Winter and Building a New Cabin

In my last post I began by talking about how fall and winter are generally slow times out here. Normally that would be true, but I'd just decided to undertake a huge project this winter, building myself a new cabin. I love life on Shaw, I'd like to stick around and it was finally time to put something down that is more permanent. Although I've helped with a few projects here and there, my actual experience with construction is fairly limited and I had a LOT to figure out and a lot to do. That said, I'd been thinking a great deal about it, and bolstered with a little extra building confidence from my recent trip to Alaska, I was ready to give it a try. Not that it was the only thing on my plate in December, I still had work to do, both at my actual job and helping my friends, plus it was about to be Christmas meaning another trip to Seattle. My slow winter had suddenly turned into the biggest project I've ever taken on but I was excited to get started.

Ready for the day. The pager on the left is my fire department pager which I keep around 24/7, as well as the Leatherman tool which I find myself using probably 20+ times a day. Because I have some building to do, I'm always measuring things right now so the tape is also important to keep close by.

There aren't a lot of big events or shows out here in the islands, but on this particular evening there was a burlesque show taking place in Eastsound so naturally a group of our friends got together to attend. It was a nice excuse to dress up a bit (or at least wear something other than our farm clothes!), go out for drinks, see a fun show and meet some new people at house parties and a bar.

Breakfast the next morning in town. Again, living on Shaw there isn't anywhere to go out and eat, so once in a while it is awfully nice to have someone else cook for you!

Nick playing with the new tractor, using the backhoe to dig out a rotten stump in the lawn.

At this point, plans to build my new cabin had been roughed out and while I had some sketches, I sat down to make some actual scale drawings of the building I had in mind and the floor plan. With my previous tiny house I never even did this much, it just sort of came together organically, but I figured this time I'd better make some more serious plans since it is a much bigger and more involved undertaking. I have to say, from my first sketch to what I am planning on and building for now a few months later, other than the location of the wood stove, it has stayed almost exactly the same which is pretty pleasing.

A beautiful day on Old Copper.

So this picture doesn't really do it justice, but this morning was a 'king tide' which in addition to a full moon resulted in the highest tides I'd ever seen up here. This is the road around crescent bay on the edge of Eastsound, and at one point the waves were starting to come over the road the water was so high.

Back on Copper it was time to do some site prep where my cabin was going to be built. It sits at the far end of the meadow from the main house, along the treeline facing southwest, a lovely location overlooking the meadow, plenty of beautiful trees and some old farm buildings. We started out by removing brush, mostly ocean spray, and a bit of fir and maple. With those out of the way it was time to remove the soft top soil so we could get down to the solid clay layre below and give the building a strong footing.

Here is the site roughly laid out. Another great use for the new tractor!

With the go-ahead to start building and the site laid out it was time to start collecting more building supplies. For this I returned to Seattle again where I did a lot of planning and shopping with my dad who has been an invaluable help during the entire process. I wanted to build a fairly simple building, but not a box. As such it has one angled wall that faces the meadow where the door will be and I wanted to put a more interesting window on that wall than a simple rectangle. I guess I got lucky, because I found this cool octagonal window at one of the second hand building supply stores for $25!

Buying lumber with my dad. The first of many trips.

To get started, my dad took a few days off work to come up to the island and help build. We mad a few more stops for materials and tools, then boarded the ferry to Shaw.

It wasn't all work though. Because it was just before Christmas, one of the annual island events is the Christmas ship that goes around visiting the various islands. It was the first year I'd attended it and I have to say it was fun to see. It's not like a bit city where you can drive to the local shopping mall to see Santa, instead Santa comes to you via boat!

Always on the look-out for cool materials to build with, there was a stack of beams in the Shaw fire station that had previously been part of the old station house and had been sitting, in the way, for years and years. In an effort to clean out the station house the fire chief asked if I'd like to use them for my building projects and naturally I said yes! They were huge beams, the longest being 4x8s over 16 feet long and the others being 6x8s over 8 feet in length. These would become a floor support, a window frame, the door frame, the beams supporting the loft and more. Talk about a score, and one with some great island history behind it.

