here's a shot of the beginnings of #2 rising from the earth.

The weather was odd in keeping with much of the rest of the day. The breezes were fitful, and blew hot and cold. The mosquitoes were bold and thick, the sun burned me and blinded me. A forest fire started to the West and sullied the horizon with dirty clouds. But in the end it was a good day, I had a great talk with the three new hermits and a fine dinner with Roger and now off to bed.

Porch - day 1

The porch is teaching me how to be a better designer and framer. I spent far more time on it than I planned because of inadequate design, and I've had to be very tricky and clever to frame it properly despite the design flaws. I hope to have it finished tomorrow with Terran's help and will post a pic or two then.
Roger went off to Omak to buy supplies and had a jolly time, but it did cut into our productivity. Nonetheless it looks like we can hope to have cabin #1 dried in and #2 framed (more or less) before I leave at the end of this week.

Roof deck

Small cabin #1 shown here progressing nicely - the roof rafters and decking went up today. Along the way two of us had a major allergy attack - I had to knock off work at one point and soak my head.
The other two sites are coming along. Mischa and Brendon poured footings for site #2, and Roger dug footing trenches for site #3.
Our weather has been great, save for the pollen - around 80 degrees and partly cloudy, very nice.

Sheathing up, productive day

The pendulum swung the other direction today and we got a LOT done. Mischa and Brendon set up and poured footings for #2, Roger dug the foundation trenches for #3, and Terran and I finished sheathing #1 and got a few rafters up. It's a relief to have passed beyond yesterday's doldrums. The new guys seem to have quickly settled into their camp-sites, a worrying water leak was located and fixed, and Roger's injuries didn't take him out of action. Another good day!
 

Here's a picture of the sheathed cabin awaiting a porch and roof - kind of ugly

and the view from the window on the West wall - kind of pretty.

Sheathing, frustration, visitors, injuries, Moon

This was one of those days when every little thing seemed to be going wrong on the job site.

I managed to finish the framing for the first small cabin against what often seemed a conspiracy of obstacles. I'm not complaining - well maybe just a little bit - but observing with interest how some days are like this. Every tool seems to drop from my hand, and when it does it is magnetically drawn to the one muddy spot on the site. Levels won't level, staplers won't staple, and when I drive I hit things and run over stuff and generally seem to be incapable of precise action.

The cumulative effect was actually a bit frightening. Roger and I went for a hike to pick a site for small cabin #3, and at a certain point as we were scrabbling over rocks I heard Roger give a yell and turned to see him slipping from the rock face and falling painfully down the slope. Fortunately no bones were broken, but Roger wins the bruise contest on this work session. On a day like this I feel a bit fearful to use the nail gun or the chop saw, it's like asking for trouble.

On a positive note our new visitors, Terran and Brendon showed up today. I put them to work immediately, and perhaps a bit cruelly, moving 80lb sacks of concrete from the truck to a storage location. They had a rough journey getting here, we'll go easy on them for a while.

The photos here show the partially sheathed cabin frame. It seems pitifully little to have accomplished today, but such a day it was. Most of the frame is lying in a pile to the left. Also here is a photo of the new moon, a thin and graceful sliver, showing over the lodgepole pines as the trying day draws to an end.

 

Up goes the Frame

The weather shifted last night - it rained fairly heavily (which woke
me up twice, with nightmares about rusting tools...) Much cooler today and an over-abundance of mosquitoes.

After some thought we came up with a way to use the "bad" plywood to finish the deck and did that first thing. Roger and Mischa also poured the footings for the porch. Here's the crew loitering on the finished deck early this morning.
Two walls up, there I am attaching some additional pieces. After this we broke for lunch
Three walls up, mid-afternoon
Late afternoon - Mischa and Brian pose with 4 1/2 walls.

Our good friend Addie from our Wat Metta days is up here using the VIP cabin. She made a huge salad for lunch today, loaded with lettuce from Roger's garden.  

