Building a Lumber Storage Shed at Pellow's Camp

[Frank Pellow]

(part 1 of 6)

In September, I made a good start on yet another building at Pellow?s camp.  If you count the two  backhouses/latrines/outhouses, there are five buildings currently on the island, so this will be the sixth.
Here are some small photos of the existing buildings:

Chez Billy: [attachimg=#1]
 
La Becosse:  [attachimg=#2]

The Shed:  [attachimg=#3]  

Saunamokki: [attachimg=#4]

The Cabin: [attachimg=#5]

I built 'The Shed' in 1991 in order to reduce the clutter in the main cabin, but now there is a lot of clutter in The Shed.  For the most part, the clutter in The Shed is lumber that I am saving to use someday.  The Shed is supposed to serve as both a bunkie and a woodworking shed and all the lumber is getting in the way of both these functions.

I also have a lot of lumber stored outside under a tarp and cluttering up the place.

The obvious answer is a new shed whose main purpose will be to store lumber.

 

[Frank Pellow]

(part 2 of 6)

The first step was to clear a large enough space in the bush.  Next, I had to cut down a big poplar that the beavers had started upon over the winter:
[attachimg=#1]

because, if they came back to complete the job, it would have fallen exactly on the site of the new shed:

I tied a rope high up the tree:
[attachimg=#2]
 
Then, while I sawed it down, my brother John persuaded the tree to fall where we wanted it:
[attachimg=#3]
 
The tree ended up falling exactly where we intended it to.
   
Less than an hour from the time we started to take down the tree, the bulk of the wood from it was sawn and piled:
[attachimg=#4]

 

[Frank Pellow]

(part 3 of 6)

[attachimg=#1]

Next, I staked out the woodshed site:
[attachimg=#2]
 
And I dug the 6 post holes that are needed.  The posthole digging tools are primitive, but effective:
[attachimg=#3]
 
Due to the fact that there were fewer roots than expected and that the clay was fairly moist, I dug the holes in much less time than expected -
about 2 hours.  All the holes are down to bedrock.

 

[Frank Pellow]

(part 4 of 6)

Here is a series of photos taken from the about same spot as the work progressed over the week:

[attachimg=#1]

[attachimg=#2]

[attachimg=#3]

[attachimg=#4]

 

[Frank Pellow]

(part 5 of 6)

[attachimg=#1]

[attachimg=#2]

[attachimg=#3]

If you look really closely you can spot at least one Festool tool in at least one of the above pictures.  [smile]

I plan the make the majority of the front wall out of removable panels.  The panels will be made from some of the stage prop frames that I constructed earlier in the summer for a play that we put on during the Hearst Public School Reunion.  Here is a picture simulating the view from the lumber shed once the panels have been removed:
[attachimg=#4]

The rest of the building will be standard stick frame walls, board and batten siding, and a shed roof slanted away from the front opening.  There will be a small door at one end and a couple of windows placed somewhere where (I hope) lumber will not be stored.

 

[Frank Pellow]

(part 6 of 6)

I didn't spend the whole week working.  For instance, John and I worked our way over several beaver dams into a nearby lake with no cabins and good fishing.

[attachimg=#1]  
[attachimg=#2]  

Thread to be continued next spring when I get back to the job. ...

 

[greg mann]

Another excellent presentation from Frank, eh? Few of us ever do them so well and nobody does them better. [thumbs up] I am impressed with everything except the remark about getting the post holes to bedrock. If I know my geology, it is never very far to bedrock in that neck of the woods. :

 

[Frank Pellow]

Thanks Greg. [thanks]

You are certainly correct about the nearness to bedrock.  Pellow's Island is essentially a chunk of granite sticking out of the surrounding water and with a bit of soil in places that has collected over the years since the last ice age (about 10,000 years).    The deepest hole I dug was just over a metre and shallowest was only about 40 centimetres.

 

[johnsonri]

Nice presentation there Frank. I will certainly look forward to your next installment.

Rey

 

[Shawn]

Nice Island, and I really like the design of the shed with the roof/windows... seems like good fishing up there too.

Shawn

 

[Neill]

Frank,

Just picked up on this thread.  Nice carpentry and photography.  Beautiful scenery.  How fortunate you are.  Sometime over the winter when you have the time you need to tell us the story of how this all came to be.

Neill

 

[Frank Pellow]

Nice Island, and I really like the design of the shed with the roof/windows... seems like good fishing up there too.

Shawn

Thanks Shawn,  I built the shed in 1991 and it has worked very well.  As well as the bank of windows, there are two skylights.  Furthermore, the ceiling and walls are painted white.  This gives me lots of light even on the darkest days -which is just as well, since there are no electric lights in the place.  Also, this maximizes the amount of wall space without windows.

And, yes, the fishing is good  [smile]  -but not nearly as good as it was 60 years ago  [sad]

 

[Frank Pellow]

Frank,

Just picked up on this thread.  Nice carpentry and photography.  Beautiful scenery.  How fortunate you are.  Sometime over the winter when you have the time you need to tell us the story of how this all came to be.

Neill

Thanks Neil.  The short story about how it came to be is that my Dad bought the island (about 2 acres) in the 1920s.  He and many friends built a big cabin on the island in the 1930s.  The island is on a chain of lakes (about 40 kilometres without any portage) about 15 kilometres north of Hearst Ontario.  Dad owned a hardware store in Hearst and we lioved over the store about 7 months of the year.  The other 5 months, we lived on the island.  The original cabin burned down in 1961.  I built a (smaller) replacement in 1975.

The place was and remains my real home.

 

[Neill]

Frank,

Thanks for taking the time to give us a brief history of your beautiful home.  As I said before, how fortunate you are.