With my dad and a few other friends up on the property we had a fire around the pond to hang out and share stories in the evening.

Doing final layout on the site, marking where posts will be placed and the final decision on which direction it will face.

With layout done, we dug down until we were well into solid ground, filled the holes back with crushed rock and then placed pier blocks.

My boss Austen came to help for a day which was both fun and a lot of help. He'd hoped to get to do some framing (because framing is fun!) but we weren't that far along quite yet, but we got the rim up and that was some critical work that felt great to accomplish. Here you can see the final shape of the building, 12x16 feet minus the small corner cut off.

Installing the plywood that would make up the floor and with that it is starting to actually look like something.

First wall up! This is the back wall where the kitchen will sit and the large window has a great view into the moss covered forest behind.

This part of the framing was going fast (straight walls with no or only one window are easy) especially with Brendan’s help and in very little time we had a third wall in place. This is the front wall where the wood stove and my desk will reside, with a huge window overlooking the meadow.

Of course I wasn't the only one getting work done these days, my friend Jon was having our other buddy Luke hang the well pump in his well to get their water system online.

Back on my cabin progress was happening fast (working from before sunrise to sundown will do that!) and in five days had gone from bare dirt to having the main level walls up and starting on the loft above.

Although my dad and I were working hard (as always) there was still some time to play. That evening was Carol and Bruds annual Christmas party at their house, a great time to see most of the islands residents in one place!

Back to work. With the main level done my dad and I got some work done on the loft level, which again has a huge window overlooking the meadow liket he wall below. The roof will be a simple shed roof and in essence, it's really just a scaled up version of my 8x12 tiny house.

Because my mom hadn't been up for a visit for quite some time she came out to see the new cabin and what the farm was looking like. During her visit I had to remove a broken branch from above the playground at the tiny Shaw school, so this is what it looks like from about 60 feet up a tree.

While waiting for my boss a few days later in Westsound, I got to watch the sun rise over the marina and my island in the distance. Lovely.

After we met up in Westsound we headed to the job site. Here my boss doing a tricky removal, a tall, skinny madrone that was leaning towards a house and over a garden. Because of that we had to lower everything out on ropes, meaning he was in the tree and I was on the ground trying to lower branches and logs with the minimum amount of force and pull on the tree he is tied into.

Christmas time was upon us and naturally I headed back to Seattle to celebrate with my family. All of my siblings were away in their respective home states however (Alaska, California and Montana) so I did my best representing for everyone. Yah, I didn't get a very good photo of it did I....

The next day I picked up my grandmother and headed to another Christmas dinner, this time over in west Seattle. I don't go over to that part of town often, but when I do I often stop off at this view of the city. I think it's about time someone do some tree work to maintain the view!

Another delicious family dinner.

I wasn't in Seattle only to see family though, as one of my favorite Christmas traditions is one with my friends at a bar. After everyone finishes up with family dinners we meet up at a bar in the U-District and have a 'white elephant' gift exchange. It's a great event that we have been doing for something like 7 years now and I always get to catch up with a few people who I don't see often.

The annual group photo.

With festivities over it was time to return home to Shaw. Of course I had a lot of supplies to get on the way out of town so I loaded up the van nearly full to the roof with lumber, plywood, insulation and much more. I gotta say, I'm so glad I got this van over a pickup truck. For hauling this kind of materials it has been wonderful and the rack an invaluable part of it all.

I had returned home but Nick and Ellen were away in Germany, so I took care of their animals until they returned. Of course this meant taking care of the 19 chickens, many who seemed to prefer laying their eggs on the floor of the coop rather than in the boxes for some reason.

A short while later my friend Luke called me and told me he'd flown his new RC helicopter he had just gotten for Christmas into a tree. It was about 60 feet or so up a cedar but was easy to get to and a fun little change of pace from what I'm usually doing up trees!

Every afternoon this same group of deer walk through the far side of the meadow. There are usually between six and eight of them, and although deer on Shaw are as common as pigons in the city it seems, I honestly never get tired of seeing them wandering around the meadow.

