Chit Chat and All That...

[UKBloke]

After cleaning the cambium off the logs using grinders, we are down to 5 logs. Here's a look at the finished pile of the damn things:

View attachment 55402

Looks like those grinders do a fine job. Do you treat the wood afterwards with anything?

 

[Elmer B Fuddled]

Looks like those grinders do a fine job. Do you treat the wood afterwards with anything?

Yes @UKBloke, when the cabin is up and outside is finished, we will put a finish on the logs using a product called Perma Chink, a water based stain. Perma Chink has been in business for 40 years specialising in log home products.

 

[Elmer B Fuddled]

@UKBloke, here's the first two floor joists going on. Notice the welded brackets to hold them in place, using 4x6 douglas fir, set at 16 inch on center.

 

[UKBloke]

@UKBloke, here's the first two floor joists going on. Notice the welded brackets to hold them in place, using 4x6 douglas fir, set at 16 inch on center.

View attachment 55423

Looking solid, hadn't realised it was going to be on wheels...

 

[Elmer B Fuddled]

Looking solid, hadn't realised it was going to be on wheels...

It's because he won't need planning permission. It's movable, and not a permanent living home.

 

[UKBloke]

It's because he won't need planning permission. It's movable, and not a permanent living home.

You're giving me ideas lol.

 

[Elmer B Fuddled]

You're giving me ideas lol.

Here's pictures of floor joists completed and bolted down and the first sheet of plywood.

 

[Elmer B Fuddled]

Here's the floor, metal flashing on and first 2 logs. Then the 2 long run logs waiting to be scribed.

 

[UKBloke]

Here's the floor, metal flashing on and first 2 logs. Then the 2 long run logs waiting to be scribed.

View attachment 55478

View attachment 55479

Looking great, E. Do you work to plans or have you just done this enough times you more or less know where everything goes?

P.S. today I self-levelled a floor. Laying vinyl tomorrow. Doing manual labour is one of the few times I can forget about tinnitus.

 

[Elmer B Fuddled]

Looking great, E. Do you work to plans or have you just done this enough times you more or less know where everything goes?

P.S. today I self-levelled a floor. Laying vinyl tomorrow. Doing manual labour is one of the few times I can forget about tinnitus.

No plans. After first full course the owner can figure for door and windows, electrical and water as holes need to be drilled through each log to feed wiring through. Door opening is only a small one to get through. The full door and windows aren't cut out until the building is at wall height and the roof structure is done. This allows for logs to settle, which they will do.

This cabin is number 8 of log homes I've built, the 3rd using full coping.

I remember the first time using self-leveling cement. I thought how can that work. Damn it sure did. That was my first visit to Ireland, helped a friend redo the sitting room. We took the interior walls off to replace with drywall. The home was 200 years old. Rock walls stuffed with mud and horse hair. Nothing level or square. A real project. As I thought back on it, I think that's where I became very sick, in which the doctor had no idea what I caught. I went back to Montana to be seen by my own doctor. He had no idea what I had either. Let me say, it damn near killed me, the fever and cough was unreal. Took 2 months to clear up.

 

[UKBloke]

No plans. After first full course the owner can figure for door and windows, electrical and water as holes need to be drilled through each log to feed wiring through. Door opening is only a small one to get through. The full door and windows aren't cut out until the building is at wall height and the roof structure is done. This allows for logs to settle, which they will do.

This cabin is number 8 of log homes I've built, the 3rd using full coping.

I remember the first time using self-leveling cement. I thought how can that work. Damn it sure did. That was my first visit to Ireland, helped a friend redo the sitting room. We took the interior walls off to replace with drywall. The home was 200 years old. Rock walls stuffed with mud and horse hair. Nothing level or square. A real project. As I thought back on it, I think that's where I became very sick, in which the doctor had no idea what I caught. I went back to Montana to be seen by my own doctor. He had no idea what I had either. Let me say, it damn near killed me, the fever and cough was unreal. Took 2 months to clear up.

Getting the old fever and cough thing having pulled out those walls doesn't surprise me. We've got similar buildings here, 200 to 300 years old, some of them with whatever it is the builders spooned into the stud work still sitting there. Unlocking it probably releases all sorts, although your immune-system is now probably supercharged having dealt with it.