Yesterday was the Birthday of my two beloved sisters, Mary & Margaret. I observed this event in my usual way by neglecting to call them and then feeling a bit guilty, in the proper Catholic manner. But I didn't actually forget...

Number 1 shot gun kuti

Today we continued work on the first of the small cabins. It took us most of the morning to move tools, materials and equipment to the site, set up power and the air compressor, and finally get ready to start working.

The main beams were leveled and shimmed, then the joists were assembled into a frame. Building felt was attached to the frame, then hardware cloth "rat wire" on top of the felt. Next we flipped the frame so the rat wire is on the bottom, insulated it with R21 fiberglass insulation, and prepared to deck the surface. Just before this we back-filled around the footers, mostly by hand. Although the foundation and deck are simple there was still a lot to do.

We would have gotten more done save for a number of screw ups and obstacles we encountered. One of the joists had a shape like a football, so we had to pull that one out and replace it with a proper joist. A staple gun lost its spring power and entered early retirement. The decking T&G turned out to be a 1/2 inch less wide than we expected and that stopped us, amid much cursing from Brian who was quite affronted by this shortcoming.

Along with the materials issues, we found ourselves many times missing a tool or a supply of nails or *something* which was needed and so sent somebody up to the barn to fetch it. Usually this was Mischa (thanks Mischa!) - he ran up and down that hill probably 10 times today.

Pictures here show Mischa and Brian working on the foundation and deck.

Back to work, Electricity again

I (Brian) got in late yesterday and this morning went to work on putting in electricity at the "VIP Kuti". As expected it was an all-day job, but with Mischa's help it got done. I put a very small load-center breaker box in the kitchen area and installed a single utility receptacle nearby. On the other end we sorted out all the cuts, unions, curves and joins of the conduit to safely and securely wire in to the barn load center.
The weather is very typical for this time of year. It got up to about 96 degrees and was mostly sunny. I hope it cools down soon, hot work is more tiring.
Now I'm exhausted again - a familiar feeling for my OGM time. Someday I'm going to come up here and not work... Some day. Maybe...

Plants, deer, new kuti and temp facilities.

Mischa and I have been really putting in the work. Don't know what I would do with him helping.

We have gotten temp kitchen, bath and laundry facilities up and running. Mischa built wire deer proof cages for ALL of the landscaping trees and shrubs, about 100, and installed them as well as weeding around every plant. We poured the concrete footings for the first 2008 kuti today with Mischa doing most of the mixing and me helping when it was time to set the beam clamps.

I spent time in the VIP kuti putting in the safety railing in the loft. Pictures of that when it is done.

Here are pictures of the deer cages, and the temp facilities.

We had a different sort of visitor last night - some creature tore through the stacked trash and left a few mementos. Apparently it was a large black bear.

OGM is really rolling along.

Continuing to work

Since Brian left about two weeks ago Mischa and I have been steady working at many tasks.

We completed the hookup of grey water lines at the Central Bath Facility (CBF) and covered that trench. Have completed the installation of the cedar ceiling in the VIP Kuti. Thought we had finally finished with the water leaks/cheap valve replacements at the shop area but now it seems we still have some problems there. I will dig again ( fourth time ) in the next day or so.

We have almost completed "deer proofing" all of the vulnerable shrubs and young trees. We have been building wooden frames in three sizes and then covering them with poultry wire. These work well and can easily be removed to allow for weeding/pruning. The deer here are voracious feeders and what they won't eat today they will tomorrow or next winter. I have found that plants listed as, unappetizing to deer, are not always that.

I have now installed the "temporary" kitchen at the CKF. Last friday I purchased a new refrigerator and used gas range and installed those along with a counter top. Today I will hang a sink and plumb it as well. This "temp" kitchen will serve until we install the permanent one next month. The temporary one is in another area from where the permanent kitchen will go so will be usable the entire time we are building.

The CBF is up and running except there is no sink as of yet.

