Mountain Lane Homesteaders

Being "It": Part Two and Photos

9:03 AM, Monday, February 12, 2007 .. Posted in Journey to the Dream .. 9 comments .. Link

Good Morning from the woods! As promised I'm back with a little more info on our past milling days. It's been fun to think back on how things worked and to get it recorded before time and other experiences dulled my memory. I use to remember everything so easily......not so any more!

How about starting out with a few pictures?

Unloading the trailer full of logs to stack by the sawmill.

The kids liked helping push them off and showing how strong they were! Mara wasn't about to be shown up by her brother.

Here's Charis giving it her best!

The biggest challenge we faced in milling was to make rafters out of the 24' long lodgepole trees which you might remember were only 7" at the butt! We wanted to leave them as thick as possible for strength but we faced quite a large taper in each tree. They all started out 7" in diameter at the base of the tree and by the time we measured out 24 feet of length, the tips were often only 4" thick. We decided that we needed to only use the ones we could make at least 4 1/2" thick on each end. This is when the trial and error method really took over full force. We would try starting at the thicker end of the log like we did with everything else we had milled and cutting down just an inch. We soon discovered that because of the way a tapered tree lays on the sawmill, doing this would leave us with a tip that was literally cut in half. We tried turning the whole thing around and starting at the thin end. That didn't work either.

The tension set in as we were having to discard tree after tree to try and get it right. Again, our resources and our time were dwindling. As an aside, a sawmill is not a quiet tool. At different times Sam and I would find ourselves reaching up and shutting everything off just so that we could think. In fact, in some cases the mill was off more than it was on. When a work day was done and all we had accomplished were the ways NOT to make the rafters, we would pack up and head out so discouraged.

In most cases, if we had what we perceived to be an unsuccessful day, it was usually followed the next time by success. We are beginning to figure out that while we were frustrated at the time by our apparant lack of progress, it was simply a slow step in the right direction. This was the case with the rafters. Somehow through all of our bumbling attempts we finally figured out a "skim and flip" routine that worked! We put the tree on with the larger end at the start of the cut and I would lower the blade so that it would just barely skim the bark at first. Just enough to go about 3 or 4 feet down the log before it tapered and wasn't being touched. This would give about a 1" wide strip of flat that the log would rest on when we flipped it over to skim a similar strip off the other side. Back and forth we went. Using this method of slow and steady, bits could be taken off the thick end of the tree without severely diminishing the narrow end. Eventually we were able to make all the rafters we needed for our cabin using this method. Some of them ended up having no more than the tiniest sliver of flat edge by the time we got to the tip but as long as we could measure it to come out to 4 1/2" we were satisfied.

During the process of attempting to make the rafters in this way, Frank would shake his head, full of concern that we would end up making a cabin that looked "ho-bunk". He was more than certain that these poles would just not look right. I believe it may have actually been stressing him out that we were not heading off to the store to purchase ready made rafters. Can you imagine the feeling of satisfaction we feel every time we look up at our ceiling now? The thrill in having "conquered" the poles?

So that's a brief look into what it meant for me to be "It". I learned a new skill. I hefted logs. I learned to trust myself. I learned that what might appear as a wasted day is really just a part of the whole. I learned more about Sam as he did about me. We've made memories that will last a lifetime. What's more? I had fun.

Here are a few more pictures:

Sam getting the logs all ready to go on the mill.

Here's the sawmill with me getting ready to make the first cut on a log. Charis is showing that she's ready with tape measure and crayon to do her job. Laying behind us in the background you can see some of the long poles I was talking about.

This picture shows some of the pieces starting to stack up. The pile of stones behind the kids are the beginning of a collection we're making for building the house. We are going to need soooooo many more!

We have so much work ahead of us and much more milling that we will need to do to make the lumber for our big house. We had planned to do things much like we did for this cabin......many many trips to Frank's place for hours of milling. However, in my last post I mentioned another amazing thing that has happened to us. As we spent all those hours at the sawmill learning how to make it work and building our home, we never in our wildest imaginations would have guessed that one day Frank would buy himself a NEWER FANCIER sawmill and then decide that he wanted to GIVE US his first one! He tried to sell it (purchasing it was not planned for in our building funds) and then he and his wife decided that really, we were the ones that they wanted to have it. So, sometime soon we will be picking out a location on our property and bringing the sawmill here to live.

We are so excited!

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9:26 AM, Monday, February 12, 2007 .. Posted by HandsNHearts
What a great set of photos and what a day of memories for your family! And a sawmill!!!! I am praising right along with you. I have really enjoyed watching your homestead "evolve" here. Thank you so much for sharing the journey!

Deanna
God is so good!

9:32 PM, Monday, February 12, 2007 .. Posted by Pattisea
Your adventure is so exciting. I don't know if my DH and I would have the necessary stick-to-it-ness, but it's sure fun (scary) to think about!

The pictures are great and I am so happy to hear that you are blessed with your very own saw mill.

Patti
You have an amazing family

10:11 PM, Monday, February 12, 2007 .. Posted by MissionaryMom
I love to read about this journey you are on. Are you continuing to pick up rocks and bring in logs for the house, or are you on a winter rest vacation now? thanks for updating.
Cool!