Taking a break from working on my place for a bit I decided to do some weed whacking in an overgrown area on the edge of the meadow. On 18 acres there is a LOT to do and even areas near the house like this are still being 'uncovered' for the first time. As I did it I picked up all the sticks and rocks that were on the ground to make it quick and easy to maintain in the future, and once I was done the chickens came right over to peck and scratch around the newly disturbed area.

The garlic just beginning to sprout. It's the winter so there are no fresh veggies in the garden, and although it will be a long time yet until the garlic is ready to eat, it's nice to have something growing that we can watch.

Bruster the rooster. Handsome, but he can be pretty mean.

New Years was upon us (and it's been quite an interesting year to be sure) and with that meant the annual part at the Community Center. I got dressed up (which for me means just about anything other than my farm clothes!) and spent the evening with fellow islanders. For midnight, I ended up joining Carol and Brud at their annual midnight bonfire, but most of my friends were off island and I was pretty tired so shortly after midnight I went home and went to bed.

It was that morning what myself and the rest of the Volunteer Fire Department had trained for, a house fire. It started very early in the morning in the floor and despite a great deal of effort was unable to be stopped.  Because our department is so small we were lucky to have help with containing the fire from departments on other islands which was wonderful. In a small community it was a big and sad event, but no one was hurt and that is the most important part. I wasn't there the entire time myself, but even so it's serious subject for me and one that I'm not going to go into detail discussing here for various reasons.

Back on the farm it was time to do a top-dress of compost to the garlic. Nick and Ellen got a load in their pickup truck on the mainland the day before so with wheel barrows and shovels in hand, we got it done. It sure seems to be working, because the garlic is looking great!

A cake for Amy's birthday.

Being winter, rain is a frequent occurrence. This year hasn't been as wet as last, but it's enough to create large areas of standing water on the property.

The (temporary) solution to this is to get out and dig drainage ditches. I love ditch digging because it's fun to direct water. When I was a kid, I remember spending hours with my brother making dams on the seasonal creek by my family cabin, then breaking it to create a mini flood. This actually had a purpose though, because we didn't want pooling water in the meadow near where we were going to be growing veggies.

So my good friends Kelty and Sophie had been living on Orcas Island for a good while (Kelty originally lived in a tent when I later built my tiny home) and were moving to travel for a while. Once again, it was time to put my new van into action. I'm a fan of this kind of organization and work, so when they asked me to help them move I was happy to oblige. We packed up their apartment into my van and a Uhaul rental, then took it all to a storage unit on the mainland.

Everything went off without a hitch and we hung out in the back of my van as we rode the ferry boat back to the San Juans from Anacortes.

This is going to be the view from my bedroom. Nice.

Hanging out with the dogs, Polly and Marshall.

I'm very fortunate to have people who are willing to help me on my endeavors, and once again it was my dad up to help with construction, and my uncle Eric as well. This is at a lunch break, but during this time we got the final framing done and even the roof. Exciting progress I couldn't do without such wonderful help and support.

Jon running his mill.

The walls of the second level up.

I’m not the only one in my family that likes to climb, I obviously got it from my dad! (free climbing 2x4 framing in his mid 60-s!)

Measuring the diagonals to ensure the roof is square.

With the bulk of the roof done, the framing of the entire place was essentially complete. My dad suggested we take a 'selfie' and while I wondered how long he'd been using that word I thought it was great idea and this was the result. My dad has fond memories of building our family cabin together with his dad, so to have him and I working together on this place has meant a lot to me and been a wonderful experience. I still have a long ways to go before I can move into it, but it felt amazing to get all this done, from breaking ground to having the framing done in a month. Things are looking good.

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The upcoming post is a pretty good one, covering a big time period of time (because I'm finally trying to catch up before spring hits in full force). You can look forward to more progress on the cabin and property, farm preparation, as always some beautiful scenery and with the fire department we even got to do a controlled burn of a whole house!

A Busy November

Fall is generally a slow time of year. The garden is just about empty, the sun is gone and our friends (for the most part) stop coming up to visit. Although I think it is a much needed break for all of us, it doesn't mean there is nothing to do on the island or around the property. The daily task list wasn't as long as it is in the summer, but there was still never a day where we lacked projects. I want to cover a lot of time here quickly, so I might as well jump right in.

