There is so much dead wood! It is overwhelming. Huge 80 year old logs down to small logs mixed in with dirt and a lot of rock, pushed all together in a big, jumbled mess. Very unsightly to say the least. Plus, quite a fire hazard. Last fall we hired some of Taylor's friends and started to clean it up. After a day of hauling, we barely scratched the surface.
Fast forward to this weekend. Our builder has a forklift at the cabin for the next several weeks so we thought this would be a good time to put it to good use in moving some of the giant trees. We borrowed our neighbor's dump trailer and went to work. We worked and worked and worked.
Anything that was a small enough size, we threw in ourselves. Anything bigger, Scott cut them into small enough sizes for us to lift. And the really big ones, he lifted into the trailer with a chain, cut off a chunk and then repeated the process until the whole tree was in the trailer.
Although we all worked hard, Owen latched onto the job of chaining and unchaining the trees and delighted in doing this all day long. The second Scott gave him the thumbs up,
he was scrambling onto the dump trailer to unhook the log and chain it to the next one.
We ended up camping overnight (ie sleeping inside the half finished, saw-dusty cabin) so we could get to work early the next day.
We didn't have a table for our meals, but this pallet of rocks worked just fine!
After 1 1/2 days of working, we made another big dent in moving all the wood. We all ended up with sunburns, a few bumps and scratches and pine sap all over our arms, but it was worth it. We were all so filthy when we were done that we opted to eat our Cafe Rio dinner out on the grass rather than go inside.
Are we done? Nope. Not a chance. Scott estimates that between this weekend and the day last fall, we have moved 15-20 loads of dead wood. However, it is looking better and better!
As far as the cabin being completed.....slowly, but surely we are moving forward. Our builder has found that because of the building frenzy in the valley it has been difficult to get workers to drive 30 minutes up Spanish Fork canyon for a little 'ol cabin. Case in point. The windows in the family room. They were finally installed this week after waiting for the window guy to show up for months. Hooray!!
Here is the view looking from the kitchen to the front door. The fireplace separates the entry from the family room. Initially our completion date was the end of July. But, as with most construction it takes longer than expected. We are crossing our fingers for a Labor Day weekend at the "finished" cabin, but will be satisfied if it is done in time for Christmas. Sheetrock is scheduled for next week. We will keep our fingers crossed!