All in all things are rolling along fairly well. Facilities are coming on line even if they are still in need of much of the cosmetic finishing touches.

Coming up in the next week or two is digging and filling in electric line trenches. More water line repairs and digging. I have some work to do in the VIP to install a railing in the loft and some "temp" facilities in the kitchen. When Brian gets the electric hooked up I have a small sized refrigerator for the Kuti as well.

Brian's last visit of three weeks was a great help here at OGM as it always is and we thank him for it. Also the good work we are getting from Mischa is very much appreciated. As soon as we get three cabins up for him and his two fellow retreatants they will be going into retreat. We hope that will be by Oct 1st of this year.

We are still waiting on the IRS to rule on the 501c3 application. Last we heard was they had recieved the paperwork and cashed the check ( of course ) and that they would be in touch within the next 60 days. That was 35 days ago.

Shacks

The plans for what we've been calling "shotgun shacks" - the design doesn't actually qualify as such since it doesn't have a back door - is nearing readiness. It's basically a one room cabin with a door and 4 windows and a propane heater. There's a small porch, a little loft, a sink and a small counter, a bit of furniture, and that's about it. No electricity (yet), and no other plumbing. The interior area is about 80 feet square. It would make a nice artist's studio or small office, or small crafts workshop. We'll see what the hermits think of them.
The roof profile is based on the practical rural buildings found in Arkansas and Missouri.

Broken pipe, Electricity!

The electrician came today and did the hookup. At long last we have juice at the barn! Since we actually spend more time in the barn than anywhere else when working on projects, this milestone is very significant to us.
I had also planned on completing the supply plumbing and getting the bathroom up in the barn today, but Murphy's law asserted itself: The buried valve we found last week that supplies water to the barn broke when we tried to turn it on. It now needs digging up and replacing before the barn water can be re-established.

Wat Metta Monks

The Ajahn and another of the monks from Wat Metta near San Diego came for a visit. They chanted a long blessing for the place and Roger's amulets.
Pictured here are Roger, Ajahn Thanissaro, Tan Dan, and Brian.

Supply plumbing, rock wrangling, rainbow

The supply plumbing is about 85% done and we can see the way clear to getting the toilet and shower online tomorrow. Also tomorrow the electrician is coming and Roger had to cut some more trenches for the conduit. Along the way he hit a very big rock. After 1/2 hour he finally wrestled it out of the ground and dragged it away in triumph! At the end of the day the rain finally quit and a big double-rainbow graced the eastern sky.

Interior walls, Vent plumbing

Our internet service has been out for 3 days due to the ongoing storms. Now we're back online.
Partition walls went up today for the barn bathrooms, along with vent plumbing for the wet wall. It's all looking straight and tidy despite our amateur status. Mischa is learning how to properly swing a hammer.

Plumbing milestone, more wire

Today I closed the barn subfloor, having *finally* finished the DWV plumbing for the central bathing area. Michael and Mischa continued doing conduit and wire work. Later this week we hope to have the local electrician make all the connections. Shown here are M & M gluing up some conduit in the ongoing rain. The order errors were corrected today with an afternoon delivery from Omak, so we're back on track. Tomorrow we start putting up walls and vent plumbing, then supply plumbing, then flush!

More wire and conduit, a change in the weather

Today the conduit to the barn was completed. The weather turned from sunny and warm to cool and rainy, with lots of lighting last night. Late in the afternoon we had a ferocious rain and hail storm. There's nothing like the sound of grape-sized hail pummeling the metal barn roof. We discovered that our big materials order had some serious errors in it. Have to call and hassle the vendor on Monday.

Wire unrolling day

We unrolled 3 big spools of wire for the electrical service. Shown here are Brian and Mischa wrangling a spool. It was a hot sunny day and sunburns all around. Once the main wire was laid out we started sleeving the conduit.