The self-levelling went well although I have to say it's quite surprising seeing how different consistency each batch can mix up even with precise measuring out. I ended up combining batches as a result but it still flowed nicely enough and got the job done.

 

[Elmer B Fuddled]

Getting the old fever and cough thing having pulled out those walls doesn't surprise me. We've got similar buildings here, 200 to 300 years old, some of them with whatever it is the builders spooned into the stud work still sitting there. Unlocking it probably releases all sorts, although your immune-system is now probably supercharged having dealt with it.

The self-levelling went well although I have to say it's quite surprising seeing how different consistency each batch can mix up even with precise measuring out. I ended up combining batches as a result but it still flowed nicely enough and got the job done.

That stuff is mind wrecking, a bag of cement actually levels itself. I certainly was impressed by it. The folks had a flooring man come and put the Lino down. Me, I rented a car and went on a journey throughout the country after that. But along the way I became quite ill.

Send a picture of your work.

Elmer

 

[UKBloke]

Send a picture of your work.

This is one of the hobbit houses with tiny kitchens round our way.

Bit of backstory with the job; customer asked the original kitchen installer to lay laminate flooring. Installer cleared the entire room but instead of levelling the floor first he just layed laminate straight on top of the old bumpy tiles using those as a sub-base. Within 6 months the laminate was splitting.

Customer called me and stated she wanted to pull the laminate out and lay wood effect vinyl, which I was happy to do but not before levelling first.

Apologies for the tiny photo below, not sure what happened there, but those are the original ceramic tiles after removing the old laminate. They look kind of OK in the pic but they're very worn and defo seen their best days:

Here's the first half of the pour. I had to work around the kitchen units. Needs must!

Pour complete. If you note those white blemishes, that's where the spike was rolled
over to blow the air out of it. Can actually buff those out if using the concrete as the
finished floor, obviously not an issue when used as sub-base:

Vinyl laid and units back in situ:

You're right, that stuff is mind wrecking. In fact, when pouring it, it's almost like it's got a mind of its own.

 

[Elmer B Fuddled]

This is one of the hobbit houses with tiny kitchens round our way.

Bit of backstory with the job; customer asked the original kitchen installer to lay laminate flooring. Installer cleared the entire room but instead of levelling the floor first he just layed laminate straight on top of the old bumpy tiles using those as a sub-base. Within 6 months the laminate was splitting.

Customer called me and stated she wanted to pull the laminate out and lay wood effect vinyl, which I was happy to do but not before levelling first.

Apologies for the tiny photo below, not sure what happened there, but those are the original ceramic tiles after removing the old laminate. They look kind of OK in the pic but they're very worn and defo seen their best days:

View attachment 55491

Here's the first half of the pour. I had to work around the kitchen units. Needs must!

View attachment 55492

Pour complete. If you note those white blemishes, that's where the spike was rolled
over to blow the air out of it. Can actually buff those out if using the concrete as the
finished floor, obviously not an issue when used as sub-base:

View attachment 55493

Vinyl laid and units back in situ:

View attachment 55494

You're right, that stuff is mind wrecking. In fact, when pouring it, it's almost like it's got a mind of its own.

That's an absolute perfect job. Well done. My mum would have called that kitchen a "one butt kitchen", only room for one.

 

[Juan]

I just wanted to make a brief comment on this piece, which is a total distortion from reality in Spain, and clearly tries to manipulate public opinion in the UK:

Why is Spain's inflation so much lower than the UK's? Because it stood up to business | Carsten Jung | The Guardian

First of all, core inflation is at 5,9% in Spain. Second, the inflation that the average family is really bearing is closer to 15 - 20% per year. Examples: the price of milk doubled. The price of onion tripled. The price of gasoline is up 50%. The electricity price rocketed. Eating out is like 35% more expensive. The price of plane tickets soared by 42%.

The "great job" of the Spanish "government", that pack of radical communists, has been:

1 - Distorting and plainly manipulating inflation data. The Spanish government routinely cooks inflation data.

