And the Walls Came Tumbling Down

It's been a busy weekend, with family in to help with two big projects: tearing down the log cabin and making cider. Both got done. Here are some picks of the cabin project:

Step one: using ropes and manpower, the guys lowered the logs from the second floor.

Oh, and poles to slide the logs down on. Here the guys are getting ready to slide the second log down the poles, with Derek holding onto the rope to control the speed at which the logs slid down. You can see the notches for the roof rafters in this log.

Hard at work preparing the next log to be sent down the poles.

This log was heavy so Derek went up top to help while the younger crew held on to the rope. Believe it or not, this method worked very well.

While we waited for the truck to come and move logs out of the way, the kids got busy tearing up the floor of the old kitchen--all that was left of the kitchen, actually. Haley swings the axe to break boards loose. They also picked up two huge bags of trash from the area, with the help of Amy and me. We need this area cleared so we can move the chimney later on.

This gives you some idea of the overall condition of the cabin. It's rough, no doubt about it, and as we worked it became so shaky to go inside that we opted instead to pull the remainder of the cabin down with Burt (the Big Ugly Red Truck).

You can't really see the rope and chain that are hooked to the cabin and pulling it into that bowed shape, but...

...it worked!

The kids were instantly climbing up, just to see whatever there was to be seen. Not much, really.

Then everyone pitched in until the mess was almost totally cleaned up. Here Derek and George discuss which logs to move next as Diane and Amy work on cleaning up the remainder of the flooring. We still have a good bit of cleanup to do but we got much more work done Saturday than I ever expected. It was a totally good day all around and the weather was perfect.

The logs arrived home courtesy of Tim's big truck. What a good friend! He and his wife Diane worked right along with us to get this big job done.

Now the next part--finding the money to build the foundation and put down the floor so we can start stacking logs up again. There were quite a few in poor condition, so figuring out how to use what we have to build a room on the house will be a jigsaw puzzle, but we think we have enough good logs to get it done.

There are more photos to share and I will try to get to them tomorrow. For now, night-night! This ol' granny is right tired!