Extensions - Milling
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A Tree Goes to Town
Twenty-two months ago we had many trees on our property logged.  Ironbark poles were put aside for our use and we began the laborious process of milling it ourselves. We stacked the timber to air dry for six months, prior to being taken to the mill to be finished (dressed). Twenty-two months later we returned to the job. Over the last few weekends we began sorting each stack of timber onto new pallets, grading by length, cutting off split ends as we went. We had five tall piles of timber to re-stack. A long, hot and tiring job. One that necessitated ‘all hands on deck’.  A couple of piles included all the bearers and joists.  All…
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We Have Finished Milling!!
Saturday afternoon PC hooted the car horn all the way up from the bush. He was ecstatic:) the milling is finished! Bearers and joists and 1.7km of decking boards for our deck and verandah are cut. PC took the week off from work to complete the milling. Hard, tedious work, but it is finally finished. The timber will sit stacked for the next six months to dry out. All up we have six stacks of timber in the yard. Our deck is huge and the verandah alone is 20m(66ft) by 2.7m(8.85ft). On building progress; Wednesday we had a framing inspection. The building inspector was most impressed. Friday the electrician came…
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Roof Finished, Milling Decking
I’ve been rather quiet on updating progress, but we have still been working. Sarking has been nailed on, this is the sight out of my kitchen window. This weekend we were determined to finish the roof, so many ‘not quite finished’ jobs were burdensome. We, well PC and Koala finished the end of the hip roof! And they screwed down the ridge capping! Note the sarking has been done on this end of the house too, courtesy of PC and Princess. This photo doesn’t do the ridge capping justice, but it looks great! Not as great as this young lady though:) The majority of our time has been spent milling…
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Cladding & Milling
Since I last posted most of our building time has been taken up with milling, lots of milling. It is hot, hard work and takes 2 to 1.5hours to mill an ironbark log. PC and offsiders are working early in the morning before work and late in the evening after work. PC is very excited to report he has finished all his joists and only has a couple of bearers to go! Then they will start the decking. 1.5 kilomters of decking! It will certainly be easier weight though for his offsiders to manage. The timber stack is growing and growing:) And for a break PC finished installing all the…
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Taking Shape
Being a builder’s assistant doesn’t mean one can’t dress prettily. It doesn’t hinder the ability to work at all:) Due to rain progress on roofing the end section has slowed. Although we did manage to nail down the sarking and battens. (It’s currently covered with a tarp and I forgot to take photos beforehand) We took the opportunity to turn our attention to installing the rest of the windows. Big windows, letting in lots of light and air I can see I’ll be spending alot of time just looking at the view:) I believe I provided my boys with lots of amusement over my nervousness of dropping one of these…
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Milling Our Own Timber
Remember back in early December when we had our timber logged? We decided to mill some of that timber ourselves for our verandah and decking. We hired a Lucas Mill and in between extensions PC has tried his hand at milling. Precision is important, and PC is nothing if not of the school of thought of measure twice, cut once. PC and Carpenter are doing an incredible job. They are currently cutting the bearers and joists. Then they’ll change the settings to cut the decking boards. They chock the logs and then cut. Logs take roughly an hour each to mill. Beautiful red iron bark. I am totally in awe…
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Progress Made During the Week
Progress made during the week included, PC putting the antcaps on the piers. For my overseas readers as I’m suspecting this is an Australian phenomenon, The first step in protecting a house is to prevent termites from gaining access. This is achieved by placing a barrier under or around the house. Thursday the iron and guttering was delivered. Simply another pile on the lawn, awaiting. The logging truck laboured up the hill on Friday bringing the tally to 13 loads of spotted gum. This was the last load.
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Chipping Tree Tops, Filling Piers
When the snigger cut the logs he left the tree tops. Deciding to use as much of the tree as possible we hired a chipper for the weekend. All branches under 100mm were cut off. We spent the weekend cutting and feeding the chipper. The heat was pretty incredible so for a large parts of each day we couldn’t work. We succeeded in chipping nine loads, about ten cubic metres. To be honest we are not convinced is was cost effective. Still we now we have lots of piles of chips to spread on the gardens. The children think the tops are wonderful to bounce up and down, and climb…
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Logging Our Timber
At the time of lodging our DA application we also lodged an application for approval to harvest timber on our property. The week extensions began our application for logging our timber was approved and the sniggers arrived. The roar of this huge machinery and the sound of chainsaws have been heard for the last couple of weeks. To be truthful so much has been happening all at once there have been days we have felt as if our heads were spinning. First we had to order a couple of loads of rock in to lay over the creek crossing, this was vital for…