Pedro Sánchez's government sacked the people who were in charge of the statistics bureau because Pedro did not like the reality, and the numbers and particularly the inflation data those economists were providing, so instead Pedro appointed people loyal to his party to precisely elaborate inflation data; those new people are now in charge of the statistics bureau.

2 - Issuing more public debt to subsidise train tickets and other programs. So basically the government is piling more and more public debt that... it's going to be very hard to repay, at the current levels. There's just too much debt.

3 - Charging more to the average electricity consumer to pay for the electricity of people who work under the table but do not declare their earnings. So the average consumer is paying more.

 

[Anima]

I just wanted to make a brief comment on this piece, which is a total distortion from reality in Spain, and clearly tries to manipulate public opinion in the UK:

Why is Spain's inflation so much lower than the UK's? Because it stood up to business | Carsten Jung | The Guardian

First of all, core inflation is at 5,9% in Spain. Second, the inflation that the average family is really bearing is closer to 15 - 20% per year. Examples: the price of milk doubled. The price of onion tripled. The price of gasoline is up 50%. The electricity price rocketed. Eating out is like 35% more expensive. The price of plane tickets soared by 42%.

The "great job" of the Spanish "government", that pack of radical communists, has been:

1 - Distorting and plainly manipulating inflation data. The Spanish government routinely cooks inflation data.

Pedro Sánchez's government sacked the people who were in charge of the statistics bureau because Pedro did not like the reality, and the numbers and particularly the inflation data those economists were providing, so instead Pedro appointed people loyal to his party to precisely elaborate inflation data; those new people are now in charge of the statistics bureau.

2 - Issuing more public debt to subsidise train tickets and other programs. So basically the government is piling more and more public debt that... it's going to be very hard to repay, at the current levels. There's just too much debt.

3 - Charging more to the average electricity consumer to pay for the electricity of people who work under the table but do not declare their earnings. So the average consumer is paying more.

@Juan, you shouldn't lie or exaggerate so much. To say that Pedro Sanchez and his government are communists is a bad joke. At most, we could classify them as very moderate center-left. At least the current central government is not corrupt, as were all those from PP. For the first time in many years, the most needy, elderly and sick families have been favored. There is no institutional corruption now, after many years of looting public money and mafia practices of the past PP government.

The Guardian is right, nothing is invented, but you are inventing, @Juan. Pedro Sánchez is just the friendly face of the economic elite that, together with a corrupt justice, govern our country from the shadows, but this is another story.

 

[Elmer B Fuddled]

I just wanted to make a brief comment on this piece, which is a total distortion from reality in Spain, and clearly tries to manipulate public opinion in the UK:

Why is Spain's inflation so much lower than the UK's? Because it stood up to business | Carsten Jung | The Guardian

First of all, core inflation is at 5,9% in Spain. Second, the inflation that the average family is really bearing is closer to 15 - 20% per year. Examples: the price of milk doubled. The price of onion tripled. The price of gasoline is up 50%. The electricity price rocketed. Eating out is like 35% more expensive. The price of plane tickets soared by 42%.

The "great job" of the Spanish "government", that pack of radical communists, has been:

1 - Distorting and plainly manipulating inflation data. The Spanish government routinely cooks inflation data.

Pedro Sánchez's government sacked the people who were in charge of the statistics bureau because Pedro did not like the reality, and the numbers and particularly the inflation data those economists were providing, so instead Pedro appointed people loyal to his party to precisely elaborate inflation data; those new people are now in charge of the statistics bureau.

2 - Issuing more public debt to subsidise train tickets and other programs. So basically the government is piling more and more public debt that... it's going to be very hard to repay, at the current levels. There's just too much debt.

3 - Charging more to the average electricity consumer to pay for the electricity of people who work under the table but do not declare their earnings. So the average consumer is paying more.

That sounds typical of any government in today's world. The public needs to be aware of the process of making the rich more rich and the rest remaining poor. It's the same here, petrol just went up again, electric is holding the same outrageous charge. Food tripled. It's a plot to keep the public from making a decent wage and keeping them poor.

A man once said, "if you want to control the population, take away their water."

 

[Juan]

To say that Pedro Sanchez and his government are communists is a bad joke. At most, we could classify them as very moderate center-left.

From an American perspective, Pedro Sánchez and his bunch are radical communists, and they are destroying our country.

