Restoring a Farm and Building a House
Welcome to this blog about the Crooked River Farm project. Along the bar above, or summary to the left, you can get a little bit of history of the farm and what we’ve done up until about the 1st of Dec 2008. After that, I’ve resorted primarily to the blog format for updates, which end up in the Topics section on the left.
I hope you experience the full schadenfreude of farm restoration and custom home building!
Trish and Chris
Suffolk Punch Draft Horses in Upper Pasture
There likely won’t be any new posts to this site until February, as Trish and I are at our house in Nevis, West Indies until then. As one of the worst things you can do for pasture/hay land is to leave it long for the winter, I did manage to mow every square inch of land that I could mow – about 150 acres – before we left. Sometime soon, probably in February, we’ll be setting miles of fencing so that most of this land can be rotated into pasture to add the much-needed manure to the fields. This spring, we’ll be planting trees on around 30 acres of steep pasture that probably should have never been pasture in the first place. But I’ll be managing that in shorts and sandals from the edge of the Caribbean Sea. Fifteen degrees below zero with the windchill at Crooked River Farm this morning. Just a tad too chilly for me. Yet the entire crew from Sticks and Stones was on site this morning, diligently working along outside in the cold. I’ve got to wonder how productive they can be in this cold, but I sure admire their dedication.
brrrrrrr......
We finally got the conservation easement recorded last week. So from here on out, the farm can never be divided and developed beyond one division and one more house “in perpetuity”. I found out what that means in this process. In perpetuity in this context means as long as the Commonwealth of Virginia exists. So if we lose the next war, and we all end up speaking Chinese or something, I guess the deal’s off and it can be turned into a subdivision.
But until then the high knobs are protected from development, as we wrote in the easement that nobody could ever build above a certain elevation. The 200 year-old woods are protected from logging anything but dead, diseased and dying trees. The mile and a half of river is “in perpetuity” protected from livestock grazing (and pooping) anywhere near it’s edge and polluting it.
This farm is a part of an important collection of other adjacent properties under conservation easement that collectively comprise over 1,000 acres and miles of the Little River.
We raised the “Family Room” timberframe today. We need to rename that room, as it doesn’t fit in with a circa 1900 house. Perhaps just “The Pine Room” or something, as it will be almost entirely constructed of the practically extinct longleaf heart pine. This frame has a bunch of “embellishments”, that is, ornamentation not related to the structural requirements. There are a lot of chisel-marks remaining that show the many places that essentially had to be hand-carved. It’s cool – unlike any other timberframe, and showing an additional level of artistry and craftsmanship.
The process started months ago, with StreamLine Timberframe procuring the reclaimed wood and cutting all the individual timbers at their shop here in Floyd just as with the garage building. The timbers were brought out early in the week, where a combination of their crew and our Sticks and Stones crew assembled them using just the wooden pegs.
Frames ready to go up
Even though this is only a one-story room, we still had to bring out a crane to get these pieces up and in place.
Lifting into Place
The crews got the four bents erected, along with their ridge beams just as the sun went down. On Monday, we’ll get the purlins in place and start drying it in.
In Place
End of the Day
Dropped in that wine cellar ceiling today. Jeff Ligon, the concrete subcontractor, had to build the foundation just right. Sticks and Stones had to to frame it up just right. Streamline had to build it just right. And it all had to come together today. And it did!
Wine Cellar Ceiling Going In
Bruce, of Sticks and Stones, had put a pencil line on top of the stud wall to show where the ceiling frame should rest. It came to less than a 1/4″ difference at the worst spot. Amazing to me. The Streamline and S&S folks made some jokes about the old days of timberframing where guys would claim they use a micrometer to measure, a crayon to mark, and a chainsaw to cut. Not that they really did that, and what these guys really do is nothing to joke about.
After we got it all lined up, Mike Stubbs from StreamLine Timberframe absent-mindedly stepped out into the middle of the frame. Now Mike is a big feller, but that frame didn’t budge the least little bit.
Mike Stubbs
Mike is the Shop Manager at Streamline, and has (to me) become increasingly important (or at least visible) in this project – he seems to be everywhere. He sawed these timbers himself, he oversaw the talented timberframing crew building it, he delivered it, and he installed it. And he, like everyone else at Streamline, is a grrreatt guy to work with.