Big materials delivery

Today we received a substantial order of building materials. Other than that and cooking and setting up a tent, we took it fairly easy today. With our volunteers on hand we now have more than enough to keep us busy, starting tomorrow...

Kuti A plumbing, spring visitors, storm

This evening we had quite an impressive storm - several inches of rain, huge bolts of lightning and thunder, wind - awesome. The sky was a rare orange-gold color, and highly variable. Towards the West the sunset was still visible, towards the east dark, grey, threatening. Overhead like a boiling cauldron.

Monks and laypeople showed up today as well. We now have 4 visitors.

Over the last few days we did some more purchasing, including a $6K order to be delivered by our friends at H.Depot in Omak, we put up all the available cedar boards in the ceiling and gables of Kuti-A, but ran out of wood before we fininshed. Also the sheetrock in the main room went up. Today I plumbed a greywater line and supply and hung a sink in Kuti-A, and cleaned up the site. A monk sleeps there tonight.

Some plumbing, and a Not so good Barn Cat

 

Today we got a lot of plumbing done; Roger put in 150' water line to the first Kuti in a 4' trench (12 hours of digging!), and I laid out the pipes for the greywater lines. I'm missing a dozen or so fittings and will have to wait until Tuesday to get them as there are no open hardware stores around until then.
I also pulled up a bit of the decking on the north side of the barn and ran an electrical conduit (grey 2") across the barn crawlspace for future use to run power from the forthcoming barn sub-panel down to the first Kuti.
In doing this bit of work I discovered a massive mouse-stash. The barn mice have been busy stashing food in this one convenient corner of the barn under the floor. I found about 2 pounds of dog kibble (from Snoozer's days), chicken scratch feed, (from a bag in the barn) and several pounds of CAT FOOD, stolen from the barn cat, "Kiddos".
Kiddos is an American short-hair, spayed female, looks to be about 4-5 years old. She has a reputation for catching mice, but apparently the mice have been getting away with regular food-snatching forays. Pictured here is our mediocre barn cat, looking fairly harmless.

Big shopping, found water, hare

Yesterday we went shopping in Spokane and dropped a couple of grand on building materials. We're not done yet, have to have another order pulled for us by our vendor(s). We're spending money like drunken sailors on shore leave.
Today we received some additional information on the layout of the service lines and based on that were able to find the water to the barn; we're very pleased! But time is flying by and it seems not much actual progress is happening. The days are too short or we're too old or something.
In the evening, after calling it a day, a snowshoe hare hung out in the front garden to greet us. He's brown now that the days are longer, with just a little bit of his white winter coat still showing. He froze on the gravel for me for a good 3 minutes while I took pictures.

Barn septic tank access lid location

The tank access plate is about 12" down from the surface, a few dozen feet to the south-west of the barn. It is a 8x12 concrete lid with a pull-loop fabricated from 12-gauge copper romex cable.
Its location can be triangulated with two tape measures. It is 37'-6 from the west post of the south barn awning, and 20'-6" from the frost-free water tap to the South of the barn.

The Hunt for the Water Line, Trenches

Yesterday we got the last window in Kuti-A installed, plus finished the interior walls and put in a trench for greywater. At the end of the day a hose blew out on the backhoe.
Today the trenching continued. Roger's Deere backhoe got a good workout, after minor repairs.
We went looking for the water supply cutoff valve to the barn by scratching (shallow excavation) in front of the rollup door. The valve is probably there, but we just couldn't find it. After excavating about 250 square feet we gave up and decided to tap into one of the lines connecting a nearby frost-free water tap.
Next we went looking for the septic system cover and found it on the first try. As expected it appears unused, but it is full of water suggesting that the local rain and snow-melt accumulates there, probably because the access port is in a depression. We'll mound it up when we re-bury it.
I started wall layout in the barn for the central facility but quickly ran into several small issues. First I'm getting a cold or something and feel pretty awful. 2nd there's a perforated pipe that vents the underside of the floor deck which runs exactly where I want to put the main waste stack. Will have to re-route it. Next we went to put in a trench for the greywater line and started by scratching down along the side of the building to find the base of the foundation. We were assuming a poured foundation and quickly discovered that we're dealing with a a wooden foundation the first I've ever seen. That was good news in a way because now we don't have to drop our greywater line very deep to go below the base of the foundation, we can go right through the side of it. On the other hand I reckon a wood foundation won't last as long as a concrete poured foundation would do. Next we went to dig a greywater trench and ended up cutting the sewer line.
A mixed bag day for sure.

