Ottertail Country

Ottertail Country
Ottertail South

May 31, 2007

Thursday update.


Here is the way it looked when Ivan and I quit last night. Good to have all the rafters up..... And seeing those flying gables done was particularly nice!!



I'ld say it's starting to look like a party!!!




Today I got home about 2:45 and I was on my own. I decided to fix up the very peak of the flying gables before starting on the fascia board. I was having a hard time deciding how to hold it all together up there until the plywood deck went on the roof, and finally settled on a 3/4" thick plywood boomarang in each top joint.



Then I put in the last cross 2x4 just at the ridge. It took two hours to accomplish that!! Lot's of up and down ladders, moving ladders, etc., not to mention the copius amounts of cogitation required.



It really starts to look like a roof when the 2x6 fascia goes on and hides the rafter tails and defines the entire roof line. I was able to get the horizontal ones on via a jig that I made that would hold one end of the board at the approximate height, then I could work from the other end and get things right.




I think I'm having fun, and maybe getting used to doing some work for a change.... I may stay home from work on Friday. The weather sounds like it should be pretty good, and I would like to take advantage of that. I have about 1/2 of the fascia on, a couple hours should finish that. Then plywood roof decking, and tarpaper!!! No more water inside the building after that.....

Later, Carlo

May 30, 2007

Wednesday update....


So here we are, atempting to put up the flying gable rafters. Ivan is bracing the first one and you can see the second one sticking up in the extreme right hand side of the pic.



We built the units on sawhorses down below, then hoisted them up and installed, aligned, etc.



It took just about as long to put on these four structures as it did to put up all the trusses the night before. Ivan looks happy here, as he has about two nails to go before quitting for the evening. Facia board, roof deck and shingles come next....

May 29, 2007

Tuesday update.


I decided to stay home from work today, Tuesday. I got my tools and headed for the building. I worked on putting on the top plate all around the walls, then finished te framing in of all the window openings. Ivan came down about 3:00 this afternoon and we started on putting up the trusses.



We spent a little over four hours and finally got all 19 trusses inplace! Peg got home in time to help with the last five trusses, kind of hard to deal with those last few, but we got them on.



Thanks, youse two....

May 28, 2007

Weekend update......

Greetings.... this will be brief, I'm beat.......


The guy brought the stuff at 1:30 on Sunday, it took an hour to unload, and another hour for Peg and I to sort through all the stuff and put doors, hardware, etc. into the shed in case it rains.....



The guy was pretty good with the boom...



Not as big a stack of stuff as I expected, but I knew it was going to be plenty of work.



We finally got organized enough to start, and we got 1/2 of the east wall smacked together and standing..... enough for the first day.


We started early this morning, Memorial Day. We had fixed up the cemetary box with some geraniums and marigolds, so I took that to Ogema first thing. Then I started on the garage. Peg had to leave for a while for Scouts in the parade in Phillips, but I made a little progress while she was gone.


Mid afternoon we paused for a few minutes and I downed a nice Goose Island oatmeal stout. It tasted really good out there under the maple tree....



By 7:30 this evening we had completed all the walls and had them standing. Not too shabby for one day. Peg and I both are suffering for all the work, as we both have inactive jobs and we're not too in shape..... Oh, well, there's plenty more to do.

I gotta go, Carlo

May 27, 2007

It's Memorial Day weekend.

There. I'm caught up with posting!!




Here we are on the morning following the pour. The slab looks great, I wish we had materials....




I spent a few hours leveling the fill on the North side of the slab, hauling some rocks and chunks of concrete overflow over to the west side of the slab where we will have to do some more fill and backsloping to prevent washout from rain.




I also pulled the forms off the slab and the sidewalk blocks.




I got all the form boards de-nailed, crete cleaned off them and loaded Ivan's boards onto the top of my truck for return.




It rained later in the afternoon, and I took this shot from the upstairs West room. I'm getting to like this angle for pictures....

It's Sunday of Memorial weekend. I'm waiting patiently for the delivery truck.... It's still completely overcast, windy and about 48° at 11:00A.M. Peg is gone to Rib Lake to pick up a few last minute supplies for the work that is about to commence. Last evening we went to Ivan's to pick up the windows that someone had left in his garage. I can't believe how generous people have been with their time and goodies... A big "thank you!" to all who have contributed in some way or another.

May 26, 2007

Spring at the Ottertail......

Here are a few shots of the yard at Ottertail. These were from a few weeks ago, in the middle of spring blossoming time. The lilacs outdid themselves this year.
























Da Floor, Volume 4

This is the last of the floor photos.... go down to earlier posts if you have not seen Volume 1 - 3. Double click for enlargements on pix.....



These guys worked hard to get that new floor flat and smooth.







Occasionally Tom would have to give Ivan some guidance.... I guess that's what he's doing.




Sometimes they reminded me of speed skaters.....













They're almost done now. It's looking exactly like a garage floor by now....




When they got done with the finishing work, we all sat around and had a beer or three and talked smart... I think... The temperature was dropping fast and the wind had kicked up. People started getting cold.




Luckily, Peggy had a stack of old wool blankets in the back of her car and she kindly lent them out for us to keep warm. We could have gone into the Lodge, but we didn't think of that until it was too late to help.





So, the floor is there, ready for a building. (Chuck looks really cold!!)

We ordered materials the following Tuesday, May 15th, still not here on the 26th!! Supposed to be here tomorrow.....

Da Floor, Volume 3

So far, so good.... all concrete is in the forms, trucks are gone, pizza's in the oven and time to relax a little.



Thanks a bunch, Chuck. I hear word that you are going to pour a slab next year. Let me know and I'll come and help.




Ah, yes, Mr. History himself, here's Swede. All the photos in the two previous posts were by Swede. He also did some videos that are pretty cool, except for when he was laughing as I was almost being clobbered by the truck's chute......




Thanks a bunch, Greg. Greg is the only guy I've ever seen show up in shorts for a concrete pour... Whatever works, I guess.




Ivan and Tom took care of the mini-slabs while the pizza's were cooking.




Tom starts working around the edges. Thanks a bunch for your help, Tom. I'll get even somehow....




Time for some pizza and beer.







It takes a lot of trucks to get concrete down.




This old silver maple is quite a tree. Hope it last many more years.....




O.K., time to get on those knee boards and scrub that crete. Ivan and Tom are starting the hardest part of the job..... I love you guys.....