Last of Cobbing for the season
Work this summer is continuing into fall with work on the roof. But the end of summer is always bittersweet... while it's so good to look back on the all good company and what was accomplished, it's difficult to see it coming to an end until next summer. I've applied for a sabbatical from teaching next year so we may see completion of the building with floor, plaster, curtain drain and windows put it.
Fall 2015
Early August, everyone who had come to work for the summer was gone and my faithful girl, Sweetie, seen above in the timber storage shelter, got very old and sick very fast. August third I put her down and school started (I teach if you haven't read elsewhere). But late August, my friend Kate came to help one weekend. I got the south walls a couple of feet higher which was important to support the posts that are in place to go under the roof girders.
ROOF!!!
Knowing it was important to get the roof on before another winter and though I had designed it to the best of my ability with timbers, the timbers I harvested on site years ago were no longer viable and timber work is beyond my solo capabilities. So I racked my brain and eventually contacted Niko Wolff at Colorado Cob Company and he agreed to contract the job. What a good idea that was! Niko is great!
Though we considered an alternative idea to use milled wood for the rafters (see previous page/drawing), we still needed two timber girders because I didn't like the laminated milled wood very expensive alternative (plus delivery!).
You'll see we went with timber because Niko located logs salvaged from the Black Forrest fire in Colorado, which were delivered mid September. He helped select and arranged for delivery. I figured out where to put them, moved fence posts, cleared dead oak and provided ramps for unloading that they eventually found useful.
Since then, we've been up there for two weekends. Mike Payton, Kate Jobgen and Tim Braher have come to help with and without pay, but all bringing great company, skills and cheer.
Of note, logs located uphill from the site, but in a meadow normally not driven on. Had to clear brush for the trailer to back into donwhill. Ramps I salvaged the day before from a burn pile in my neighborhood in town. See? What you need comes just when you need it.
1) Log delivery
Though we considered an alternative idea to use milled wood for the rafters (see previous page/drawing), we still needed two timber girders because I didn't like the laminated milled wood very expensive alternative (plus delivery!).
You'll see we went with timber because Niko located logs salvaged from the Black Forrest fire in Colorado, which were delivered mid September. He helped select and arranged for delivery. I figured out where to put them, moved fence posts, cleared dead oak and provided ramps for unloading that they eventually found useful.
Since then, we've been up there for two weekends. Mike Payton, Kate Jobgen and Tim Braher have come to help with and without pay, but all bringing great company, skills and cheer.
Of note, logs located uphill from the site, but in a meadow normally not driven on. Had to clear brush for the trailer to back into donwhill. Ramps I salvaged the day before from a burn pile in my neighborhood in town. See? What you need comes just when you need it.
1) Log delivery
2) Bringing girders down and lifting them onto posts. True to good cobber's karma, the height of the cob walls were perfect for the monkeys to climb on.
|
|
I had gone up earlier in September and poured a concrete pad for a timber to support the middle girder. Here Niko and Mike are placing a timber on the pad.
|
|
As beautiful as the image (and subsequent painting) of the timber setting, I was unhappy with cracks I saw in it after it was set and requested it be replaced, to which Niko agreed.
|
3) Peeling rafters with antique drawknives.
Two oil paintings I did fall semester in long demos for my students in Painting II & III class.
|
|
4) Kate notching rafters with hatchet and mallet after they had been cut down vertically in a saddle shape (after they lifted them into place and marked them!)
5) Rafters up!!!!
|
Would never let anyone do this, but Mike is a slackliner (par excellence) and a good new friend.
|
Roof completed, cob walls uncovered and re-wrapped to protect the walls over winter
October 17: Niko arrives around 11 p.m. with long roofing metal on his van. His buddy Matt (culinary editor for the Indy in the Spgs.) comes Sat. a.m. as do I (after visit night before with newborn faerie Kira).
Saturday, they get a
• water/ice barrier,
• all the tin on
• fascia & flashing on
. . . working two hours into the night with headlamps.
While they roof, I unwrap all the catywompus tarps of the summer, photograph the building & wrap it up with one long 20 yard roll of outdoor cloth, so very worth the ease of use and peace of mind protecting those walls until they get stuccoed. Matt has to head home. Niko has a great camper & my trailer is very habitable.
Sunday October 18: Niko puts in angle braces on the posts. while I make a little porch to protect the double cherry doors.
I use those boards/timber ramps with that one extra sheet of plywood.
Niko helps me lift the plywood. I am 63 now, and these guys have all been so awesome helping carry some things. Yes, I still carry smallish logs, stones, buckets of water. But a big heavy bag of tools to my car? Thanks so much, I really appreciate that bit of help.
Per my request Niko also stacks all beautiful viable logs and covers them with tin salvaged from Linda & John's re-roofing in Minturn in September. The last thing I do at twilight is tie a rope around the tin and log bundle both ends and put one non-viable broken log on top. It was impossible to keep tarps on logs stacked here before, but I think this tin will work.
Saturday, they get a
• water/ice barrier,
• all the tin on
• fascia & flashing on
. . . working two hours into the night with headlamps.
While they roof, I unwrap all the catywompus tarps of the summer, photograph the building & wrap it up with one long 20 yard roll of outdoor cloth, so very worth the ease of use and peace of mind protecting those walls until they get stuccoed. Matt has to head home. Niko has a great camper & my trailer is very habitable.
Sunday October 18: Niko puts in angle braces on the posts. while I make a little porch to protect the double cherry doors.
I use those boards/timber ramps with that one extra sheet of plywood.
Niko helps me lift the plywood. I am 63 now, and these guys have all been so awesome helping carry some things. Yes, I still carry smallish logs, stones, buckets of water. But a big heavy bag of tools to my car? Thanks so much, I really appreciate that bit of help.
Per my request Niko also stacks all beautiful viable logs and covers them with tin salvaged from Linda & John's re-roofing in Minturn in September. The last thing I do at twilight is tie a rope around the tin and log bundle both ends and put one non-viable broken log on top. It was impossible to keep tarps on logs stacked here before, but I think this tin will work.
BELOW: The post I have my arms around is temporary as is the other one on the outside.
A porch will wrap around the side of the building on the right (post with bucket is porch post embeeded in the lizard bench located to sit in afternoon winter sun).
The only change from my original design is the square corner of the roof above be. It was supposed to be round. But under the flashing on the edge of the roof is a 2x6 board, and it was easier for now for them to go with the straight milled wood. Maybe I'll do a segment of bentwood for the corner. Niko said he could change it eventually.
Haven't had a weekend since I don't know when, but very happy with what we accomplished and very grateful to Niko Wolff from Colorado Cob Company who took on the roof project. Thank you, Niko!!!!