9:25 AM, Tuesday, February 13, 2007 .. Posted by teapots66
Hi, Darcy... enjoyed the photos. How cool is that, the sawmill will be yours? What a blessing. Enjoyed reading, too, as always! -chris
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5:32 PM, Tuesday, February 13, 2007 .. Posted by Jonash2004
It is so amazing what ya'll are doing! I have to hide the pics from my dh! He would love to build a house like ya'll are doing. I love how you are documenting everything online and sharing. :) You have such unique experiances to blog about!!!!
Ashley
Valentines tribute to Darcy

2:03 AM, Wednesday, February 14, 2007 .. Posted by Anonymous
How does one express love, affection, praise, thanks...in a situation like this public blog while remaining unaffected? How do I remain disinterested while patting myself on the back with one hand as the other is busy painting a beatific image of my wife? If you, friends of Darcy, have any admiration or vicarious enjoyment from her experiences, you certainly don't need me to point out what you plainly see. Furthermore, most of you are married and have no illusions as to the sometimes unwitting duplicity of a husband's devotions: There may be another layer of meaning left to unwrap not long after the flowers, chocholates and Victoria Secret box is opened this Valentines day.
Well, in truth, I do not know how to unravel the confusion of emotions that strain towards her joy and good while hoping for the pleasure of sharing it's fulfillment. So, as this Bull unabashedly, shamelessly, and perhaps selfishly ambles through aisles of exquite China and other extravagent delicacies he may never fully appreciate, please suffer to let me glory for a moment in the fact that she is MY wife, living out OUR dreams of...(get this guys...) building a house out of trees taken from the mountains in the middle of the Montana Wilderness over 70 miles from the nearest city & 10 miles from the nearest town of 1200 people where there be lions that can heft a full grown deer up a tree, bears that wake you up in the middle of the night, Elk, Moose, Wolf, and so on with ME, raising OUR children, all the while each day taking my hand in her's to plan the next adventure...what a glorious backdrop for the never ending romance of a lifetime!
You may well ask what is romantic about the continuous lack of sleep, portapotties, stench of sweat in weary antisipation of endless hours of hand washing in a utility sink, unimaginable decible levels of pnuematic nail gun concussions from sun down to 2:00 & 3:00 AM to the purpose of keeping the freezing rain off the master bed in the one bedroom bat & board shed we chose to live in as opposed to, thank God and Frank the logger, a wall tent?
Well, be sure my answer will not be found written on a vinyl plaque in soft pastel hues on a shelf in Walmart. Rather, it is written on the expression in my face when all the pent up energy and vitality so repressed by this culture is let loose in a joyous and violent torrent of Love to the simple and pure purpose of providing a humble castle to shelter my queen, and dine breaking bread that we gave all we had to knead, washed down with water we brought up ourselves from the cool, dark aquifer 180 feet below our land, and, at day's end, to fall into one another's arms, sore, cut, bruised, aching, but oh so wonderfully alive!
And how about despair in the dark and dead of Winter...it lulls asleep with a witches brew...a sweet wine that renders all other tastes tastless: "Sleep, rest, you deserve it! Sleep till all your waking dreams fall asleep...till taut muscles grow soft...till the mind prefers the soft hum of hard won comforts and the soul has forgotten the vision...don't be afraid, you won't feel a thing."
That's a tricky one, and I'm not certain for seeing it that we havn't sufferred it. However, Our King, Lord of Romance, though hemming us in from peril by a hedge of thorns sharp enough to make one sober in a hurry, has also comforted and assurred us with the red of roses whose scent brings life to old memories and wakens forgotten dreams.
I do wander, don't I? But I'll risk this last gloat, this indescrete homage to my love, this almost arrogant boast with the hopes that it echoes in the hallows of Hell: My wife, my queen, strong, beautiful, tender, glorious, has opened a door by virtue of her need of me, into a vast and limitless universe of unexplored worlds, and placed her hand in mine, trusting, trembling, forgetting past hurts in the intoxicating joy of a new day's adventure, and stepped boldly through it without looking back. Now that is a woman worth dieing for, worth killing for, worth living for. Happy Valentines day my Love,
Samuel.
Hello!

5:42 AM, Thursday, February 15, 2007 .. Posted by LittleHouse
All I can say is wow! You all are doing a great job! I love the pictures of the home you already live in. Thanks for stopping by our blog and looking at our soap. You can get many books at the library about soap making. We use glycerine in our soap making because it can be safely used around children. We do hope to make lye soap one day when the girls are a little older. Some call what we make melt and pour soap because you just heat the base up add what you want to it color, fragrance herbs ect....let it harden cut and use after a few days. We like not having to worry about burning ourselves with the lye.

I will be check back to see how your dream home is coming along:)

Blessings to you and yours,

Ma

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7:01 AM, Sunday, February 25, 2007 .. Posted by morningsunshine
hey I posted pictures of my house, and even one of my turret!
hey

2:12 PM, Tuesday, February 27, 2007 .. Posted by motherearth
WOW, I've got to show your pictures to my boys they are going to enjoy reading and seeing what you are doing. Thank you for the comment about the Maidens of Virtue book, I do own that one and really like it...the only draw back is that my daughter is still to young yet to start it, (shes 10) and Noble Girlhood fit better this year, however in the next couple of years we are going to do Maidens.
Thanks for dropping by!

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About Me

My husband and I along with our 3 children, moved from Iowa to Montana 3 years ago fulfilling a long time dream of living in the mountains. Last summer we purchased and moved onto our bare land and are currently living in our home made cabin which has evolved from a shed to a barn to our cabin and future guest house. The foundation for what we now call "The big house" is dug and waiting for our next burst of energy!