Since
George had been sent home from the hospital, under the care of his
client laden worker, he had not been prone to planning anything much.
He did things pretty much on a whim, letting the force be with him
as it were, and it seemed to work for him. Since it was only late
June and there would be plenty of time to contemplate winter, he
decided to give building a nifty cabin a try. What could he lose?
So he planned, while picking berries to dry as it was the height of
the season and he thought berries would come in handy no matter what.
He spread them out on several sheets of plywood which Mottles
guarded to keep the birds and little critters away, most of the time.
To
build a cabin with no saw, he would keep all the dimensions to
multiples of four feet, that way he could avoid a lot of plywood
cutting. On a flat area behind the tuft of pines where all the
lumber was, George used the 2 x 8's which were 16 feet long to build
a pad, 16' x16'. The hatchet worked real slick for pounding nails,
and he had his floor covered with 3/4” plywood in one day. Without
cutting, the plywood didn't quite come all the way to the front edge,
but who cared? That was side was going to be his little deck so he
nailed a 2x4 across the end to cover the joists. The next day the
back wall was framed in using 2x6 studs, between fishing and berry
picking. His Bic lighter had come to the end of it's life and he had
to keep his fire smouldering all the time now, so he spent a day
uncrating his Acme Wood Stove and bolting it together tightening the
stove bolts with his handy pliers. He didn't bother with the stove
pipe outside here, but it would be of good use in a cabin. He used
some 2x4's and a sheet of plywood to build a roof over it for when it
rained. The stove worked real well for cooking on, he didn't have to
hang his pot on a tripod, but it was a little harder to find dry wood
that would fit in the stove. That would be a challenge for a winter
adventure.
The
back wall was 16' long, the length of his floor, but the side walls
he made 12' so he'd have a 4' deck on the front. He found that by
marking both sides of a 2 x 6 real deep with his hatchet he could
break off a piece with a good whack leaving a fairly good end. He
nailed 3/8” plywood on the three walls to keep them square. He
hadn't had to cut any plywood yet, he was keeping things simple and
these walls would have no windows. The front wall took a lot
longer to build. He wanted a door and a window so he framed in the
door exactly four feet from one end. He found a slider window which
would fit a 2' x 4' opening and framed that in four feet from the
other end. He'd spent some time marking an eight foot 2 x 4 at one
foot intervals and it came in real handy for measuring stuff.
Cutting out the door and window from the plywood wasn't too hard once
he'd figured out a method. He marked both sides with a sharp stone,
and then using a good size rock and his hatchet he banged through
about halfway on each side, one hatchet width at a time. With a
little perseverance it left a fairly good cut. He nailed in the
slider and leaned the cut out door against some 2 x 4 moulding and
wow, Mottles seemed impressed. He'd have to figure out how to make
some hinges for a little heavier door, but the roof would come first.
This
building seemed to come second nature to George. He couldn't
remember what, but he knew he had built something like this in his
forgotten past. Everything just seemed common sense but the fog of
the past would not reveal where the knack came from. So he
carpentered on, lost as if in a little fantasy, building a cabin in
the woods. He built roof trusses so his roof would overhang his four
foot deck and covered them with 3/4” plywood, strong enough for ten
feet of snow. That night they moved in, from under their tarp,
Mottles and George, most of the floor devoted to drying berries to
keep the thieves away. Shakes would be the next job, to keep their
cottage dry. Tomorrow would be a day for fishing and setting more
rabbit snares made from cable strapping which had held the piles of
lumber together. Mottles was getting a mite lazy as he humoured
George for his hunting skills. He did like catching mice though.
(To
be continued)
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