Sure is quiet in here....do I need to start a fight?

[Cantdog]

I will eventually but they last better standing than if I cut and stack and cover them. They grew so close they can’t fall down. Now the camp has new windows, is insulated and I have a decent stove, I just don’t use any where near as much wood as before. Used to be... if you were here this tyme of year and you let the fire go out you were busy instantly getting it fired up again!!!! Now it’s,.... meh..... been letting the fire go out 7-8 o’clock in the evening... not filling or banking it for the night.... just stop putting wood in it and when I get up around 6:30 camp is still 70 or so.... think the coldest I’ve seen in the morning has been 62 and it was in the teens outside and blowing hard. The old Servel adds a tiny but steady bit of heat... never made much difference before but now it is a noticeable addition to the heating requirements!!

 

[Cantdog]

Hahaha!!! Was just talking about my stove..... posted and then decided to clean the ashes out as the stove was good and cold..... lol..... the first pan I shoveled out looked like I’d burnt my nail apron!!! Literally more nails than ashes!!! Took a pic... will post it later.... ash pan was quite heavy!!!

 

[Cantdog]

And no Danny..... I did not straighten them out for reuse...... though I did think of it..... lazy man’s way of nail removal!!!!

 

[pioneerguy600]

The ole 49 SP would keep it nice n warm if you took it inside at night. I was at the camp today, sun shining in through the windows, no fire required.

 

[pioneerguy600]

Once the nails are burnt they arent much good but when we were kids dad had us straighten out buckets and buckets of board nails and spikes. I had to take them to the scrap yard after dad passed.

 

[Cantdog]

The ole 49 SP would keep it nice n warm if you took it inside at night. I was at the camp today, sun shining in through the windows, no fire required.

Yesterday I didn’t bother to get the stove going in the morning. Nice clear day temps highly 30s. Stove had gone out night before last 8-9:00 and didn’t fire it up until 5 last night.... camp was 70 degrees when I started the fire. Camp was kept very comfy from the sun and the Servel!!!

 

[pioneerguy600]

Had a skiff of snow this morning but it stopped and is melting off, the mighty 49SP is heating the air from far off Isle of Maine.

 

[pioneerguy600]

The boat ride ashore happen?

 

[dancan]

Hey Jerry !

 

[Cantdog]

Hey Jerry !

Ohhhhhhh.....IOTTA!!!!

 

[Cantdog]

So.......back on the mainland! Tyme for some pics of the last month's work at the camp. These first pics were just after the bride and I claned the little camp out. I rescued it from the beach where it had landed after a severe storm had eroded about 10 feet of lawn and it had slid down the bank and onto the beach. The year was 1978...me and a 7 yr old boy armed with some chain, a cheezy $15 come-along and my shiny brandy new 49SP struggled it up to where it now sits. By 81 I had decided to add the pointy part to the roof and cedar shingled the entire roof so my wife and I would have a sleeping loft. My father and I owned the camps together....he took over the larger one and I got the small one. In 1982 the park started harassing us and threatening eminent domain on us........I soured on the whole project and basically the small camp became storage and a catchall for everything and there hasn't been a finger lifted on it since 81......almost 40 years of neglect. In 98 when my father passed I had a choice to make.....a sink or swim moment. As you've seen earlier I decided to fix up the big camp and after a number of tense years with the feds they eased back some and have left me alone. The property has been in my family since 1835 so there's history there.

Anyway that's a brief history of this pitiful shack.......it is not that old....built by my great uncle as a bunk house for summah guests in the late 40's early 50's. Built out of part used wood, driftwood and a bit of locally milled spruce. Unc was NOT a great carpenter and built as sparsely as he could get by with.....few pics of the start up of this phase of a multi year project. I stress that the value of this building is not so much in itself but in the right for it to be where it is and in protecting the structure you also preserve the rights.

 

[Jimmy in NC]

Making much more sense now Robin.

 

[Cantdog]

By necessity this project is an azz backwards approach. It needs new sills and floor joists and I plan on moving it yet again about half it length north and half it's width east but the roof became an issue and had to be dealt with or all would be lost as it was leaking pretty bad. I also wanted to do away with the pointy top and re-frame the entire roof as Unc's 3 foot on center 2X4 rafters were not in good condition. That meant that the first order of business was to jack and level structure. I set my laser inside and took readings from the bottom of the top plate and jacked it up about 10 inches from where it started. This meant a couple new posts and cribbing. Got it fairly level....within 1/4" or so....certainly as level as it was when built. In my work I found many old chainsaw marks from the then brand new 49sp.....the 3 sills I put in back then were long, straight spruce poles that I picked up along the shore.....actually all the materials we used in the rescue came from the sea....cribbing, planks, rolls etc. The round sills were a pain to jack on but I managed. Next year will be the new sills and joists adventure.....and maybe the moving part.

 

[Cantdog]

So once leveled up I could stage it and get about stripping the old beat cedars and roof boards and rafters.

 

[Cantdog]

And then I......

 

[tbone75]

Looks great Robin !!!

 

[pioneerguy600]

Lot more labor refurbishing a building than building new but I know well the reasons to keep the old. Could have torn down my old camp and built a new one quicker but it afforded us a place to stay while I did a makeover on it.

 

[Cantdog]

Lot more labor refurbishing a building than building new but I know well the reasons to keep the old. Could have torn down my old camp and built a new one quicker but it afforded us a place to stay while I did a makeover on it.

Oh yeah way more effort rebuilding and more again if it wasn't built right to begin with.......I have re-raftered both of these buildings and can say there are not any two rafters on either building that are the same length...!!! LOL!!

 

[pioneerguy600]

Oh yeah way more effort rebuilding and more again if it wasn't built right to begin with.......I have re-raftered both of these buildings and can say there are not any two rafters on either building that are the same length...!!! LOL!!

Old camps built in remote areas were kind of slapped together, they had no generators or electrical of any kind, handsaws and a chainsaw was all we had, even the axe came into play for trimming off the ends of boards that were diagonal fitted to floor and walls. Rafters were cut by guess and by golly....LOL

 

[Cantdog]

Then this is what I ended up with.....