Winter House Project Part 2

In my first "Winter House Project" post I showed you the windows we wanted to replace and the new window to replace them. The first step was to remove the old trims.

One of the reasons our house was so energy inefficient is because the original windows used a weight and pulley system for opening and closing. This requires space on either side of the window to accommodate cast iron sash weights.

These balance the weight of the window sashes making them easy to open and shut - that is until the pulley ropes break.

With the other double windows Dan has replaced, the builder's rough opening has had no header. The job of the header is to bear the weight of the materials above it. Without it, sagging will begin to take place. Instead of a header, the builder of our house used the window casing to act as a post to bear the weight. We assumed this set of windows would be the same and so were surprised when that wasn't the case.

There's actually space between the window casing and the 2x4 above it.

So nothing was holding up the 2x4 that served as a pseudo-header.

View from the outside looking in. You can see the 2x4
with the blown-in insulation above the window opening.

It sagged a little bit but not too badly.

Dan's new header is a sturdy 3.5 inches by 5.5 inches.

The best part was being able to use all of our own homegrown, home-milled lumber.

New sill on the table saw.

Since the new window is smaller than the two old ones, the next step was to frame out the space for wall with a new rough-in for the new window.

Amazingly, there have been no unpleasant surprises to fix or rebuild, and this is probably going to be the fastest house project we've ever done.

New window shimmed and secured. The next step will be to put up the new siding.

Click here for Part 3.

Winter House Project Part 2 © December 2016 

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

How It's Going in the Hedgerow

Or not going. I've had a few setbacks since I first started planting my forest garden hedgerow in March of 2015, and have not been able to plant as much as I'd like.

Bird's eye view of our Forest Garden Hedgerow

I started then with the trees, a few shrubs, and some herbs:

• 1 Asian persimmon
• 2 standard pear trees
• 1 mulberry tree
• 2 chestnut trees
• 2 aronia shrubs
• wild rose (transplanted)
• hazelnuts (transplanted)
• yarrow
• comfrey
• horseradish
• rosemary
• oregano

I've replaced one of the pears, the mulberry, one of the chestnuts twice, and have just finished my third planting of aronia. None of the herbs survived last summer's heat and drought, but the Jerusalem artichokes I popped into the ground last winter made it with no additional watering from me. That was nice to see!

I chose tree and shrub varieties based on their heat and drought tolerance. They did get watered and mulched several times during the summer, but not enough. Plus the chickens quickly unmulched them (much to my great frustration.) I finally made small cages from short lengths of welded wire fence.

Newly planted chestnut tree. Blueberry
bush is turning red in the background.

The ground was so hard and dry that it took a couple of days to dig the hole. I scraped out an impression in the ground which I filled with water. The next day I dug that out and filled the hole with water again.

Aronia. With the cage the chickens can't scatter the mulch.

One thing that is important, for me at least, is the time of year I plant trees and shrubs. If I plant them in autumn or winter they do best. Anything planted in the spring seems to have a less than 50% chance of surviving our summers. I've stopped ordering from nurseries that insist that April is my prime planting month, because summer comes on fast and furious in my little part of the world. It becomes extra work to try to keep the new plants alive and well.

In weather news, we've had rain! Until this past Tuesday our last good rain was in August, when we got a total of 3.5 inches for the month. In September we got no rain, and then 0.25 inch in early October. The 3 inches at the tail end of November was sooo welcome. Best of all it was a gentle soaking rain.

Big rain puddles make the ducks happy!

The rain is also a relief for the Southern Appalachian wildfires. Some of you have asked if they've been a threat to us. We did get a smokey haze when the wind blew from certain directions, but we haven't been under imminent danger. It's raining again today and is forecast to continue over the next several days. That will help as well.

How It's Going in the Hedgerow © Dec. 2016 

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

Trunnels

Show of hands, who knows what a trunnel is?

If you've read Eric Sloane's A Reverence for Wood or Once Upon a Time: The way America was, then you likely know that a trunnel (or treenail) is a hand-cut wooden peg once used by barn and bridge builders instead of nails. Some folks think this was because of the scarcity of iron nails back in the day, but according to Eric Sloane trunnels were preferred in large timber construction, because they allowed flexibility in joints as the weather and atmospheric conditions changed.

Trunnels: the origins of "a square peg in a round hole."
Drawing from page 36 of A Reverence for Wood.

But enough of the history lesson. With the goats set for winter and our summer-milled lumber curing nicely, Dan once again turned his attention to the upcoming project of building the Big Barn. One preliminary on his list was to experiment making and using trunnels.

The best way to learn a new skill is by doing. In this case, the doing was a small project - a barn bench. A bench is useful and would allow hands-on learning plus a starting point for analyzing problems and mistakes, and for honing the skill. The bench itself would be made from waste slabs cut from our pine logs in the milling of our barn posts and beams.

For trunnels he decided to use oak.

Oak trunnel and pine slab

It needs to be just the right size, not so big as to split the
 the slab, but not too small and be too loose in the hole.

Using a grinder to shave off the trunnel.

Rubber mallet for pounding in

Not bad, with only minor splitting of the pine slab.

This, however, is what needs to be avoided.
(Making the bench a good learning project.)

A useful bench nonetheless!

Lessons learned about trunnels:

• be more exact in size (diameter)
• taper them more

Since the slabs aren't treated, the bench needed a protective finish. I used leftover stain and finish.

Stained, finished, and ready to use.

Hay storage on the left, feed room on the right.

And there you have it.

Trunnels © December 2016 by Leigh 

at http://www.5acresandadream.com/