Filed under Our Cabin Posts

Winter Trip to Cabin – Porch Roof – Video

This is how the cabin looked on Sunday, the day we  left. Sorry I didn’t get a photo when we arrived but I got it in the video below. You can see all the icicles from burning 3 loads of wood in the stove the night before. It was cold! I woke up in the middle of the night because the fire went out and I was freezing. I had a headache and was very nauseous, due to carbon monoxide I believe. We need to do something about that, not sure what now. Aaron felt fine but he was in the loft and I was by the stove on the futon. There are lots of cracks and gaps in the cabin where there is no siding and in the floor, so the cabin is not sealed up tight by any means but maybe it’s too tight to burn that much wood? I wonder if putting  small vent hole by the stove to allow it to draw oxygen would work or will we have to keep a window more than cracked? The stove draws great BTW. A detector is in order for sure.
Check out that rough sawn board and bat siding that Aaron, Nate and some Vashon friends did in October. I was out of town and thought it looked great, still not done but it’s a 10 year project ;) I’m really liking the look, we’re slowing putting the rustic back into the cabin, which has been built with mostly dimensional store bought and free materials so far. There’s even a notch in the belly band and a metal flashing piece that fits snugly and will keep the water from getting behind the siding.

Video of our Short trip. It was just over 24 hours and realize how cold it can get up here during the winter!

Front view of the roof. The deck already makes the cabin feel better and the roof just adds to that because everything below the roof and the deck will stay dry and that keeps peoples stuff out of the cabin where we have limited storage or actually no storage now. LONG SENTENCE.

The cabin’s solar system performed better than I expected for the entire trip. We arrived with the panels covered with snow so they hadn’t charge the batteries for days and it was below 20 degrees. Further reducing the power output potential is the position of the panels and the Winter sun barely gets above the trees. However the batteries were full at 12.8 volts and we used the lights and watched a movie on my laptop with no problems. The batteries were full again when we left. I think we’ll have to expand the system to having a removable inverter wired into several AC outlets on the deck. We also used it to charge 3 Porter Cable Tool Batteries during the day.

 

View from the underside. I like the rustic look It’s built strong to survive the winter. I’m glad we went up to attach the roof before a huge snowfall or I think it wood have collapsed. The guys had to leave in a hurry last time as they took their boat from Bellingham and had to get back before dark so they just barely attached it by toe nailing.

 

This is how we left the cabin on Sunday afternoon. I didn’t take a photo but there is two layers of wood below the tar paper to keep nails from poking through. We could have done this a few different ways but this is what we ended up doing since we had a lot of extra T1-11 siding we wont’ be using.

My buddy Kevin made this Camp Taint Sign out of curly maple. Don't ask about the name...

Installing Solar Panels On Cabin Roof

So I’ve put off this post for a while, probably because mounting them on the roof was really tough and I was short hand, hence not many photo were taken. These panels were installed in August this year. I used some uni strut made I found in our dumpster at work. It’s way heavier duty than I need but it works. It weighs more than the panels I think.

I found these 75watt siemens solar panels on craigslist here in Seattle a few years ago. They were a good deal at $125 each and I got 8, selling 4 for profit and selling 2 for a friend. I wired them parallel for a maximum 150 watts, 18 volts and 9 amps in perfect conditions. They are wired to a charge controller that then charges batteries.

 

To get this 65lb rack and panels up to the very steep roof I put the ladder at the same angle as the roof and pushed it up as my wife pulled on the rope that went over peak of the roof back down to the other side. She could only hold the panels from slipping back down so we inched it up then the rope was tied off so I could attached the brackets to the rack and the rack to the roof. The brackets were big thick 8″ L shaped brackets that I slipped under the shingle above them and drilled through the roof with a healthy amount of caulk. Then the shingle was glued back down over the bracket.

 

 

Currently they are charging 2 deep cycle boat batteries hanging under the floor of the cabin in a wooden battery box. You can see that in an earlier video but since then I’ve added another battery.

So far this solar setup makes more power than we need for our little cabin. We only use it on the weekends to run lights all night, charge tool batteries, power stereos and my laptop.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s me on the roof attaching the panels to the roof. This looks really boring but I’m hanging off a yellow rope that’s tied to my waist, definitely not OSHA certified. I ended up hammering in a few ladder jacks on the 12/12 roof but I only had enough room for a 12″ board to stand on. So glad that was done. They are attached by 4 3/8″ galvanized lag screws and raised off the roof 5 inches to let snow and rain pass below the array.