Neill

 

[jakiiski]

Saunamokki: [attachimg=#4]

The name of this cabin reveals that you have Finnish heritage somehow, do you happen to know? Saunam?kki is definitely a 100% Finnish word...  Your last name just does not have the direct Finnish link.

 

[Frank Pellow]

Saunamokki: [attachimg=#4]

The name of this cabin reveals that you have Finnish heritage somehow, do you happen to know? Saunam?kki is definitely a 100% Finnish word...  Your last name just does not have the direct Finnish link.

Well spotted!

[attachimg=#1]

I have no Finnish ancestors, but I do have some ancestors from Norway a long way back.

What I do have is lots and friends in Canada who originally came from Finland and a few friends who still live in Finland.  Many many people came to Northern Ontario from Finland in the period between the two world wars.  When I was growing up in Hearst Ontario at least 10% of the families had come from Finland.  The Finnish culture was very strong and plays, movies, and meetings were often conducted in Finnish.  We did not have running water in our apartment, so twice a week my Dad took my brother and I to a nearby communal sauna.  The influence was particularly strong on the lake where our island is.  About half the camps were owned by Finnish families and every one had a sauna (wood burning, of course).

I have only visited Finland briefly but, when I did, I felt very welcome and at home (even though I cannot speak the language).

 

[Frank Pellow]

(part 1 of 2)

A couple of weeks ago, I got back to this project and after 2 full days and 4 half days of work, the framing has been completed.  

Here is a series of photos, the first taken before starting work and then one taken at the end of each of the six days:

Before:
[attachimg=#1]

After Day 1:
[attachimg=#2]

After Day 2:
[attachimg=#3]

After Day 3:
[attachimg=#4]

After Day 4:
[attachimg=#5]

After Day 5:
[attachimg=#6]

After Day 6:
[attachimg=#7]

Getting the material from the Co-Op in Hearst to the island is always quite a task.  It requires 3 steps; (1) loading my trailer (2) transfering the material from the trailer to my boat (3) transfering the material from my boat (then up a steep hill)  to the job site.

The trip from Hearst to the lake is about 12 kilometres over a little traveled gravel raod.  Because the raod is so little traveled, it is safe to really load up the trailer and crawl along at about 40 kilometres an hour:

[attachimg=#8]

My boat is quite a workhorse and is able to safely carry more material than my trailer:

[attachimg=#9]

 

[Frank Pellow]

(part 2 of 2)

The first task was to make a beam between the two front posts.  The beam is made by lamenating two 16 foot long 2x10 pressure treated spruce boards.  Because I am working by my self, this requires several small careful steps.

Here I have hoisted on of the boards into place and am drilling a pilot hole before spiking it into the post:

[attachimg=#1]

Here is the second 2x10 that is going to make up the beam being raised into place in one of several slow careful stages:

[attachimg=#2]

Once this was in place, I hammered it together with the first 2x10:

[attachimg=#9]

I work differently up here than when doing construction with readily available electricity.  For instance, it was faster to cut this 4x4 by hand than to go and get a power saw, connect it to my generator, start the generator, then turn it off when the sawing task was completed:

[attachimg=#10]

The photo below shows the frame for the north wall being assembled.  

[attachimg=#4]

I anticipate that the front panels of the shed (more on this below) will usually be off, so there will not be much need for windows.  But, sometimes the panels will be in place, so I am going to install small windows near the top of the north and south walls.  There are two very old windows that Chum Trowsse gave me about 15 years ago that will do the job nicely.  The windows are at least 50 years old and have not been treated well but, after sanding off the surface dirt, cracked paint and a bit of rot,

[attachimg=#5]

I found the underlying wood to be sound.  I will need to re-putty the glass.

It was a beautiful day and, after sanding, I decided that I wanted to enjoy the sound of nature rather than the sound of a generator and power tools, so I cut all the remaining 2x4s for the wall frames using a miter box and a hand saw:

[attachimg=#6]

The work on the rafters is more complex than the simple framing of the walls, so I resorted to the use of power tools and the noisy generator.  To make things worse the weather turned cold (high of 15 Celcius) and wet.  With the cold and wet, I wasn`t spoiling the tranquility.

Here, I am cutting bird`s mouths in the rafters with my jig saw:

[attachimg=#7]

I found it easier to cut a bevel on the edge of a couple of 16 foot long 2x6s by simply following a line with my Festool track saw, rather than setting up and supporting the saw on a rail:

[attachimg=#3]

By this time I was having problems with my Festool circular saw stalling frequently.  I moved my cutting close to the generator rather than using extension cord thinking that that might be the problem.   In the end, that proved not to be the problem (see the thread: http://festoolownersgroup.com/festool-how-to/questions-about-the-brushes-on-my-ts-75-circular-saw/ ) but, with several interuptions, I was able to gett everything cut with the saw that I needed to

On the front of the shed, I am placing three 4 foot by 8 foot removeable panels.  The frames for these panels are left over from the stage props that I made for a play they a number of friends and I put on in Hearst last summer.  I made all the props for a stage setting that was supposed to be our old grade 5-6 classroom:

[attachimg=11]    [attachimg=#12]    

Here one of the frames is being augmented with a 2x4 before nailing a number of 1x6 vertical siding boards to it:

[attachimg=#8]    

 

[Mac]

As always Frank, I'm really looking forward to the next installment of this.  Your island is beautiful, and you clearly respect it with the way you treat your work, and the buildings.

Thanks for the efforts you make on documenting your projects.
Rick

 

[Alaska Ranger]

Frank -

More storage space never is enough....but it's great building it anyway!

I'm really perplexed at the butt angle of the tops of your roof trusses (pic with caption "After Day 6").  To me, you have cut them opposite to the angle I would have chosen to attach a headerf ???????????