Tree houses.

OK. Next came among other things..............The Tree house for Murray's boy William. Who would have been about 6 at the time. Its design was completely off the top of our heads. The ideas just flowed out of the pile of logs that were lying around. Since the floor was put down, it has acquired a sort of cabin on it with no roof. But William doesn't care, he has imagination. A far superior building material. Very adaptable long lasting and easily changed.












Alas I have not got around to taking more pictures but I do have a video with the tree house in.

Shed Roof & Tree House video.

WARNING:
There are two uses of the "F" word. (For artistic reason you under stand).

How did I get started?

Ok peeps I`m going to go off at a bit of a tangent here, two to be precise: Trees, chainsaws and planking, plus, Casting things in aluminum.

Ive had a liking for chainsaws for a long time. Many years ago in Crewe I bought a chainsaw and went self employed making rustic furniture and supplying fire wood to people in Crewe. One oak tree a tonn of logs and an oak stool later it was all over. Didnt realy have a clue what I was doing. (Still don`t LOL).

As you can see from the pictures above I`m not blessed with an eye for a straight line.
I love the little stool and thats all that matters.

So anyway that was a long time ago and the bug for cutting up tree trunks has stayed with me.
"What got you back into it?" I hear you cry.
A new friend with his own trees and a chain saw. Murray. Just down the road from me and just as mad. Although him and Forest man bleating like insane sheep at the passing cars , dose top me by a we-bit.
So there we were standing in Murrays garden wondering what to be doing with our selves. When he mentions that Fiona, his partner, would like a bridge over the burn that runs across the garden and thats how it all began.

We just went ahead and made it up as we went along.



Cut down a curved tree and sliced it down the middle with the chainsaw, to get the curve.



Thats Fee standing there inspecting the work.



Testing to see if its strong enough......lol :-D

Another bench.

All thats left of the six pines that were felled are the knotty trunks. I hope to cut the timber for a work area behind the shed with this. The boards will be 2 inch so a few knots wont harm them. The first bit I pulled off the slope was a bit ruff so I thought it might be time for a bench. The idea for a Chaise long came to mind having seen one round at the Forest mans house. Then with a bit of banter with my landlord and neighbors a good spot was picked for it. The kids can sit on it when they wait for their school bus and anyone who has climbed to the top of the hill and is a little out of breath can get a rest.




This is situated at the gate house entrance. So you can see it as you drive past.












That was all done on Monday. Today I got up and thought I would make a start tidying up the Greenhouse. I took the photo below so you could see the way it was and then went in and proceeded to lift a length of timber tangled in the weeds. Suddenly there was allot of buzzing. I thought it was a load of flies but quickly changed my mind........




Below you can see the reason why. LOL.



A big old wasps nest and they were none too happy. If I get the chance I'm going to spray them at night. (Did it before and they don't come out) Then get the nest. Exciting what?

Last of the laylandii trunks.

Three days off and good weather. Even the midges were taking a break. Forest man came up and was a great help with the clearing and camera work. After the days graft in the forest we went down to the North pier to see how his boy was getting on with the fishing, arriving just in time to take his rod apart for him and that was that. So we went off to the Co-Op where Forest man bought beer and back at his house his lovely Forest wife made us all some chilly. A good day indeed.

Here is the forest man himself hard at it.



With this being the end result.



Most of this Blog has consisted of pictures and videos of ......logs. So not to disappoint you all here`s another video.

Video Link

Collecting up the trunks.

Today was overcast, warm and humidity is up in the 80`s No breeze.
I was surprised at the lack of Midges. So got started on moving the Leylandii trunks. surprisingly heavy and with what I think will be a lovely grain color too. I'm thinking of cutting the wood for the garden gates out of this. They will look nice I hope. You can see how dark they are on the ends.




I had to get the logs apart in order to get the carrier wheels in between the logs. Not easy on your own.





This is not the biggest bit.


This is!!!!


Ran out of sweat so will leave these pieces till another day.

Inbetween Greenhouses

It was my early day today which means I get to go into work an hour later !!!! So up with the lark and make a bench for the estate. Actually its a seat, Cut from an off cut that I had lying around. LOL. Bit tired to be bothered saying more so heres the pictures instead.

Conquering Blackmount

Day off today and the weather has been just great. So off into town to pick up my new camera woman. Non-other than the legendary "NeeNee NaNa". Seen here astride the legendary quad.



So off we set to film the Conquering of Blackmount.

Please click on the link to see the triumphant drive up the steep muddy slopes of the almost forgoton Blackmount. Where once the hidden garden of Glencruitten Hs was.

Conquering Blackmount hill.

Once at the top work commenced to setup the first bench in nearly 60 years to grace the hill.
Here is a short video of the legs being trimmed for the base to sit on. The base was secured using 6" galvanized nails.