 

Building Cabin Deck

Nate and I went up to the cabin aka Camp Taint to build a deck last weekend. I had a rough plan in mind, I drew it with Google Sketchup. I suck at drawing and find it’s much easier for me to transfer my thoughts to a usable plan in 3d with Sketchup. It’s also great for getting an exact materials list. I draw the framing members at the correct size and spacing, every part is to scale and it’s great way to discuss the plan with others.

porch and deck plan

porch and deck plan

We wanted to incorporate some log posts from our property for the porch roof supports and Nate came up with the idea of using the logs to support a section of the front of the deck. We had built one free standing log structure before this using rebar and pier blocks, we learned a few things from it.

Video Below – View blog post to watch deck building video!

We had cut down 12 trees the year before but our property is so sloped that getting them out is hard. And it didn’t help we forgot a rope… Well we went down to the little town 7 miles away and bought the only rope they had, lead line for a crab pot… Let’s give it a try pulling the logs out with the truck. If you have ever handled green wood you know it’s HEAVY. These 9″ 14′ long logs weighed about 200 lbs each. Anyway they pulled out fine and I peeled them with my vintage draw knife I got off ebay.

draw knife

draw knife

The plan was too just frame the deck but we got so much done and were going back to the lumber store to get one more board anyway so we decided to buy the decking too. Earlier I had planned on using my dads’ old cedar decking but it hadn’t been taken off yet and it would have meant 120 extra miles of hauling alot of wood. We worked until midnight on Saturday and got it done. It turned out great and it very strong, no wobbles at all.

Let there be light – 12 volt lights in cabin

On Memorial Day weekend we went up with a 2nd load of 2nd hand fir boards that used to panel a garage here in Seattle. Also loaded in the truck was a generator, a bunch of tools and a lot of electrical parts including our original deep cycle battery we used to keep in the shed.

We got a lot of work done, cleaned out the shed, installed the battery, put in some more wires, touched up the insulation downstairs then we started putting the paneling up. Oh we did have to take out the nails then rip off the tongues with a table saw. Tons of labor involved with getting 2nd hand wood but its worth it for us.

Please comment, let me know if anyone is reading this! haha

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This Old Shack – April Update Video

As promised, here is the progress we made on the cabin this weekend. We got a lot done…. well more than usual. Not much wood split but we didn’t have the proper tools… My camping ax wasn’t cutting it. Literally.

We arrived to 10 inches of snow late Friday night after a late ferry ride, it was above freezing so it was pretty slushy. We didn’t have a cooler so it was nice to use the snow as our cooler the first night. It almost all melted by Sunday.

I also wired up a switch that will power 3 12 volt lights on the main level of the cabin. I only had 25 feet of wire so I stuffed it behind the insulation and then we put the paneling up. I’ll have to add a section for the lights and to the battery. Also I made a hidden battery box that will house our charge controller, combiner and battery for our solar power system. I probably shouldn’t share the location of that, even though I doubt the thieves are reading this….

Check out the video below, Nate is a character…

Cabin Wood Stove and interior paneling

Hammering door to make it close better

Well it’s the time of year again, spring is here and all 3 owners are going to the cabin/shack to see how the Winter and theives treated it. The snow is long gone since it’s April.  It snowed last night and the temps here have been -15 colder than normal. So it’s a good thing we got this wood stove out of Aaron’s basement since it’s going to be really cold at night. It was used as a trash burner and has some sweet art deco style, says it’s from Sears.

You may have seen from my last cabin post that we installed the chimney but our old stove was too badly damaged to use again. On closer inspection it was cracked in 4 places. So I think we’ll be getting it installed asap we get there on Friday since we don’t want to freeze our asses off!

Things to do this weekend:
- Install wood stove
- chop wood
- wire light
- have fun
- install some insulation
- put up some paneling
- have fun

This week has been a great Craigslist week. Last week I scored some free spruce and cedar floor boards that we’re going to use as interior paneling or siding. It was a big score all we had to do was take it down out of and old house from the 50′s. It was a lot of labor since we had to take it down, take out the nails, then cut off the damaged tongues but well worth it as we couldn’t afford paneling otherwise. I also scored 3 sheets of cement board to use as a heat shield. I love me some craigslist.

Wish me luck, I’ll post the fruits of our labor.

Wood on ceiling before taken down

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First Snow!

