Cutting some beams for barn addition

[Aleks Hunter]

Pretty good sized sticks, 6x14x 18' hemlock, still need to be flipped and cut down to the final 6x12. LOML wandered out behind the barn with camera and coffee. Can't wait to get the log pile gone so I can get back to working indoors.&nbsp;<br>Now lets see if I can figure out how to post a picture.

[Richard Wolf]

Nice piece of wood. Where is the photo taken? Looks like some rustic landscape.

[Aleks Hunter]

There are two beams on the saw's bed in that shot, we had just split the cant and flipped the two of them 90 degrees to cut a flat side and right after the picture we flipped them again to cut the flat side on what is the bottom in the picture. A little extra manipulating the log, but I'm trying to get the best yield out of the hemlock which alwasy has a heck of a taper to it.

The picture was taken yesterday outside behind our barn here in Vermont. WE are in the sticks. Looking at the aerial shot, we're behind the barn on the left which houses my woodshop. Its stick season now so things look scruffy. Behind us is a foundation of a wing of the barn that collapsed before we bought the place twelve years ago. In front of the barn is another foundation of yet another wing that collapsed. We shored up the main barn when we bought the place or it would likely also be gone now. Its two parts the left, western half was built in the late 1770's and the eastern half is from 1810 or so based on the joinery. Its mostly pegged together, but we did have to sister up the rafters and re-deck the loft and reset the foundation and ... ahh the joys of old buildings!
The place does look better when things are green.


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[Larry Edgerton]

What a beautiful place to live.....

Larry

[Aleks Hunter]

Thanks, it really is nice to look out and see only fields and forests.

[Larry Edgerton]

My new home/shop complex is backed up to the Pigeon River State Forest. Its 40 miles out my back door to the next house. Solitude is something I can appreciate.


I recently cut all the ash off of my property because of the borers. We cut it up on my friends Corley circle mill, circa 1905. It was fun, but a circle mill can work the daylights out of you. I much prefer offbearing on a band mill.:o

Its nice to see people restoring/renovating those old barns. Occasionally I get a call to do some repair on old post and beam barns and it gives me great pleasure to make them stand a little longer. Unfortunately powder post beatles have taken many of them too far to repair. Look for the signs, and spray the barn down with a borax solution if you even think they may be in there. Its cheap insurance.

Larry

[Scott T Smith]

Aleks, gorgeous looking place, and kudo's to you for saving the old barn.

I'll bet that you had fun turning those beams on the sawmill too....

[Randall Houghton]

Awesome place. Tons of work but worth every drop of sweat. Love old barns probably because Granddad was a barn builder in the Midwest. Had some great fun in them when I was a kid.
Regards
Randy

[Aleks Hunter]

Oh I know what you mean. Lots of happy memories from when I was a kid getting into all sorts of mischief in the barn. Anyone who's made tunnels through the hay bales in the loft knows what I mean. Now I don;t keep any livestock, but there is always something to do in the barn. Right now I'm in the process of sheathing the inside of the roof and walls with 4/4 pine. I find myself asking "what was I thinking?" slots of schlepping.

Its really tragic how many old colonial era barns are being lost. Up here we have barn preservation societies, we have barbecues and barn "re-raisings" and the state even kicks in if the barn meets the right criteria. On the down side there are an ever growing number of towns that are trying to apply modern materials requirements to barn restorations. These barns were built of local woods, hemlock, pine, some chestnut and oak for the bigger posts and beams, cut on site and hand hewn with hand cut joints, and hand bored peg holes with hand cut pegs. and are still standing 200-250 years later. I look at new houses going up With KD dimension lumber and flake board sheathing and flakeboard engineered beams for longer spans, and I don't see something that's likely to last half or even a third that long. With three guys I can cut enough timbers to shore up a sagging barn in a few days and people love to show up to help out. Lots of wanna be norms out there who chomp at the bit to chop out some mortises with a big ole slick.