Where an amazing view can be had of the bay and islands.



Here are a couple of pictures taken from Blackmount by my friend Andy mason, while up visiting on holiday. Below you can just see the Isles of Kerrera and Mull.



Finally a picture of my camera woman. Miss NeeNee NaNa, sitting on the new bench.

Little Tits in the nest alert.

I had a listen at the bird box today and could hear the chicks making a din inside.No doubt Fanny is already well aware of them.
I wonder if the Blue tits know that the ginger git has a never- ending supply of cat food. Galling for them.
Any way here is a photo of the little darlings. Taken while mum and dad were out gathering caterpillars and what have you.



Don`t know how many there is but there may be as many as a million. Honest.

Not allot happening.

Well not allot is happening at the moment with work on the greenhouse project. My car is in need of work because she has to pass the dreaded MOT test. This will involve much lying on my back underneath me thinks. I have two weeks till the deadline. NP. :-)

My other hobby of building benches has had a result, by way of getting all the heavy parts to the top of a small but very steep hill, called Black mount. This small , nay, tiny little hill once had a nice little garden built on top of it. But the years have left it in a rather overgrown way. My landlord has made a start towards its restoration, by cutting back some of the larger rhododendrons pines and bushes. But there is still allot to be done. The garden was probable put there because of its commanding view over Oban bay. The bench is 8 feet long and has still to be secured to its legs. This will involve going back with the chainsaw and some tools etc. When I do this I hope to have my camera woman with me. ;-) Then there will be a short film clip of me riding the quad up the hill. Which is relay what this is all about, as you will understand when you see the hill.
And here is the link as promised :-)   Conquering Blackmount.

And the sawing was good.

Well the evening is here, Pandora internet radio is playing " Bruce Cockburn.Speechless.Water Into Wine" and the cat is in front of the fire. Well he was . Now he wants out the wrong door. Sigh.
Back to the cutting; and things are ok there too, although my knees are worse for ware carrying the 17 foot cut lengths down the bank. Hot bath every night. :-) Clean boy. Forgot to photo the growing stack. Something for tomorrow. So as you can see from the blog theres not much in this one but dont dispare I have a small treat for you if you click here.

Another hazey day

Well I thought it was going to rain today and cleaning of the cottage was the plan. Then the sun came out and banging on my door in his oil skins, tammy and the air of the explorer about him was Ian from down the glen. Eager to start a fire and lend a hand. So with a beer each, off we went to do just that. Plus move the second big log into a better position for cutting up.



Here is Ian pulling a big one with the mighty quad girl.

As you can see its a bit over the 8 foot the carrier is made for.

Here I have pulled down the butt end of a smaller one.












Then Ian was away and off into the woods to seek out more adventures with the eccentric folk of the forest. Big-Up to the forest man. :-)




















Lastly and certainly not least. Eggs in the nest box. This poses a problem though. If I put up the roof on the drying shed, Fanny the cat will be able to reach the nest box................The little ones better get the flying thing right first time me thinks.
It was blue tits last year but they gave up due to too much attention from the ginger puss. I`m not certain which bird is nesting there now but I think by the eggs its The tits having another go
Yes it is the tits back again and they are a bit more chilled out this time. I`ll keep you posted on the score with the cat.

The midges are here, Ha Ha Ho Ho He He Hum Hum.

The little ba****ds are a biting but who cares........
I splashed on the skin cream and went out. I managed to get the roof beams laid down on the seasoning bed. (cant think of the proper name). My shoulder has the bruise to prove it and as I type this I realize that I didn't put down any plastic on the ground underneath. Its not the driest place, under the wall but it gets very little sun, which means that the broad face can be left open to the air. So when I think about that I realize the timber at the back will get less air. Mmmmmm Oh well. I know Ill put some chimneys up the back that stick up into the sun and paint them black. When they heat up the air inside will rise and draw in fresh air through the stack. Ta Da. :-) I may have to have something to hang over the face when the wind and rain, come together, too!
Back to the plastic; It will keep the ground dry underneath and stop the green stuff growing up under the timber. No doubt Fanny will find a reason to go there.
So Ill fix alllllllll that tomorrow. yes. Not.



I like to split the pictures up with a bit of text.



So there we have the six main beams + timber for some of the windowsills.



I got the corrugated iron with the concrete blocks from an old shed that was being replaced with a new one. Thanks Cruiky. Handy. Ill be using these as the permanent roof when that gets built.







I also had a big fire and you can just see the remains. Also one of the trunks has been cut into
8 foot lengths and rolled down the bank. its a hard life.

Now what did I have for lunch I hear you cry......Video here.



Fanny is dribbling on my arm here as he just loves to sit on my lap while I am at the computer. The baby rabbit score is 7 with 2 of them last night. Flea bag.