 

snow on cabin road

Nate and Fielding walking up from the gate

Went up this weekend and we had about 6 inches of snow at our place. We didn’t expecting any snow to be there but that doesn’t mean much I guess. We’re about 1700 feet. Nate, Aaron and Fielding came out just for the day. We setup the trail camera to see what we catch. Also we hauled back the rest of the valuables. I’d tell you where I hid the camera but that would defeat the purpose ;) 2 more are on the way. Also we got the stainless chimney up in the cabin. We reused almost all the parts from the yurt but the interior black stove pipe was too badly crushed in the yurt collapse and after beating on it for a few minutes it was clear it wasn’t going to work right and not leak. So next time I go up I’m bringing some new pipe.

 

wrecked wood stove

wrecked wood stove

chimney smoke stack through wall

Chimney with the support we built. Tin hat flashing still needs to be trimmed to make it look pretty. This is a "budget" install

With the snow that is falling on the mountain it gets harder and harder for people to get up there. Eventually cars won’t be able to get up there and the residents who do live on the mtn will have to walk out ( a few miles) or use a snow mobile or snow machine for Canadians. We did see a few people had staged their cars lower down the mountain in preparation for the coming snow.

Driving past our property I wanted so see how far I could make it up the mountain in the liberty. Right outside our driveway a guy had unloaded a snow mobile and headed up the mountain so I was the only vehicle going up besides his sled. I followed his tracks up another mile or so and the snow became about a foot deep and had to back down a steep section almost sliding into the ditch. Backing down we took a different road down the moutain and saw the sled tracks going under a heavy locked gate. I recognized the description of the gate as a guy who came down to our place in May panicking that his place just got ripped off. He had a large cabin probably more like a house but I never saw it. He said they cleaned up out, taking 4 truckloads worth of stuff and busting his wood gate in the process. He mentioned that he was having a custom gate welded up so i assume this was it.

 

Leaving with the boat working as a utility trailer. Exhaust is making a haze in the cold air.
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Trail Camera Time?

Tasco Trail Camera or Game Camera

Tasco 5MP Trail Camera

So I’m thinking we need a few Trail Cameras to help us sleep at night. Maybe catch a few crooks or have a chance to catch them.

The price seems to have come down and I found a new model on Amazon for $85. This Tasco is 5MP and has a night vision flash. I also got a 2 gig SD card so it should last months. http://www.amazon.com/Tasco-Trail-Night-Vision-Black/dp/B003QWRXOU

The biggest question is my mind is now where to hide it. Obviously I’m hunting humans not deer so I can’t just strap it to a tree. I also would like to get some vehicle license plates for the cops to see and some face shots to use as wanted posters :) .

I don’t’ want to hide it in the cabin or the shed since they may break in and take it.

So anyone have any ideas where or how I can hide this thing?

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We Got Robbed

We got robbed! So bummed right now. I came up to the property because I was stoked to put in our old wood stove to get ready to hike up into the cabin during the first snow… I discovered we got robbed! They broke open the shed, cabin and out house. They were on foot but they stole all the expensive stuff. They took our 4000w generator, my folding 3hp outboard we use on our canoe, Aaron’s 4×4 Honda Foreman quad and tons of power and hand tools. basically everything useful. F-ing Meth heads. Eventually I assume they’ll be back to take everything they missed. They didn’t take our solar panels, charge controllers or battery.

It’s depressing to think that the place we have to get away from it all is leaving a sour taste in my mouth and making me worry so much now. 3 years of trust shattered. Things have definitely changed at “Camp Taint”. If we ever do get a generator again we can’t leave it there.  I suppose we’ll be switching to hand tools. No more fun fast canoe trips or making trails for the quad. Hauling all that stuff out there each time is going to suck, what’s the point of having a cabin in the woods if you can’t store stuff there.

Ehhhhh, What to do….

Making log ladder to loft – video

I made this “Stadder” last weekend, aka ladder combined with stairs. The goal was to allow people to climb up into the cabin loft barefoot and with no hands. We don’t have much room for real stairs. The loft ladder in our shed is also homemade and really painful on the feet, standing on 3/4″ of board isn’t that comfortable. It was a sunny day, which has been really rare around here. Too much rain on the weekends. The video is pretty slow at the start but stick with it, it picks up as I drink more coffee! I sharpened the chain saw 2 times to cut the log! I could tell when it was sharp because the shavings were really long.

Watch the Video below.


This piece of rebar is there because, this was a vertical log that held up our log shelter. The rebar went into pier block.
We had to tear it down since it was too near the cabin but we’ll be re-using all of the logs.


That’s about as strait as I could get with out cutting the rebar.

completed log ladder

completed log ladder

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