Due north

Heading back up to Stony for the weekend. Hope to finish clearing, well, except for the path to the lake anyway. Arranged to meet permit official on Friday, and with luck some local helpers on Saturday. Weather may discourage them, but my years of riding bikes in crap have toughened me some, or so I claim. Certainly helped build up my clothing collection at least. Tossed in enough layers to survive a hard freeze, although if the forecast is wrong, I would be darn near grateful.

More pictures!!

A few more snaps from Jan from September of Dan, John III, and me.

Boards

Arranged to meet Ross Phelps who lives at Chases Lake and has a portable bandmill (Timberking B-20.) - $35 per hour while on site: "If you help or provide someone to help with offloading and stacking, it will save you money. Give me a call at (315) 955-9655 and I can meet you up there to take a look. I can also show you some samples of work I've done near the lake."

Not sure what this wood will be used for (interior paneling instead of drywall? deck flooring for outdoor decks - pine?), but golly, I have chewed up a lot already for firewood.

Halloween is coming

DO LIST
1) Meet Paul Gyore on Friday and pull permit?
2) call Kyle or get some help from someone?
3) Call/Meet Bill Lee about driveway - account at the quarry?

CLEARING
- drop the 75 foot dead pine at the top of the driveway
- remove logs and brush at edge of driveway
- burn brush that is frigging everywhere
- cut up all the downed trees into moveable sizes and stack nearby out of the way
- move huge stack of firewood on north side to be out of the way

LAYOUT - will I get here??
- measure distance in front of camp - 10 feet plus
- re-orient camp in general and flag location including south entry deck
- square up camp - corners - 34x36, so 49.5' on diagonal
- set batter boards and string
- locate piers with marking paint
- dig out piers - wash out with pressure washer?

dressing up as a lumberjack, of course

Driveway

... and back to your regularly scheduled program. Can't seem to save money on construction if I need to rent $1000 in equipment(skidsteer), so I sent a check to Bill Lee to get him started on the driveway. He thinks he can get started next week. Hoping to get that all done before the snow, so we aren't staring a muddy mess in the spring.

Glenfield and Western - the GeeWhiz

OT: I liked this old postcard of the GWRR so I put it on my blackberry as the background, and then wondered whatever happened to it, and why it ever happened in the first place. So, I ordered a book on it yesterday. Turns out the bookseller lives near Tipp Hill and his wife has relatives from Lowville.

I also found a map of the old railbed showing it crossing Rt 12 and headed west. Also, found a list of unfinished NYS railroads that says many of these RR's went bankrupt in the Panic of 1873 (quoting Wikipedia!). NYT published this article in 1901, listing the RR founders and saying that the steam line would extend from Glenfield to the NE corner of the Bennett track. What the heck was in the corner of that tract (uh, woods?).

Driveway update

Talked to two driveway guys recommended by the Barrett's quarry (maybe I should call Virkler again), and one is getting me a price today. They both know I am going to be up there at Halloween getting rid of some brush piled up in the way on the driveway, so probably not rushing. I hope one of them has a good price so I don't get stuck with this task.

Rob Andrews suggested using driveway stabilization fabric ($350/roll - quan?) to allow water to run under the gravel without washing it out. Sounds like a good idea, and hope it works. He also said it keeps stone from sinking into any earth at the bottom, which sounds a little more dubious to me, but maybe so. He is still thinking about his price as he wants to use a bulldozer and roller (on that hill? I asked), and might not get to it till spring (crap). He also suggested digging out more at the base, plus push piled up wood and brush (hmm, he said stumps?) out of the way at the top and putting some river run stone as fill up there to level. Maybe so. Bill Lee, the other Barrett quarry recommended local contractor, will look at the site today and call me tonight with a price. Hoping he can move sooner, as this needs to get done before deliveries take place.

Skylight - out for now at least, but maybe later..

