My solo visits from our home in Cape May, New Jersey to our log cabin in Green Bank, West Virginia have to be productive. It’s these times, when City Girl stays behind to run the real estate business, that I must make progress on some of the many home projects I have underway.
I arrived in Green Bank this past Sunday, with a construction crew due Monday to build a 24′ x 32′ pole barn with metal sides. They were scheduled to be finished by Friday. It’s one of those companies I found on the internet that does everything but the concrete floor, which gets poured after they’re done and gone. The barn-building folks are located just 88 miles from here, so it’s just about as local as it gets.
I was there to “supervise” and make sure that critical first-day decisions were made by me, since I tend to be somewhat of a perfectionist (some say “anal”). And supervise I did on Monday, making sure everything was done to my satisfaction. I had to locate bags of concrete for the crew by calling around to various supply stores, then helped pick them up. But after that it’s pretty straight forward. I wasn’t really needed, and I wasn’t just gonna stand there and watch them work.
To make effective use of my time, I had two local guys – my own “crew” – work with me on a tree clearing project. I would run the chainsaw and they’d haul the cut firewood and brush. We’d all done it together several times in the past year, so it was kinda routine now. We knew our roles, and how hard we’d have to work to accomplish our task. I could check in on the pole barn guys – foreman Duane, Norman and Clint – every once in a while and still run my own gig. All five guys – my crew and theirs – are good guys and decent human beings. What more can you ask?
We’re located in the Allegheny Mountains at an elevation of about 2,700 feet, or roughly a half mile. So there is very little flat land – it’s all up and down and sidehill. Cutting and hauling trees, mostly oaks, is a challenge. The goal of this clearing was to open a view of the mountain to the east while also benefiting from more sun in the cold months.
Lew and Clinton – my guys – started work on Monday by covering a bed of shrubs with mulch, a leftover task from October. Then they dragged all the brush I had created on my last visit in February to the burn pile. Tuesday found us cutting and hauling for six hours. The view was beginning to open up, but a few remaining strategic oaks still blocked the million dollar vista.
This morning, Wednesday, we tackled the last dozen trees. Knowing it was due to start raining by noon and then rain the rest of the day and night, we hurried along. By 11 o’clock, we were done. Just as we walked into the cabin to get the guys their pay, the sky opened up. We smiled a collective smile.
Meanwhile, the pole barn trio had a much less productive day. Their usual late start combined with the rainout made the 88-mile trip over four mountain ranges almost not worthwhile. But still, after three days, the barn is all framed out. Tomorrow the roof will go on and the five windows will be installed. I can’t wait to see the cupola and weathervane. Friday the insulation and walls go up and they are finished. A separate contractor comes one day next week to install the two garage-style doors.
Saturday, my crew, plus my main contractor Rich and sidekick Frank – will prepare the garage floor for concrete. That entails leveling off the gravel and dirt floor, then tying rebar in a checkerboard pattern for extra strength. We had planned on pouring the concrete on Monday or Tuesday, but with low temperatures expected to be about 20 degrees each morning that was out of the question.
By the time I head back to New Jersey on Sunday, the barn will be standing and lacking only the two cement trucks worth of concrete which we’ll tackle in two weeks when I return. The breathtaking view of Sunrise Mountain, so named by me due to the sun rising over its peak on winter mornings, is ready for City Girl to admire and enjoy on her next visit. All in all, my seven days in Green Bank will be remembered as satisfyingly productive. As usual!
- Mountain Man
Tags: blog, lifestyle blog, nature blog