October in Pictures

Jimmy's original hope was to actually cut down pine trees and mill them up into 2x4's, 2x6's, 2x10's, etc and use that wood to build the cabin. We spent some time the beginning of October attempting to locate pines that someone would led him cut down, cut them down, haul them, and cut them up. Here are pictures from one of the pines he cut. He worked very hard and cut down and up several trees, and learned a lot - however due to time constraints we were not able to get the wood we would need to frame the cabin this way. (We keep saying we'll have to do that for cabin number 2) Anyways, good thing there's always Home Depot.

Next came digging the 12 holes for the pier and beam foundation

Then running and leveling strings in order to build forms for the concrete. Unfortunately strings are somewhat inaccurate for leveling due to sagging. We found this out after pouring the first 3 forms. A hose filled with water (which finds its own level) is much more accurate. Thankfully we figured this out and were able to make adjustments before pouring the last 9 forms. After spending several days building these forms and getting them all leveled and in place Jimmy informed me that you can just buy this circular cardboard stuff that's made for concrete pier forms, but he doesn't like the "look" or cylindrical concrete piers, that's why he built his own rectangular ones. (Never mind that no one is going to be looking at the piers since they are UNDER the house!)

Between digging the holes and building and leveling the forms and getting ready to pour concrete it rained several times really hard. Guess who got to bail the water out of the holes for the piers - twice.

Then came the concrete - oh the concrete. My husband can be stubborn sometimes. Never mind that it would have been cheaper to have a concrete truck come pour the already mixed cement we needed into our holes for us. He decided to mix and pour all 100 bags of concrete himself- one wheelbarrow full at a time. (And when I say himself, I mean with the help of his loving wife who felt bad for him in the midst of his stubbornness.)

Once the piers were poured and dried it was time to lay the beams. In order to save money and do things differently Jimmy had come up with the idea of cutting up used railroad ties to make his beams out of.  Good idea, only problem was railroad ties destroy the blades on a sawmill really fast. (They are also REALLY heavy). So after buying and hauling and attempting to cut up railroad ties, we were once again thankful for Home Depot and their supply of pressure treated wood.

Abbi telling Daddy that he's the CHAMPION

Daddy agrees

It took a little finagling to get the beams level and square on the corner pier that we poured half and inch too short due to incorrect string leveling. All the others that we did correctly look really nice, I promise.

So, Daddy finished the foundation (sorry, I don't have a good picture) and then headed back to San Antonio for a couple weeks - his last stint of oilfield work. While he was there we went and played with my family up in Plano. (Oilfield work picture on left, Fun in Plano picture on right - wonder who got the better end of the deal?) 

And that brings us to the end of October. One month down, a couple of good but failed ideas, a foundation built, the whole cabin left to go.