Being in Alaska and Seattle for the previous month, I was excited to return home to see what I'd missed in my time away. After packing up my things and driving onto the ferry, I had a nice view of the dramatic fall sky from the front end of a nearly empty boat, as many fall sailings tend to be.

For being such a small quiet place, life on Shaw is pretty dynamic. After a day of work on Orcas I stopped off at Nick and Ellen's to see what had happened since I'd been away and was impressed with what I saw. Near the house, 10 50 foot planting beds had been created where the garlic was going to be planted, and just above that Ellen and her friend Rosemary had broken ground, planted and mulched to create the herb garden. In addition to that, Nick had borrowed a tractor and tilled up a large amount of ground around the existing garden for the upcoming growing season, and a number of beds had already been formed and mulched. It was still late October, but planning ahead and breaking ground for the spring and summer is exactly the kind of things that still keep all of us busy year around!

Over at Brendan’s place I got a tour of his new RV, a 24' Winnebago. He had been renting this house over the summer, but because he was away so much doing kayak guiding on San Jaun Island, was hardly in the place. The owners were going to be moving in, so in need of a new place Brendan decided to buy an RV and park it on Nick and Ellen's, which made a lot of sense to me.

Just a few days earlier, on the same day I'd returned to the island actually, Jenn and Jon got Marshall, this adorable little chocolate lab puppy.

Now that I was back home, to really feel at home I decided I'd better run a chainsaw for a while.

In home, warm, comfortable and cooking breakfast.

Even though I'd just returned home, Nick, Ellen and I decided to run back to Seattle for a Halloween party with our friends. Usually it feels like a big mission to go back to the city, and while it does take a fair bit of time and energy we managed to get there, have a great time at the party, have a lovely breakfast with Nicks parents the next morning and head back to the island with stops at Costco, Fred Myer and SunLand for compost in just about 24 hours. As for costumes, Ellen was a tiger tamer, Nick was the tiger and I figured I might as well be Jesus, as I've had way too many people tell me I look like Jesus anyways.

Back at work on Orcas we had a few good sized firs to remove from right next to a house. To make the wood hauling much easier, we hired a crane to move and haul away the logs.

The next day my boss and I worked on another tree with the same crane operator. This tree was a huge, dead white fir just on the edge of Eastsound and was a lot more work than a typical removal due to it's size. We first speed-lined all the branches and top, then dropped chunks of wood until the stick was low enough to reach with the crane. Wood was then hauled away in three loads using a 10-yard dump truck. Back when I did tree work in Seattle we did a lot crane work and although there isn't much need for it out in the islands, it was fun to have another job that required it to keep the skills in mind.

An evening burn pile.

In order to prepare the site where Brendan was going to park his RV, we first had to level the area. Luckily it was a pretty flat area already and didn't require much work to get it situated.

In order to maintain CPR certifications, there was a night at the community for all of the Shaw Aid and Shaw Fire members to learn and refresh skills.

The next day Kelty and Sophie came over from Orcas to hang out and we decided to tromp around through the woods and look at all the mushrooms popping up. Now I don't know much about all the incredible diversity of fungus out there, but they sure are interesting to look at. Looking back now, it was defiantly the perfect time of year for mushrooms and the time with the most appearing by a mile. In a period of maybe 30 minutes we probably found 40 different types of mushrooms in all shapes, colors and sizes.

Dinner that evening.

The garlic beds that had been created while I was away were close but not quite ready. Brendan, Ellen, Nick and I spent the bulk of the next day doing final shaping and raking of the beds, then got all of the garlic planted. It was a fairly long day, but planting garlic isn't too strenuous and it felt good to make so much progress.

Over on Orcas Island the state was putting on a two day Search And Rescue training class for first responders in the islands. Being part of Shaw Fire I thought it might be interesting and agreed to go. The class was taught by a man who had been doing SAR for decades around the country and everything from simple missing persons to large scale disasters. Although it didn't have a lot of application to what we might have to deal with on Shaw, it was very interesting to learn a bit about search tactics and all the issues that come with organizing a large search group.