Hammers start to swing

I (Brian) arrived on site on Thursday evening and after a day of review and planning, today Roger and I started swinging hammers. We re-set the loft in Kuti-A, built 1 interior wall, installed two windows, and purchased a bunch of stock to build the interior walls in the central facility.

The plan for Spring Building

With the planned arrival of 3-4 full-time meditators in July, we've changed direction on accommodations a bit. We're setting aside the plan to build a second kuti similar to the 1st, and instead we're planning to put set of 4 very small single-room cabins and a central bathing/office/cooking facility at the barn. We only have 3 weeks to get most of it done and fortunately we have some volunteers coming to help. We're also going to run grid electricity to the barn so we can power the workshop, office, and laundry/bathroom/kitchen facilities for our visitors.
Brian on site 5/15, start work on 5/16. Visitors on 5/29. Brian leaves 6/6.

Construction and garden

The porch and steps into the VIP kuti are now done. The porch, covered, is approx. 6'X8' with a set of steps from the ground to the porch and another set from the porch into the kuti. The roof was a bit difficult given that the existing roof on the kuti is a very step angle thus not allowing a continuation of that angle for the porch roof. The level of the porch had to drop by nearly 2 feet to give the needed head room. The rafters for the porch are bolted to the main roof rafters and are also strapped to the kuti walls. All in all a sound and strong system if not the prettiest.

In the garden the strawberries seem to be making it and I am waiting for the first planting of lettuce, onions, carrots and radishes to come up. We have been having a few days in the 70's alternating with days in the 50's. I have had to cover a few nights as we are still getting some freezing temps. I will put out the first round of plants, that have been started inside, this next week. Temps are projected to be in the low 80's by weeks end with over night temps staying in the low 40's.

Most all of the 110 trees/shrubs that were planted this spring are showing signs of life and many of last years plantings as well. It will be another week or two before it's possible to know for sure who will make it and who won't.

Brian will arrive late Thursday to help with the 2008 building season. We have some very ambitious plans for this year. Finish the VIP and add four smaller kutis. Install a central bath and kitchen facility and run electricity to the shop/bath/kitchen building and on to the VIP kuti. The electricity will require digging about 800 feet of trench to bury the lines. I have a backhoe so that should be mostly machine work.

Garden for the hermits

I put in 80 strawberry plants and 25 asparagus plants today. I also have several varieties of cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, 6 different peppers and two types of tomatoes waiting for it to warm up a bit more before putting them outside. There will also be peas, green beans, corn and potatoes in the garden. This garden will be for the hermits that will be staying with us.

Construction work begins tomorrow now that the garden is pretty well lined out.

Spring is here? Maybe!

We have been having a few warm days ( 65 degrees ) but it is still snowing every few days.
110 trees and shrubs have been put in so far this spring. These are either fruit trees for the orchard or wind break/privacy screens for the Kuti sites.

There are two monks coming the end of May and the first of June and then there are going to be four full time lay meditators arriving sometime late June or early July. These four will be here indefinitely, continuing their extended meditation practice.

Brian and I will start the new seasons building projects the middle of May. Finish the VIP Kuti, build a central bath and kitchen facility and put up four "shotgun" cabins for the new meditators.

We will be very busy to say the least.

Once the threat of frost is over I will be moving all of the vegetable plants outside that I have started from seed inside. Looking forward to some good home grown vegetables.