The Log house Project begins........

[MotorSeven]

955...yep HAY. Ok, follow me here: houses are built with straw enclosed with concrete, straw is just tougher hay and as long as it is dry it will last indefinatly. We stuffed the hay(clean dry hay) down just past the second block from the top, so whatever insect is living in the hay will be entombed in a dead space. We are talking a wad of hay 10-12" in size suspended in the block 8.5' off the ground. The fat lady sang...it's done and the hay worked perfect ...no crete got past it.

Now for the pic's:

This one's for you 955..stuffing the hay(no that's not me, just some Portugese immigrant...he will kill me if he ever see's this):

Done:

 

[MotorSeven]

And I still have a bow, but it is livable. I will put a string on it after I remove the forms:

So here is the "pour" story: I ordered 7 yards on the first truck...regular truck. For some ridiculous reason the 'crets place's insurance company now forbids the third shoot(really, thas't like forbidding a cop to carry bullets). So the driver had to get really close to the cut bank with only two shoots. 7 yards almost did the 40' wall. Then the belt truck arrived(that thing is awesome..remote control and all) with 6 yards and we fell about 12' short of finishing. Soooo, anything under 3 yards they bang you $100 for a "short" load, so I ordered the min...3 yards. Well, the last ruck arrived and we swung his 2 pittley shoots out....and I commenced to take a concrete bath. The driver was such a nice guy I just couldn't yell at him ...but he had no... er..ah "touch". Either the shoot was empty or it was a raging torrent of 80gal a min 'crete. The stuff was everywhere...my arms, my head...my POCKETS, the ground on both sides of the wall. Folks it took longer to push this crete down the wall 12' then it took the belt truck to pour 80'...and it was 96 degrees out. Refusing to give in and waste I took a 5 gal bucket down and scooprd up the residue....have you ever carried a bucket full of wet crete up a 12' ladder....holeey crap. The driver even dipped into his stash of a cooler to offer me a cold Pepsi making it doubly hard to admonish the poor guy. I swear he stalled the truck 3-4 times, and almost whacked me in the head with the shoot while I poured the excess into the retainer wall( I kept hearing "Sorry" in the background).
After it was all said and done and the driver pulled away I grabbed a shovel and started salvaging the spillage, putting more in the retainer wall. When I walked around to the garage side of the wall I just stood and stared at a mound of crete 5' long and 10" thick. I just didn't have the energy to bucket it back up the wall(core temp reachingthe heat stroke max), so I just trowled it smooth and walked away.

A Margerita at 3:30PM never tasted so good:licking:

 

[MotorSeven]

The remains of some of the "spillage":

 

[Molerj]

Holy ****, you are a patient man. That last part sounded like a nightmare. Glad it's all done. Heck with the margarita, that sounded like at least a twelve pack!!

 

[955Lincoln]

955...yep HAY. Ok, follow me here: houses are built with straw enclosed with concrete, straw is just tougher hay and as long as it is dry it will last indefinatly. We stuffed the hay(clean dry hay) down just past the second block from the top, so whatever insect is living in the hay will be entombed in a dead space. We are talking a wad of hay 10-12" in size suspended in the block 8.5' off the ground. The fat lady sang...it's done and the hay worked perfect ...no crete got past it.

For some reason I had these disturbing visions of you filling the entire voids from the ground up with something that you had a lot of. Barn...sawmill...sawdust...never mind

Moving right along M7. I'll bet for a split second that concrete bath felt pretty good in this heat :laughing:

 

[tnmike]

I can't ID the immigrant. Who is it?

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

I love the idea Mike had using I beams to shore it up and having a track for a hoist too.

 

[EddieWalker]

I love this thread!!!

Nothing like sitting here in my air conditioned home and reading about all the "fun" you are having. I also like that you are doing things that I've never seen or done myself. That really makes it fun to see your pictures and read your coments.

Thanks,
Eddie

 

[MotorSeven]

I love this thread!!!

I also like that you are doing things that I've never seen or done myself.

Thanks,
Eddie

Ahhh, and therein lies the "problem", I haven't done them either which in turn creates mistakes. Little one's I can handle, but one more of these whoppers might just put me into DeFib Oh, about the "unlimited funds" crack a while back....c'mon if that was the case I'd be sitting in a snug full round Ponderosa Pine log house on my 14,000 ac ranch in the middle of Montana:laughing:

Mike, nooooo, no trolley track .......I m u s t re s i s t turning the basement here into another workshop
That's Dennis, Briggs's handyman & he works cheap:thumbsup:. It was a good thing he showed up, becasue Marcus(concrete guy) was supposed to send his two guys over...but they were a no show.

Ok, off to break down the Forms this morning..........

 

[Kyle241]

I am very glad you got your foundation wall fixed, it was giving me heartburn, can't imagine what it as giving you! I've built my last three homes and don't worry, mistakes happen and you learn. Sometimes they are big, sometimes they are small so don't sweat it now, you got it fixed and that is what is important. The 'funny' thing about your wall is that is exactly my concern if I ever went with concrete block as I have entertained the idea but instead paid out of pocket to get my foundation poured professionally on the house I am in now ($23k). Definitely not cheap and more than I originally budgeted but that always happens.

Looking forward to more of the build.