April 26: First Concrete Pour

Erik and Scotty are greeted the morning of the concrete pour by a happy dog.

Sea Island Sand & Gravel supplied a pump truck to reach all of the piers.

John operates the controls for the pump truck boom.

Scotty controls the hose, filling the concrete forms while Erik follows finishing the concrete.

After filling all of the forms with concrete, Scotty teams up with Erik to expedite the concrete finishing.

April 18: Building Concrete Forms

 Erik uses a transit to precisely pinpoint the pier elevations.

A rebar grid is placed in a footing, continuous under the

four East piers to resist potential seismic forces.

 The rebar grid must centered and tied to the forms prior to pouring concrete.

 The piers on the East side are square to accommodate the larger post bases.

High uplift capacity post bases are placed in pier forms.
Concrete will be poured around them.

 The forms pass county inspection.

  One of the piers required a pump to remove the ground water seeping in through fractured bedrock.  

John Cadden returned to the site to excavate for footings for all the barn posts. Erik and Scott then built plywood footing forms with rebar cages tied inside them.  Sonotube pier forms were then secured to the top of the form boxes.  Most of the posts are on individual piers, however the east wall of the barn required a continuous footing with four piers which resist seismic forces on the structure.

April 9: Milling Logs Into Siding

Using Kaj's bandsaw, Erik and Kaj turn the roughsawn logs into siding.

Kaj's mill in action at West Sound Lumber's sawmil

Nuñez delivers more Douglas Fir logs to the queue.

Fresh off the mill.

The bandsaw slices off uneven edges.

Erik stacks up the siding and trim with stickers in between.

Our big stack of posts, beams and siding awaits delivery!

West Sound Lumber milled a large, sustainably harvested timber package for our post and beam barn. Some of the island fir logs became 8x8 posts and beams, and others were roughly canted for bandsaw milling.

Kaj brought his portable sawmill to West Sound Lumber, where he and Erik milled our logs into board and batten siding and trim. Meanwhile, West Sound Lumber is storing our timber under cover until the barn foundation is completed.

April: Barn Construction Begins

Erik and John Cadden discuss the excavation plan.

John and Erik spread gravel over the drainage area.

Erik walks back into the quarry - he and John went
to nearby Sea Island Sand and Gravel to hand-pick rocks
for the retaining wall.

This one’s a gut-buster.

Holes are dug for the footings and the forms are being assembled.

Earlier this month, our barn plans were approved and the permit was issued. Construction got underway as excavation began: Erik and John Cadden installed drainage, built a stone wall and dug holes for the post footings. Due to the large shed roofs, there are 12 posts in addition to the main timber frame barn structure. The barn moved away from the hill slightly due to avoid hammering through bedrock (yes - it's a rock island!).