This blog post centers around cutting poles and beams for the sugarhouse. While growing up on the dairy farm in Vermont’s NEK (Northeast Kingdom), whenever my father said we were going to cut softwood logs, it meant we were going to build something. My first memory would have been when we tore down an old tool shed and we built a 50’x100’ structure in its place. The new tool shed was a place to store hay, farm equipment, and where the repair shop was located. There were occasional beef cows, pigs, and turkeys there too. The height of the structure was around 20 feet (a pure estimate from memory). This would be high enough for the largest tractor and hay chopper to easily find its way there for a winter’s rest. The ceiling was high enough that a hay elevator was needed to get hay bales to the upper levels. We spent the better part of the two fall and early winter seasons finding and pulling softwood (fir, spruce, hemlock, and cedar) out of the woods.
And so, the tradition continues, where I can. The main sugarhouse, side structure for the sap storage tanks, wood storage area, and the new generator shed will all require vertical support poles as part of the skeleton to strap boards, and support six major cross beams. I estimated 90 – 10-foot poles were needed. Many of these could be smaller size as they will become three-foot angle support pieces as seen in the sugarhouse structure picture (smaller circle in red).
In anticipation of the need to haul around firewood seasonally for the sugaring operation once it is up and running, we also needed something to put the vertical support poles to get them to the building site. Some audience members may recall a post where we found an old, discarded trailer on the property. Our brother-in-law, Warren Bliss, said he would fix it up in time for us to accomplish the pole cutting tasks. I’ve included a before and after picture of the trailer. Warren did a great job accomplishing this task! Thank you, Warren. This trailer was quickly given the nickname “Hauler”. Keeping with the KISS principle. I think I may use this as a dad joke at some point. I enjoy sarcastic eye rolls. It makes me feel that I’m accomplishing something as a father.
Charla and I started the pole cutting task close to the building site and those poles we pulled behind the ATV to the landing area. As we ventured further away from the building site, we cut the poles and loaded them onto Hauler.
We began the task of cutting poles the day the excavating company was bringing in gravel and crushed rock. For those wanting to watch the video of cutting poles (click here), you can hear the excavation equipment in the background. Anyway, this was the day my cousin Marcel Fortin was driving the skid steer with the gravel rock. And unfortunately, he witnessed the first pole-tree falling backwards. He paused the skid steer momentarily, and I could see a thought process on his face that was something like this “I could throw out a playful insult, but I haven’t seen Larry much in the last 20 years. And his wife is standing next to him. Will she know I’m joking?”. As he continued on, he shook his head and said with a smile, “What is that?”. Of course, I had to respond back. Unfortunately, my “cousin-insult bag” was old, dusty, and empty. All I could say was “I meant to do that”. A lame response I know. If I’m going to spend time up in Vermont, I need to start working on filling the empty bag.
The ATV winch worked nicely to pull the backward falling tree down so we could work on it. We got two vertical poles from it. We followed one of the trails and found a couple of fallen fir trees where the wood had not rotted and were dry. We cut those to length and continued on. We found two trees that shared a trunk. They were close to the trail, would be easy to process, however a bit risky. One was leaning one way, and the other the opposite. Usually, you would take one down at a time cutting the tree above where they were joined at the trunk. If I did that, the one further from the trail would likely fall in the wrong direction. So, taking a risk, I cut where they were joined, in hopes the one leaning toward the trail would pull the other with it. Luck was on our side as the two fell together. Whew!
Charla and I continued for a couple of days and managed to find, cut, and bring to the landing area 20 poles. Well short of the 90 needed. We will need to find time to cut the other 70 for the project to stay on track. We did manage to cut the six major support beams needed for the project. The rear winch on the ATV is very powerful as can be seen in this video.
As a side note, I met up with my cousin Marcel at the top of the field as we were leaving the woods for the day. Evidently, a truck of gravel had just unloaded and left, because the pile was high and untouched. I blurted, “You have been working all day, but it doesn’t look like you have done anything.” This was met with a grin. My insult bag was now close by, and the dust was shaken off.
Comments