Family and Oaks

We went to northern Arkansas to visit my grandmother for Labor Day.  We enjoyed time with lots of extended family, wonderful food (thanks for smoking the meats, Jeremy!) and some fun games.  We also managed to collect a few more pieces of the cottage. 

Before we left on Sunday, we went down to the family farm to get an oak log for the cottage.  Hardwoods serve an important purpose in a timber frame because of their durability and strength.  This is particularly important for the corner braces in the frame that must resist the sideways force of the wind and for the pegs that must hold every joint solidly.  We are very fortunate that the family farm (owned and farmed by my uncle, Dwayne) has many good sized oaks of several varieties.  We are also fortunate that Dwayne didn’t mind us harvesting one for our braces and pegs.

The adventure started easily enough.  Jeremy, my cousin David and his wife Angie, and I followed Dwayne and my aunt Janelle back into one of their fields where we found a tree that would work well.  It was a post oak and we were able to bring home 2 logs from it that should make all of our braces and pegs for the cottage.  While we were there, we identified several large cedar trees in the adjacent field that are large enough for us to cut our sill timbers out of them.  Cedar sills are ideal because the wood will resist any moisture that may come up through the foundation stem wall.  The trees in question are in the middle of the field and Dwayne would like to have them removed.  That works out well for everyone.  Unfortunately, we didn’t have enough time or energy to cut them on this trip.  That will have to wait for the next time we’re in town. 

Here's the tree as we found it

Timber!!

 

After limbing the trunk, we drug it out of the brush

Thank goodness for tractors to move logs...

A few fine adjustments later and...

we were ready to strap the load down for the trip home!