Deck Rail Building Completed - June 22, 2012

All the deck railing has been installed. Staining will be the final process in a month or so. Now I will begin on the garage. I have scheduled time with my cousin to transport the lift to our property. On Monday I will pick up the rest of the materials needed to begin laying the sill plates and the sill logs. It's time to break out the big chainsaw to split the sill log in half.

Railing Progress - June 21, 2012

    This morning I peeled the remaining four rails that I cut last night. I also peeled and stained the last 46 spindles. Once they were dry, I assembled and installed the 13th section of railing. Tomorrow I will complete the last two sections, then I'll start on the garage.

    I'll have to put together a list of what I need to get. I'll need about 110 feet of treated 2 X 8s for the sill plate. The wall logs will rest on them. I'll need more sill seal to go between the sill plate and the 2 foot cement wall. I'll need treaded rod, connector nuts and sill plate washers to bolt down the first round of logs.

    Splitting the first log in half and getting the first round of logs on the wall will be time consuming, then the job should go much faster. Before I know it I'll be back in the mountains cutting more logs!

Railing Progress - June 20. 2012

    On Wednesday I finished the 12th section of railing. I ran out of peeled and stained spindles, and I still needed four rails to finish the last two sections. I decided it was time to head for the mountains and get the rest of the rails. I decided I needed to be more critical when I chose the trees to cut down. One rail was so crooked (I had already peeled it) that I tossed it aside. When I was picking the trees to cut this time, I was just about laying on the ground looking up the trunk to see how straight they were. This worked great. I cut 6 trees and cut them into 10 foot lengths so I came out with 12 good straight rails. I have enough for the loft. Coming out of the mountains was very interesting!

     I saw four bull elk crossing the road in front of me before I had even traveled three quarters of a mile. (It is eight miles of dirt road to get back out) About two miles later I spotted the bull elk in the picture below. He watched me as I sat watching him for a couple of minutes, then he took off up the side of the road. There was another bull with him. About a mile and a half before I hit the tar road again, three cow elk crossed the road in front of me. The ride was better than going through Yellowstone park!!!!

Railing Progress - June 19, 2012

    I finished 4 more railing sections. I have enough material to finish 4 more tomorrow, then it's off to the mountains on Thursday. When I walked off the porch this morning there was an antelope about 75 yards north of the house. She just looked at me as I walked to the basement. There was a lot of wind today. I think summer is actually on the way soon!

Railing Progress - June 18, 2012

 
    Today I finished four more sections of railing. I made a few mistakes but overall it went much better than I expected. I am going to try getting all the railing installed this week. That will include a trip into the mountains to get the last three rails, and to Helena to get the last spindles.

    I just returned the weed sprayer to my neighbor, David, and he informed me we are supposed to get snow tonight. If we do, I will post a snow picture tomorrow.

Peeling and Staining Spindles. June 13, 2012

    Between yesterday and today I peeled and stained 168 spindles. (There are 92 completed spindles lined up on the logs in the picture) With the 45 I completed earlier, I'll need at least another 41 to complete the deck railing. The 2 X 4's mounted on a piece of OSB you see in front of the spindles is a rack I built to hold the spindles while I peeled them. The ground underneath the rack looks like a big bird's nest with all the wood shavings spread around my work area.

    I had to go into Butte today to get weed spray. The weeds are in bloom around the building site and on the side of the driveway. If I don't spray them soon, I will have a bumper crop next year!

    Tomorrow I plan to spray the weeds first thing in the morning if the wind is not to strong, then I will begin building more railing sections and mounting them to the deck.

First Deck Rail Section Installed. June 11th, 2012

Today I started building the first section of deck rail. I built a template out of a 2X4 so the spindle holes would all be drilled on the same plane and evenly spaced. I hand peeled and stained about 45 spindles today. (Only 220 to go!) The first section took 16. I stained the bottom and about a foot up on all 30 posts.

Here is the first completed rail section. I drilled two 3/8" holes on each post, and using an electric impact wrench installed 4 - 3/8" X 8" lag bolts with fender washers. They are installed towards the outside of the rail. Tomorrow I will hand peel and stain the rest of the spindles. I had planned to build the sections on the garage slab. The first one was completed on the deck and it seems to be the best way to do it. I will finish staining the rest of the posts and the rails once all the sections are in place.