Back to Work!

When we last left our heroes, the snow and rain halted their progress for the winter. It was mid-November and we had to stop with 6 and 1/2 rows of logs on the walls. We decided in an attempt to even slightly reduce the amount of snow/water in our basement and through the drain to try to cover up the house a little bit. We put most of the remaining logs on top of the house and then got some huge tarps and put them all over the house. We didn't actually expect it to keep all the snow out, but we hoped to try to lessen the impact. It definitely worked, although by the end some of the tarps were pretty torn by the wind! Here's a picture about 7-10 days after we decided to stop working - I think you'll see why! We did go back and put more tarps on after this picture was taken. Oh, and I feel it only proper to mention that when I say "we" put tarps on, I was not the one climbing all over the logs putting the tarps on. I'm more of an idea person.

Flash forward to last weekend, in order to get moving, we needed to get all those logs back off the house and onto their racks. We got a forklift again, although it's slightly smaller than last year because they didn't have the bigger size one. Of course, that makes me nervous, since I'm the one whose life is at the mercy of the forklift.



When we got to the 3rd log in the row (of 31) it was a Doug Fir, which is a heavier and stronger log - it was too heavy for the forklift. So, we thought about it, surveyed the area, and decided, how bad could it really be if we just roll this log off the side? We looked at all possible scenarios, and decided that it wouldn't be too bad. Based on the positioning of the log, we were fairly sure it wasn't going to roll down the mountain. So, Kenyon got the crow bar, and started rolling it.

And you know what, it was uneventful. The log rolled off, the uphill side hit first and then when the downhill side hit it bounced the first end up a little but that was it. Other than an indentation where the first end hit, you would have never known.

We did manage to get most of the other logs off that weekend, and finished the job later. We did have to modify our compound this year. With the busy little guy we have on our hands we knew that he wouldn't stay in one area very well, so we got what I like to call, "The Corral". I also got some of those play mats to put on top of the mulch just to make it a little safer. With the amount he has fallen on the swingset at home and cut his face on the mulch, I knew we'd need something. But the kids had a blast on the little climbing toy. Before you start worrying, we have made sure that the kids are not up there when we are using any heavy equipment this year!