After class on 2-21-11

Well I finally took the class in Vegas and it was great.Learned a ton of things and it really filled in some blanks and the teachers, Steve and Ellsworth, did a wonderful job of getting us to understand what we needed to at least get started. Ordered the stock plans from them for a 30x30 which was the exact size I was hoping to build and they should be here in a few days.

So now the bad news, after learning more and looking back at the size of trees I had previously marked, it looks like the vast majority of them arent big enough in diameter to build with. Not saying i cant  build with them, but these small size trees i have on my land here will not have good thermal properties, which will lead to higher heating/cooling costs. This is a big problem and not sure what I need to do here. They gave some us some great resources in class for finding trees in national forests, but even if i can manage to get them for free as the class suggests, i still have the unexpected costs of getting them cut and hauled which will put a real strain on my budget now. This could conceivably bring my dream to a halt, but at the very least wont allow me to move as fast in getting started as i had hoped for. Gary (friend) was ready to bring his chainsaw and start cutting as soon as I gave him the go ahead, but now Ill have to put that on hold Im afraid

Tree sizes

So the tree sizes i have marked so far are as follows. I have given each tree a number and marked that number on the tree so I can know what sizes exactly I am dealing with as the time comes closer to cutting them down and try and keep as close to the same size for each log as I can as it makes it easier to build that way.
The measurement given is in inches (circumference) and for those you are not familiar with Pi as I had pretty much forgotten what it can be used for, to come up with the diameter of the log its circumference divined by Pi. I am looking to have at least a 10 inch diameter log on the small end for each

Log::
(1) 40           (8) 31.5     (15) 31     (22) 36
(2) 38.5        (9) 36       (16) 32      (23)34.5
(3) 36          (10) 34       (17)  38     (24) 35
(4) 39.5       (11) 34       (18) 34     (25) 37
(5)  40         (12) 39       (19) 35     (26) 35
(6) 31          (13 48        (20) 38
.(7) 44        (14) 36        (21) 34

Marking trees

Today was my 1st real action doing anything besides designing the floor plan for the cabin. I have so far spent probably 60-70 hours getting my plan just right for me with a nifty little 3D design program called Plan 3D. Its not free, but is only $30 for a years use so well worth it so far. Now that I think I have it just perfect I decided to do some actual work today and went and marked 25 trees for cutting. I think I will need about for the whole cabin. Its going to be pretty small to start out with, just 28x32 but since there is only myself and a big dog that should be plenty of room