Duck House ~ "How To Tips Part IV"

The first day of "fall", we had our first frost. The second day of "fall" we had our first freeze. This morning at 0900 when I went to work, the temperature was improving, but still a balmy 36 degrees. During the first couple of hours, the thermos of coffee was perfect but by noon, it was back to shirt sleeve weather.

Finished up the framing today, the four walls are now standing and squared. I can fully appreciate that it is much easier to place the siding on the walls and then stand them, however, working with a "short crew", it is really not an option especially when you have to build them "off site" and carry them to the construction site. Squaring things up required a little ingenuity, I know some prefer to use a "coffin jack", an option that I had available to me, however, I chose the "Old Navy" (1960'era) method of putting a strain on an object called a "Mexican Windless". All you need is one piece of line, doubled up and a object to twist it to the desired tension. In this situation, I used a nylon line and a stub end of a 2" x 4" as the windless (pictured across the front of the framing). It worked perfectly and the alders that I was using as an anchor remained rooted. If it is not raining come first light, the next step will be to side the frame and move on to the cutting and installing the rafters. If a certain person who was the Foreman on the the "Cabin II Project" is wondering, yes! I got the California corners installed on the right side and even remembered to nail them completely instead of free floating them. Having fun, putting a few "tricks of the trade" that I learned this summer to use and discovering others.