The octagonal room at the far end of the picture in the previous post is going to be a tower, too. In the basement, it couldn’t be anything other than a wine cellar, right?
The ceiling in that room is a timberframe and Streamline Timberframe has been waiting to deliver it. Mike Stubbs, of Streamline Timberframe, built a jig yesterday to more or less load it on the back of one of their trucks to move it out to the farm.
Wine Cellar Timberframe
It’s made almost entirely from reclaimed oak, having been milled from logs out of an old log cabin. Streamline Timberframe sawed the rough logs for me on the sawmill in the back of the picture, and then built it in the building right behind the camera. To the right of the picture, you can see the heartpine “family room” all cut up and ready to assemble. We should be ready for that in a couple of weeks.
The room above the wine cellar is going to be cherry panelled walls, so it will have ceiling timbers identical to this, except in cherry. The room above will be a bit more elaborate and have black walnut timbers. Much of the walnut and cherry were sourced from dead trees on Crooked River Farm, but some had to be sourced from other local farms. But it’s all sourced locally, cut locally, and manufactured locally.
It’s been a while since I’ve posted, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t making progress.
The last pictures of the house were just of a hole in the ground with some forms in place. We’ve got that hole pretty well filled with basement now, including most all of the framing and the first floor trusses in place.
1st floor
Those four posts are the base of the tower which will rise (I think) 57′ feet from the basement floor all the way up to the attic (and beyond). The main stairs will wrap around it. The tower is all timberframe, and made out of heart pine. Heart Pine is long-leaf pine, previously the primary pine species found from Virginia to Texas. Because it grew so straight and true, was as strong as oak, was very rot resistant, and hard as a rock, it was extremely desirable for everything from ships masts to high end flooring. As such it was pretty much totally cut over by 1900 and is now all but extinct. The main source for it now is reclaimed timbers from old manufacturing buildings such as cotton mills and the like. These timbers came out of the dismantling of the original Old Crow whiskey distillery building in KY, I’m told. The “family room” will also be a heart pine room with all the timbers, flooring, panelling, and ceiling decking made of reclaimed heart pine. That portion of the house should also be going up in the next few weeks, as Streamline has finished cutting the frame, and we’re just about ready for it.
It occurred to me just a bit ago how virtually every contractor working at Crooked River either has their son working with them, or at least brings them to the job with them more or less occasionally. It’s truly amazing and wonderful to me. I learned a lot from my dad, but only in conversation – I never got to actually work with him. I’m jealous of these kids.
This gives me great confidence in the future. All of these kids work really hard when on the job. Many of them plan to follow in their dad’s footsteps with their trade, or often to take over the business. Many of these contractors are already multi-generational businesses. Studies have shown that in general, family-owned businesses are more successful than the alternative constructs. It’s good to see them still thriving, at least in the trades, and in our neck of the woods.
I’ve coincidentally snapped just a few pictures of contractors with their sons on the job, which I’ll start attaching below. I’ll see how many I can rack up by the end of the project.
First off is Bruce, the General Contractor, with his son, Neil. Neil plans to be a college professor, so he just humors his dad by coming to work with him. But once I was able to catch the whole crew contemplating some problem while Neil was sweeping the floor, catching him as the only one working. Huh. He has something to learn about being a college professor 
Neil and Bruce
Next up is the multi-generational Shortt Excavating. I already told the story of using Macray Shortt to build the road at my current house 25 years ago, and now am dealing primarily with his son, Michael, and I’m sure I’ll be transferred to his son Ryan as the lead guy before I’m finished with them. These guys have done everything from building the roads to digging the basement to installing the geothermal system. I think just about all of their equipment, and it’s quite an inventory, is currently at Crooked River. The whole family is terrific to work with. I’ll get a picture of 3 generations to post here soon.
Michael and Ryan Shortt
Next up is Jason and Jagger Rutledge, our “biological woodsmen”. Jagger has worked with his dad throughout his whole life so far. They’ve done so much work on the farm that I think I’ve employed just about everyone in the family at some point.
