Stacking stacking stacking

Back to work after a long weekend off for the 4th of July. We've got 11 courses of logs up, and we're about to put up our second floor girders in. After the girders go in, we'll probably put up another 3 courses of logs before moving on to our ridge pole. Lifting logs to this height has started to get a bit dangerous, so we chose to have a steeper pitched roof with shorter walls than we had originally planned for. We're hoping to have our extra logs milled into dimension lumber and/or floorboards, but if that doesn't work out we'll save them for the next house.

Here's Steve driving the telehandler while Angelo holds a rope tied to the end of the log. The added stability from this is huge.

Angelo is on the wall in the foreground, helping to guide in the log. Steve is in the machine doing the heavy lifting.

Our friend Jedd came up for 10 days and helped out. In this picture Steve and Jedd are standing on scaffolding we made out of 2x12s resting on top of saw horses. Steve is on the right pre-drilling holes through the top log. Jedd then takes a piece of 1/2" rebar and hammers it into the log below.

From left to right we have Angelo, Steve, and our neighbor, Dave. In this shot we're reading the log to see which way it might bow in order to decide how it could sit once we put it on the wall.

Our progress so far. 1 log shy of 11 courses. The second floor girders will go in soon, then only a few more courses before we start focusing on the roof.