Milling the first log and more rocks!

For those of you anxiously awaiting the results of our first foray into milling the logs we brought back from Colorado, the wait is over.  This morning Jeremy went over to Tim O'Brien's and milled the first log and part of another one before a mechanical issue with the mill brought the work to an early end.  Here's kinda how it went:

Drag the log over to the mill

Roll the log up onto the mill bed for the first cut

Carefully square each side to make a rectagular cant

Mill the boards

Here is what came out of the first log

In all, the first log made two 4x6x10's, 3 - 2x6's(flooring), 2 - 2x4's, 1 - 1x8 and several quarter rounds for siding and a couple of slabs that will be trimmed to boards later.  The wood was beautiful - grade A all the way - and the boards are now stacked neatly in the greenhouse to cure until we get to start the joinery for the timber frame.

Also this weekend, we made 2 more trips to get rocks.  We were very fortunate to have help again from the Diliberto's.  With Daniel's help, we were able to load and unload this massive stone:

We estimate it weighed close to 300 lbs.  We aren't quite sure what we're going to do with it yet, but it will have to be cool to justify the effort that went into moving it! 

So far, we've moved somewhere around 12 tons of rock.  We estimate that we'll need about 12 more to do the foundation and stem wall for the next structure so we'll be moving rock for a while yet.  In case you're wondering what 12 tons of rock looks like, here's an idea:

This is actually from before we unloaded the last load on Sunday, so the pile is currently 4 tons larger than shown here.

To top off our last few days of productivity, I went out after work and planted the last 2 fruit trees.  Now that they are all in the ground, we can skip an occasional day to work on things off the farm.  Woot!