Decided to cut the skylight, at least for now. Partly for cost, and partly because I don't feel great about how it works in the log roof. 85 lb snow load soars past standard Velux criteria, even on the Canadian Velux site, but they do sell a special snow load glazing with no specs. Ok specs are SOMEWHERE, but I can not find them. Plus, do I need some kind of header to keep that skylight from falling through to the floor? Hmm. I wonder how many skylights get installed in the Great White North without anyone paying any attention to snow load. Probably most of them.

Also, if there is ever snow on it :), and someone shows up and heats up the camp, the snow on the window will melt, run down the roof and refreeze forming ice dam(s). Ice dams lead to backups which lead to leaks which might continue till spring. Would a steel roof avoid that problem? It might, for another $3K. Plus it costs about a grand to install this sucker by the time you buy the curb and flashing from Velux (yeah, you can kludge it up yourself I guess, but not if you're a noob).

Mind you, I guess it could be added in later when roof is under way, but I would hope that means some REAL roofing contractor who knows what he is doing installs it. As opposed to me.

To do.. some of this over Halloween?

Notes from 24 Sept as I drove out

CLEARING (still)

• drop the 75 foot dead pine at the top of the driveway


• burn brush that is frigging everywhere


• cut up all the downed trees into moveable sizes and stack nearby out of the way


• move huge stack of firewood on north side to be out of the way


• remove logs and brush at edge of driveway - false sense of flat area is probably unsafe

LAYOUT

• measure distance in front of camp - 10 feet plus


• re-orient camp in general and flag location including south entry deck


• square up camp - corners - 34x36, so 49.5' on diagonal


• set batter boards and string


• locate piers with marking paint


• dig out piers - wash out with pressure washer?

ROTARY HAMMER

• drill rock in pier locations


• chip out rock if necessary to flatten pier spot

OTHER

• test driveway if rocks laid, or meet someone willing to do driveway

Driveway

Getting bids to get gravel put down on the driveway so it will be usable. Pretty steep though, I think it goes up about 30+ feet in elevation over 175 feet. (For those who don't like math, see http://www.1728.com/gradient.htm - yikes pushing 20%).

For comparison, Tour de France climbs are half that steepness - the Alps average 7-8% where the big climbs in the Pyrenees average 8-9%. Of course, that is a silly comparison as those climbs continue for 15 miles at high altitude. But ridiculous comparisons are more fun than mundane ones.

I measured the driveway at 175 feet long more or less at about 8 feet wide with a sorta round 30 foot circle (well, 40x20 ft space) up on top and a spot at the bottom. If that is 2500 sqft or so, then we need about 45 tons of driveway rock mix. If we try to even out the grade, and we need to do that if possible, we would need about 50 tons. Or so.

Final plans

Well, I hope these are final, as I need to start making progress on a zillion details.

Question that will not affect plans now, but matters someday. (Had a long argument with Evan about this.) Should the gas stove go in the island?

ARGUMENTS

EVAN: Yes, definitely. Part of the point of a camp is sharing the experience and the chit-chat....so having the range facing the LR and the DR allows the cook(s) to be engaged with the brother they haven't seen in a while or the niece and nephew playing checkers in the LR or even to catch a glimpse of the family returning from the lake so they know to start the soup.

MATT: No. If you put a stove in the island, you can't use it as a place to have a snack, or to have breakfast. There you are reading the paper, and you set down the paper, and oh crap, the burner was hot and the paper is on fire. We can put the stove on the other side of the sink, and get it closer to conversations, but let's not put it in the island.

Well, I am never quite sure, what do you think? And no, I am not asking if we should take the now rusting stove that is back out on the porch and cut a hole in the cabinets and drop it inside :)

Snow

Glenfield weather today - "Cloudy with a chance of rain showers early...possibly mixing with wet snow across the Tug Hill" I am so used to Virginia weather which I vastly prefer as a whole. I need to plan some weekend trips to finish the clearing and dig out the piers. Maybe I can drive Friday afternoons and come back Monday afternoons. Hmph. Need to be ready for cold weather and bad weather though.