A man once said, "if you want to control the population, take away their water."

I live near Barcelona and water is horrible here. I have to buy drinking water.

On top of that there's not water on beach showers this summer. Town halls have closed the water supply. So I have to go back home covered in sand and use my own water to rinse sand. It seems if I also pay for that water it is fine for the environment, but now (right after the town hall elections) it seems unacceptable that the Town Hall uses the hefty taxes they collect from me to provide water at the beach shower. I have to pay for that too (again).

 

[UKBloke]

Being that the theme has shifted to economics, it's probably worth posting an oft overlooked rule of the board game Monopoly. I wonder what inspired Parker Brothers to pen this clause?

 

[Elmer B Fuddled]

Being that the theme has shifted to economics, it's probably worth posting an oft overlooked rule of the board game Monopoly. I wonder what inspired Parker Brothers to pen this clause?

View attachment 55497

Now that explains the whole damn economic drama throughout the world. They must have played Monopoly at young age and thought it should work when they become real politicians.

 

[Elmer B Fuddled]

First long log set into place. A bit of fine tuning and good.

 

[Elmer B Fuddled]

Floor logs set and caulked first short log up with Ted scribing the full length.

Keeping the 2 levels in perfect movement down the logs.

 

[Juan]

Being that the theme has shifted to economics, it's probably worth posting an oft overlooked rule of the board game Monopoly. I wonder what inspired Parker Brothers to pen this clause?

View attachment 55497

Now I see that's the rule that inspires Lagarde, haha... printing more money... and then more... and more.

Central bankers are going to achieve what seems impossible: bankrupting the world's economy by printing money.

The ECB and the FED are not reducing their balance sheet fast enough. They said they would reduce their debt holdings but they are dragging their feet and keep postponing everything. As a result, both the ECB and the FED have lost the little credibility they had left after 2008 Financial Crisis.

 

[Joeseph Stope]

Well (shucks, all modest and blushing), I kind of trained as an economist... so if yous want to known anything about economics, well go and ask someone else, I can't figure it out either. I only knew how to pass the exams.

But one point I would make: The native workforce is shrinking as the older cohorts reach retirement. It's a bit late for the ladies to start producing babies at 66 or 67. So Europe and the US are admitting younger workers from Africa Asia, Central & South America for asylum.

All about the greying of the West and increasing the money supply as the population is gradually increasing, and GDP hopefully too. Or something like that.

 

[Juan]

But one point I would make: The native workforce is shrinking as the older cohorts reach retirement. It's a bit late for the ladies to start producing babies at 66 or 67. So Europe and the US are admitting younger workers from Africa Asia, Central & South America for asylum.

It would be more honest if US and EU governments said that clearly to their citizens instead of making untrained and unskilled immigrants come illegally, risking their lives, ripped off my mafias very likely connected to the political power in Europe and the US. The position of EU and US governments is quite hypocritical.

Wouldn't it be easier to publish a list of positions to be filled, announcing them abroad, asking for specific qualifications and bringing those who the Labour Ministry deems better fit to fill those jobs? On top of that, taking into account that immigrants pay a ton of money to mafias, governments could charge an "entry fee" and the IRS would get a lump sum from immigrants in exchange for papers to work legally. I think this is a more practical, more ethical solution, and fairer to everyone, including the taxpayers.

Why do we have to pretend that ECONOMIC immigrants who enter illegally in Europe are poor souls that we have to maintain? Why do we have to pretend that they have no other choices?

Nowadays people have cars, cellphones, and generally speaking everything needed to survive and have some leisure time even in African cities. Why European taxpayers have to put up with the economic and social burden of illegal immigration and accept the most unskilled, the most unprepared coming to Europe?

 

[Elmer B Fuddled]

It would be more honest if US and EU governments said that clearly to their citizens instead of making untrained and unskilled immigrants come illegally, risking their lives, ripped off my mafias very likely connected to the political power in Europe and the US. The position of EU and US governments is quite hypocritical.

