Finishing the south deck

On Sunday, June 28th, we finished the south deck—thereby keeping with our plan to have it done before the end of April …
We enclosed the rest of the west side, redid the corner post on the east, installed and sanded the railings. The house proportions look better now. Next will be railings for the east deck. The corn is getting higher.

Our timber framer

Since he is Amish, you will not find any website or e-mail address for our timber framer. So I thought I would put in my own plug. We learned about Aaron King through a friend who’d had Aaron build him a timber frame barn which later became a home. I looked into several different timber framers before visiting Aaron at his shop in the spring of 2007. I was not only impressed with his shop, which was orderly, clean and run using either pneumatic or hydraulic-powered tools, but by Aaron’s understanding of what I had in mind and his ability to explain ways to improve the design and gain savings in the process. I made three visits to his shop that spring, each time taking Aaron a new set of drawings. In the end, we had a plan that both of us were happy with.
His craftmanship, precision and sense of the wood were superb. No matter how much the ideas for our house were Linda’s and mine, it was Aaron’s ability to translate those ideas into finished timber art that really make our house special.

Aaron K. King, LLC does not have a phone, but he can be reached at his shop’s address: 21 West Eby Road, Leola, PA 17540.
You can also reach him by calling the number for the phone that lives outside his shop in its own little booth. If no one answers, leave a message. (717) 656-8253.

A special note on terms: Many people see our house and say, “Oh, you have post-and-beam construction.” Well, yes and no. While technically a timber frame structure is a type of post-and-beam, that term is generally used for structures in which the timbers are held together with steel sleeves and/or bolts—such as I used to make our deck. In “timber frame” everything is pegged together with wood dowels, in this case, oak.
Timber framing yields a structure that is all of the same material (wood). This results in tighter joints with less chance of wear from the harder steel flexing against wood. Generally builders consider timber frame buildings to be more durable, stronger and better-looking, although either methods can work well. That is why we went with timber framing. It was also a construction method we had both grown up with and admired.

All the pictures were taken either by Linda and myself using a Nikon Coolpix 995, a D70 or a Nikon SP equipped with an F-mount 21mm nikkor.

The South Deck: continued

The deck on the south side of the house continues to "mature" as we get time on weekends to work on it. As you look at these pictures, watch the corn grow from weekend to weekend.
The second weekend in June we had good weather and managed to lay down the deck boards and get the east-side railing in place.
Last weekend, despite miserable, rainy weather, we got in the south and west railings and the last two deck boards. The posts are held with half-inch carriage bolts and everything is screwed together. We made the railing quite high for more security. Another weekend or so, and it may be done. Then we have to work on kitchen counters and the railings for the east-side porch.
Kent Kjellgren, an Energy Star examiner, came by to finish our energy audit, including the blower test. The equipment pulls air into the house under sealed winter conditions, measures the resistance and this, in turn, indicates how much leakage the house has. He had a frustrating time because the house is so tight that he had a hard time getting a reading. We have around 205 CFM, which is almost no leaks at all.

Start of a deck

On May 3oth, we started to build the long-delayed south deck. This is a must-do. We need the deck done before we can add either a hot-water system or photovoltaic panels. Saturday was brute work. We dug four post holes by hand, set in six-six's and concreted them in place. They are solid.
Sunday we bolted on the cross members, then installed joists. As the afternoon sun moved into shadow. we screwed down the first two deck boards. Lots of cutting and shaping are yet to come.

Linda took all these pictures, but she did half the work too.

Spring comes to the farm.

Temperatures in the eighties followed by weeks of rain do not build pleasant memories of spring. But May brings it own rewards. Our dogwoods begin blooming, each bringing the promise of new life.


On May 9th, Our farmer arrives and proceeds to plant our field in corn. The field is larger than it appears and using a GPS mapper, it takes him over an hour to cut in liquid fertilizer and corn seeds with a twelve-row planter. No plowing, no disking. The planter-cum-tractor combination is huge, but appears small across the evening-lit field. It offers precision and economy as he puts in only as much as he needs. We pay for this technology whenever we buy food, and as we watch oil prices start up again.

The Watchers: Part Six.

A continuation of The Watchers. Copyright, Michael Wescott Loder 2009.

First Day, and all breeched and cloaked children as yet unmarried must be in school. Week-in and week-out, summer or winter, that was truth. It mattered not that Beriana shared a private tutor with her sisters and only brother four days a week. On First Day, she must be in the town school from sunup until sundown—a long day for anyone at high summer. Louisa-Bin might still have to suffer on a backless bench, holding tablets and codexes in her hands, but Beriana got an individual seat with a work surface in front. This added little to her comfort, for the seat’s smooth flatness meant that the slightest leaning back would promise a quick slide to the floor. All the students sat up straight and kept their feet firmly on the frayed rugs under their sandals.
“Beriana, did you hear about the hotel fire,” her neighbor whispered.
“Yes. We could see the smoke from the house.”
“We could hear the sirens up on the hill. How many died? What number have you heard?” Another girl added.
Beriana shrugged. “I heard over thirty, but …”
“Class, attention to the front—now! Beriana Krinklesdau,” Madam Teacher glared her. “What answer do you have to the fifth problem?”
“Arrival time of twelve and one quarter turns, plus or minus one tick-tock,” Beriana answered.
“Ah… That is correct. Thank you. Class, please now turn to the second set of problems that are on your screens.”
Beriana ignored the awed stares coming from her classmates and began tapping her way through the new set of problems starting to display themselves on her computablet. She had solved seven out of the eight when her eyes briefly widened. “Ah-oh’” she breathed. “Madam Teacher, please. I need a moment in the hall room?”
Madam Teacher frowned and looked at Beriana. “Yes, you may go.” She nodded to the floor guard.
Beriana stood, curtsied and left the room. The floor guard straightened and followed her out. A half tick-tock later, safely hidden from the attendent’s view in the farthest stall, Beriana opened her right hand and slowly flexed it six times, then laid the palm against her ear. For a several moments she stood still, listening, eyes closed, mind concentrated. Then she shifted her hand away, took a slightly longer breath and rubbed her right palm with her left before flushing the toilet. She remembered to give the guard a nod and smile on her way back to the classroom, even if her deeper thoughts were far away.

What do we do for fun at the Lodge?

People sometimes ask, and we know that they think: What can you do in a house with no electricity yet and no entertainment electronics?
Well, our neighbors keep us entertained part of the time. Saturday morning four of them came calling. Although the hen beaked at the door for a long time, when we went to open, she changed her mind. As for her tom? He apparently only cared about the impression he was making on the other turkeys, including the one that looked like him in the glass.
Yes, I was using the 50-year-old 250mm Nikkor.