It is very, very easy to get rather insular and stick to 'your own' island. Personally other than work on Orcas, I never really go to the other islands. Today was a day to spend some time on Lopez, thanks to our friend Shannon who lives there. I had not spent any real time on Lopez since I was a kid, so it was fun to see it again finally. The first thing I noticed was just how different it feels. To me I think this was largely a factor of how flat and open everything is, as opposed to the thick forests and hills that make up Shaw and especially Orcas. Because of this, Lopez has been one of the bigger islands for agriculture, and it felt really strange to me seeing so many houses near to each other instead of tucked away into the trees. I also noticed a lot of houses felt like they were in a 'normal neighborhood' sort of setup and even had 'typical' looking yards with grass out front like in the city. It felt very strange to me.

Shannon lives in a charming little house with her dog Lula. We hung out for a while and talked while she made the best biscuits and gravy I've ever eaten.

After eating, it was time to go on a walk. We drove out to Iceburg Point on the south end of the island and hopped out of the car to explore a bit. It was a cloudy but beautiful day full of dramatic clouds and rain far off shore. As we walked around the coastline we were treated to a stunning sunset before turning back to catch our boat home. Lovely day.

Sure it was mid November and the garden hadn't gotten much attention in a while, but I was still able to pull some fresh veggies out for dinner!

Brendan’s RV now in place.

As part of the brush clearing that needs to be done around the property, I put in some time clearing a thicket of overgrown shrubs between the knob and the pond. It is an especially wet part of the property and the goal was to remove the brush so we can drive the mower and other vehicles around the knob easily, as well as to be able to finally see the ground where the pond was leaking out towards. As always, clearing brush I found interesting things on the ground including a nice deer antler and these little salamanders which were under a rotten log that needed to be moved.

At Wednesday fire drill we spent most of the evening doing some cleaning and organizing of the station. Because we were preparing to do a controlled burn of a house, we were going to do a series of trainings in it first. One thing we were going to do was fill the house with smoke and do some training moving through a smoke filled house on SCBAs. Because none of us had used the training smoke bombs before, we decided to light one outside of the station to test it out. Que the most underwhelming thing ever. We all pretty much just stood and laughed at how weak it seemed. That said, when lit inside a house it produced more than enough smoke and made for a great training tool.

Goofing off while tree climbing on a job.

More fire department activities. On this particular day, a fellow islander had a rotten old wood shed near to their house they wanted to get rid of. None of the material or firewood was any good, so for a training exercise we got to burn it down. I had the honor of pouring on the diesel.

The shed burning, with a bunch of firemen watching from a safe distance, hose at the ready.

There was also a burn pile they wanted to get rid of, so we brought our 4x4 brush truck onto the field and light that off as well. Let me tell ya, there is no better way to start fires than diesel and a propane torch.

hanging back at Ben Nevis.

At this time, mid-November, we got a little cold snap that froze the ponds over except for the small area the ducks kept clear. Now it didn't get cold enough to skate on the ponds like years past, but it was below freezing for a few days, something that doesn't happen very often in the islands.

Skull art. These are just various skulls we have found on the ground around the property.

Fire drill and more SCBA training. Let me tell you, doing things in the dark is SO much harder than during daylight hours.

I had some business to take care of in Seattle, so I made a run back to the mainland. To kill some time, my dad and I decided to go for a walk in Volunteer Park, a place where my dad used to work many years before. He still works for the Parks Department and knows everyone well, so we wandered to the parks greenhouses to say hi to a few co-workers and have a look around.

After getting $2,000 in cash and driving a ways south of Seattle I got what I came for, this 'lovely little' 1996 Ford Econoline van. Just check out that awesome lumber rack! I had big plans for it.

And here is a big van of big plans: I decided it was time to move onto Nick and Ellens property and build myself a new cabin.

It was actually just during my time in Alaska (the previous post here) where I decided it was time I wanted to make the move and when I returned to the island I discussed it with my friends and made it official. The Ben Nevis property is lovely, the tiny home was a ton of fun to create and live in, and Jenn and Jon have been wonderful, but they have a kid on the way and I was looking for a place with more room and of my own design. This was going to be a big project, I've never designed and built a cabin before, but I was excited for the challenge and started buying supplies to start building.