Wouldn't it be easier to publish a list of positions to be filled, announcing them abroad, asking for specific qualifications and bringing those who the Labour Ministry deems better fit to fill those jobs? On top of that, taking into account that immigrants pay a ton of money to mafias, governments could charge an "entry fee" and the IRS would get a lump sum from immigrants in exchange for papers to work legally. I think this is a more practical, more ethical solution, and fairer to everyone, including the taxpayers.

Why do we have to pretend that ECONOMIC immigrants who enter illegally in Europe are poor souls that we have to maintain? Why do we have to pretend that they have no other choices?

Nowadays people have cars, cellphones, and generally speaking everything needed to survive and have some leisure time even in African cities. Why European taxpayers have to put up with the economic and social burden of illegal immigration and accept the most unskilled, the most unprepared coming to Europe?

Because the EU says so. They make the rules.

 

[SilverFox]

Today and tomorrow is the annual peak of the Perseids meteor shower. It is best to watch it before dawn and in a rural area. Some years I saw a few pretty good ones...

 

[UKBloke]

Today and tomorrow is the annual peak of the Perseids meteor shower. It is best to watch it before dawn and in a rural area. Some years I saw a few pretty good ones...

We get some pretty good displays here from about 10PM onwards. Been crap weather all day but the sky's finally clearing. Fingers crossed...

 

[Elmer B Fuddled]

We get some pretty good displays here from about 10PM onwards. Been crap weather all day but the sky's finally clearing. Fingers crossed...

We got rain and still cloudy, that seems to be the normal. I've seen the Moon a couple days back first time in over a month.

I took a walk up to the river Friday about a mile away. I needed time to clear my head and ignore that damn tinnitus. There's a huge rock next to the running water, it's shaped to lay down on.

Myself and the cabin owner had a fallout over scribing and not listening to me explain the process of cutting out the coping. So with the help of running water, shutting my head off, ignoring the tinnitus, I spent 2 hours in pure silence. What I found and this is not the first time, silence clears the present, but past rushes in. Surprisingly things come back from 60 years gone by. Life is short. At my age I certainly do not need a person who asked for help and guidance to just bully his stubborn attitude in my face. I found it to be that we only see the surface or the outer skin and can't see what a person truly is on the inside.

I've spent my life being on the outside. I've really got no one close other than my wife, and without her love and comfort I wouldn't be here writing this. Tinnitus set me back to recluse because I lost a part of my hearing. That in itself puts a person on the side because we lose concentration and confidence to engage in something we can't hear fully.

Peace @UKBloke.

Elmer

 

[UKBloke]

We got rain and still cloudy, that seems to be the normal. I've seen the Moon a couple days back first time in over a month.

I took a walk up to the river Friday about a mile away. I needed time to clear my head and ignore that damn tinnitus. There's a huge rock next to the running water, it's shaped to lay down on.

Myself and the cabin owner had a fallout over scribing and not listening to me explain the process of cutting out the coping. So with the help of running water, shutting my head off, ignoring the tinnitus, I spent 2 hours in pure silence. What I found and this is not the first time, silence clears the present, but past rushes in. Surprisingly things come back from 60 years gone by. Life is short. At my age I certainly do not need a person who asked for help and guidance to just bully his stubborn attitude in my face. I found it to be that we only see the surface or the outer skin and can't see what a person truly is on the inside.

I've spent my life being on the outside. I've really got no one close other than my wife, and without her love and comfort I wouldn't be here writing this. Tinnitus set me back to recluse because I lost a part of my hearing. That in itself puts a person on the side because we lose concentration and confidence to engage in something we can't hear fully.

Peace @UKBloke.

Elmer

Your missus sounds like a diamond.

Is the fella you had a falling out with the one in the photo with the scribing tool? Funnily enough I was going to ask you for a link to that tool because I've never seen one like that. It looks quite intriguing.

Did a bit of scribing recently with a new Tracer scribing tool that I ordered online. Absolute rubbish. Went back to using a block of wood instead and got much better results.

I know what you mean about the age thing. Sometimes we get a bit long in the tooth for the stubborn BS of others but I've often found that even at our extended years when a bunch of blokes get together on a project a bit of the old competition can creep back in. I hope you manage to sort things out; coping or not (coping's something I find difficult to get right, especially with things like taurus and/or OG skirting board!!!). It looks like a fun build.