Jason (2nd from left) and Jagger (3rd from right)
Eversole Well Drilling was also a multi-generational business with father/son on the job site.
Eversole Well Drilling
Mark Cox has done all the masonry work so far on the house, and the cabin, too. He seems to be just as happy laying concrete block as doing this one of a kind type of “dry-laid” stone chimney on the cabin in the old style. He often brings his dad and his son to the job, as in the picture below.
Mark Cox Masonry
There are so many other folks – Dale the painter who has brought his son Tyler to help, Russell who has come to help his dad Jim with the big log cabin project, Kyle Morgan (who I’ve known since he was born) who pretty much works full-time with his dad, Al, on timberframing and similar projects, father/son team John and JR who bring out their bull-hog to clear land for me periodically. I expect the trend to continue, and intend to update pictures and stories of the guys and their sons working together.
As an aside, I’m a 50% owner of a women’s clothing manufacturer, WinterSun. I spent last week at a trade show in Las Vegas with my business partner Anga Miller, and she brought along her daughter Karina to help. So it seems it can go with daughters, too.
Well, we poured a little bit of concrete this past week to make the basement. 17 truck loads, to be exact. That’s a lot of concrete in one day. The trucks were backed up.
Concrete Trucks
The fellers who did the form work built all the forms for the basement in just a couple of days. It’s amazing how hard they work, and how quickly they get the forms up (and down).
Pouring Concrete
The first floor trusses have been delivered, and I’m told that I’ll be able to walk around on the first floor in just the next couple of weeks.
We did finally get the basement dug out. But WOW! I had forgotten how much compacted subsoil expands when it is dug out of the ground and loaded onto a dump truck. Ryan Shortt, the operator of the excavator, figured it was about 200 dump truck loads! And all of it was shale mixed with subsoil that wouldn’t grow kudzu even if you fertilized it. What to do?
We used about 100 dumptrucks in an upper field to fill a ravine. We scraped all the topsoil away first, filled the ravine, covered it back over, and replanted. About 30 were set aside for backfilling the basement after it is finished, and the rest spread over a future roadbed. I never figured I would have to figure out how to hide 200 dump truck loads of subsoil. I’m sure I’m not through dealing with it.
The footers for the basement walls did get dug and poured as well as all the plumbing drains and drain field for the basement. The forms for the basement walls were delivered yesterday. I’m told it will take less than a week for the entire basement to be formed and poured. So this time next week maybe we’ll have a basement?
Footers
We dug the trenches this week for the geothermal heating and cooling system. The idea is that you bury hundreds of feet of pipe several feet underground, and pump water through it. When it comes out the far end, it will be at the temperature of the ground, which around here is something like 55 degrees year ’round. That water has a lot of heat in it. Extract the heat from it, pump it back out, and the ground will heat it back up. Rinse and repeat all winter long. Basically, it’s a solar water heater – it just doesn’t rely on the sun that particular day, but the average sun all year long that warms up the earth. Somewhere around 70% of our heat will come from the sun through this system.
A closed-loop geothermal system like this does require a good bit of land, though. We had to dig 5 trenches 6 ft deep by about 150 ft long.
Wouldn’t you know we would have to put the trenches in this small field next to the house. The Healing Harvest folks and myself spent hundreds of hours clearing this field, which wasn’t a field at all when we bought the farm, but a tangle of pines, roses, ailanthus, and dying locust. We had BIG burn piles going pretty much all summer and fall here last year. The topsoil is a good 12 inches deep, and we did everything we could to preserve it. When we finished clearing it, I planted yellow blossom sweet clover on it and had a really nice stand going when it was decided to dig it all up. So we decided to first scrape all the precious and beautiful topsoil away into a windrow first, and then dig the trenches.
Next week, we’ll lay the pipe into the bottom of the 6′ trenches, cover them with 2′ of subsoil, lay another run of pipe, and then fill in the ditches with the rest of the subsoil, compact it all down, then cover everything again with the topsoil. I’ll then disc it and plant it again, this time probably with a mixture of annual rye, three types of clovers, and timothy, as this field is likely to become horse pasture.
Recent Comments