Back at work on Orcas, Austen and I spent the day dropping big hemlocks around a house on the east side of the island. Due to when we got finished with the job and the boat schedule, Austen invited me to have dinner with his family where we obviously goofed around a bit. I have to say, I'm lucky I've got such a good boss.

So in the last post I bought the Explorer, now I just bought an Econoline. When I bought the Explorer I wasn't planning on building a new cabin yet, otherwise I would have never got it. But I had both now, and rather ironically both my 'new' vehicles were 1996 Fords, in the exact same green/gold two-tone color scheme with tinted windows. So 90s.

It was the holiday season and today was Thanksgiving. Although I'd just been in Seattle to get the van and cabin supplies I returned again to have dinner with my family and then friends.

Friday morning it was raining in Seattle, but that didn't stop me from accepting Dan and Maria’s offer to go for a walk around Discovery Park, my favorite park in the city. We took what we call “the slippery trail” (for good reason) from the upper parking lot to the beach below.

A classic gray Seattle day. Although it lacks the obvious charm of a sunny day, I find a lot of enjoyment in these kind of dark drizzly days as well.

That evening we had “friends-giving”, a thanksgiving dinner with friends the day after thanksgiving. Every year there seems to be more and more food, including the annual deep fried turkey or two. It was without a doubt the largest amount of food I've eaten in quite some time. Delicious.

Back home on Shaw I was wandering around the meadow on Copper and saw this bard owl sitting in the tree line, watching. We had been hearing and seeing it fairly regularly, but today it was flying around the meadow during the day, seemingly watching us.

Throwing some brush out of 'Bone-crusher' the farm truck and into the burn pile.

On the east side of Orcas doing some tree removals. If you look at the top of the hill on the right side of the photo, you can see the top of Mt Baker poking out. It sure is nice having a job that takes you to such beautiful places.

Here are a few of the trees we had to remove at that property, decent sized hemlocks that were rotting and leaning towards the house. We ended up running a few hundred feet of line to a pulley redirect and pulling them away from the house using a pickup truck, which was pretty cool.

And here is the other big news of the post, Nick and Ellen had been looking for a tractor for months and it seemed like they found the one to buy, a nice little John Deere 790 with a loader, backhoe and mower. It was over on the Olympic Peninsula which meant two ferry boat rides away, but we left Shaw for Anacortes, then hopped on the Coupville - Port Townsend ferry. I hadn't been on this particular route in years and years so it was fun to ride it again. It was also interesting, although mostly disappointing, to ride on that particular boat, the Salish, one of the new type that will be coming into the fleet in upcoming years. Parts of it were interesting and thought out, but other things like the passenger layout in the side rooms seemed like a poorly designed afterthought, not to mention the even lower height restrictions the boat has for vehicles...

We rented a U-Haul transport trailer and headed to meet the guy on craigslist who was selling the tractor at his house. To be honest I know very little about tractors, but it seemed like a solid tractor that would fee the properties needs very well and after a little test and negotiation Nick decided to go for it.

With the tractor on the trailer, towed by my new van (which did great by the way) we headed back towards the ferry boat and towards home.

Naturally we missed the boat we were hoping to make, but that was not too much of a problem. We caught the next boat under the fading sunlight, then dropped the trailer off at another U-Haul location on Anacortes. From there Nick simply drove the tractor onto the boat just like you would with a car, across Shaw Island and to it's new home.

Back at Copper, Ellen and Brendan were home and excited to see the important new addition to the farm. We stood around talking about our little adventure and about the tractor, excited to explore the new projects this new tool would make possible.

That's it for the moment, the next post will focus mostly on the construction of my new cabin on the Copper property as well as the usual other adventures along the way such as Christmas in Seattle, an extremely unfortunate house fire, tree climbing and more. See you back shortly, I'm actually getting caught up so I can report on our major spring progress in the coming weeks! In recent days we have put in a lot of work breaking ground and expanding the garden, and there are already a number of different veggies in the garden right now as well as a huge number of flats in the green house and the germination station. Spring is coming and I'm excited to share it with you all.