For the record, our house frame is made up of 146 pieces of wood. Last weekend #106 was finished. Most of the pieces left have very simple or fewer joints to cut, so they are going faster. On a good day, Dennis has gotten 2 rafters cut, sanded and varnished twice.
It seems the main rule of this project is that when you think you are making good progress, something comes up to change that. This week we've had...well, not a delay...a change of pace. We stopped counting members cut, and turned to making beams. The bed on the sawmill needed to be lengthened to cut up the 4 tree trunks we got with the second shipment of wood. In our part of the world, trees don't get this big. Where this came from, the mill we dealt with didn't have the ability to cut something this big.
Cutting the first beam turned into a 2-day project. It was early evening yesterday before the modifications were done and a log was loaded onto the bed. Dennis put the last of the blades onto the mill, knowing that he'd seen a crack in the blade when he picked it up from sharpening and he'd ordered more. At the end of the second cut, the blade snapped, putting an end to the workday. Today's workday started with a trip to pick up the 3 new blades. A neighbor stopped by (thanks Peter!) to see the mill at work and watch the progress. He's handy with a tractor bale fork too, so things went well today. Before Dennis had to go back to his "real job, the one that pays", they'd found a nice 10x12"x31' beam in the smallest log.
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