Sidinng

After we completed cutting up the two cedars for decking, there were a bunch of slabs of cedar left over. The way you get started making decking is to carefully level and nail some boards to the log to use as a guide for your mill.. After you have made your first cut, you discard the guide bards and first cut.
A couple of the leftovers were fairly thick, so I decided to make them into benches, which requires you to strip the bark off of them. I set aside two hunks for benches, which left me with a bunch of scrap. Some of it I cut up inn to small pieces to use as spacers to put in between the boards as they dry.
That still left several boards flat on one side, round on the other, and very pretty. I couldn't decide what to do with them.
Then I thought about the wood shed.
The wood shed is nothing fancy. Some 4 X 4 structure, a sound roof, and a few boards. Not very attractive, but passable and functional. But what if I took the left over boards and stripped off the bark and nailed them to the outside of the shed? It would lend the wood shed the appearance of a log building!
So I went and ordered a draw knife to strip the bark off of the boards, and started nailing them to the front of the shed. As I got into it, I did not like the way the shed was put together, so I tore a bunch of it apart, went to town and got some 4 X 4s and beefed up the structure.
It's looking pretty good so far. I'm just afraid I will run out of material to cover the front.
Gotta do some measuring and figuring.
Who knows, I might have to cut down another tree.

Decking

There is a small deck attached to the front of the house. It is about six by 12 feet, made from Trex, which is recycled plastic. I hate it
There is not one single thing about it that is attractive. No handrails, no fancy wood, no furniture.
I had decided to replace it.
Since I have three and a half acres of trees, I thought it would be a nice touch to make it out of lumber cut from trees on the property.
We have a lot of Cedar, which is a very attractive wood, So I bought an Alaska Mill so I could make my own decking.
I decided I wanted the new deck to be 16 feet wide, so Kieth and I cut down a couple of nice medium sized cedars. The Alaska Mill Will accept a tree up to 19" so that was my criteria for choosing trees.
The deck is going to be gorgeous. The boards are 12 to 19 inches by two inches by sixteen feet long.
We have cut all the boards now. Some mighty fine looking boards they are. too.
Next we have to drag them out of the woods and stack them under cover to dry.
Where can you get cedar boards 19 inches wide by two inches thick by 16 feet long? Pretty much no where but at my place. It will make an incredible deck when it is done.
I still have to work out the details for the deck, but the lumber needs too dry for a year, so I'll have plenty of time to figure it out.
All the waste from the project will be turned into kindling.
Nothing wasted.
There are several 10 inch diameter fir trees that would make excellent structural supports

Lemonade

The old saying goes "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade".
Good advice, even when they are not your lemons.
Lisa and Kieth recently departed on an adventure. They moved from here to Hawaii. Keith has some property there, a brother living there, and had a job lined up remodeling some property and starting up a B & B. Sounds idyllic neh?
Except it wasn't. The job didn't work out the way it was supposed to, and they ended up stuck in Hawaii with no money and no place to live.
Not my lemons.
Except that they called here to ask for a loan. I am not inclined to loan people money, especially family. I have seen too many times it has come back to bite people in the ass. Carol was disinclined to loan them the money, and I don't blame her. No many things can go wrong.
So I came up with a win/win scenario.
Our rook appears to be the original roof that was on the house when new. It's looking pretty raggedy, and has a bunch of moss on it. The eves are dripping. We have been talking about putting a new roof on. Kieth is a contractor, and roofing is well within his skill set.
I payed for them the plane tickets home, I buy the materials, and Kieth installs my new roof in exchange for the tickets.
Everybody wins.