Kevin Olson

Here's a skidding pan demo (though he calls it a "scoot", and a "scoot" - at least in my acquaintance - is similar to a "go-devil" or to a one-bob sleigh without a swiveling bunk on the bolster):


Not too far from a stone boat.

Bonus: he uses a "needle" to fish the chain under the log he's skidding, as I'd mentioned above.

Skidding cones are similar, but are in-the-round, i.e. a full cone, instead of half of the end of a sausage link, as seen here.

Kevin

For visual reference, here are a couple of photos of homemade timber carts, from an old thread on the Timber Framer's Guild forums:





Both used two wheel barrow wheels.  Jim Rogers said in his post that the second one worked better than the first.

The full thread is here:
http://forums.tfguild.net/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=29445&page=all

Grigg Mullen makes a fancier version, sold here:
https://timbercarts.com/

One of my timber framing books has a photo of a similar homemade version, made either by Jack Sobon or his partner.

If you have a bit of old pipe, chain link fence post or metal conduit, Unistrut, etc. and a couple of garden cart wheels, you could probably cobble up a reasonable facsimile of Grigg's for occasional personal use.  Dimensioned lumber could work for the frame, too.

More than once, I've temporarily swiped the pair of wheel barrow wheels off my little two-wheeled cart (yard sale find, priced right) to move something.

Kevin

Douglas Alpenstock wrote:Personally I wouldn't do that to tools I care about. Good quality digging tools are made of tempered steel, which is why they will take an edge. Heating them in a fire would potentially ruin the temper, making the tool steel much softer. (Though some of the offshore tools are already so soft you'd hardly notice the difference.)

Alex Bealer, in "Old Ways of Working Wood", recommends burning broken handles out of axe eyes, with the edges buried in the moist soil, but I can't vouch  for the method.  I've usually tried mechanical removal when replacing shovel, hoe and rake handles.

I just removed the remains of a handle from a old double bit Keen Kutter axe head by augering out a central chunk to relieve the compression, then using a big spike as a punch (i.e. inverted) to knock out the remains.  I was pretty confident there was no steel wedge, so I risked it with the auger bit.  Maybe I'll post up a series of photos and commentary on this.  It became a somewhat involved project, since I also ended up cleaning up an old spokeshave to use to adjust the handle to better fit the axe eye.  With some subsequent file work and honing with a diamond axe stone, it was sharp enough to take off hair (and a bit of hide!) when tried on my arm.

A week or so earlier, I was also able to knock out the remains of the handle from the eye of a Pulaski with the inverted spike, but it was already loose, so that hardly counts.  I fettled that new handle with my Mora knife, because I didn't have the spokeshave out where I was working.

Save the old broken handles - they're good for all sorts of stuff, not least for making socket chisel and framing slick handles.

"Walking" the logs with a pair of shear legs may be workable for you, too.  Definitely more tortoise than hare.  I saw a nice video on YT a while ago - I'll try to track it down and add the link.

Here we go:

How large in diameter are these logs, and of what species (probably not balsa!)?

I'm with John Daley on rigging up a timber cart or log arch, if you can.  If you had a draft animal or the 4-wheeler operational, that would help, but "If wishes were horses"...  As it stands, maybe rigging a tump line strap, as you've suggested, is the best option.  A seat belt from a scrapped car is wide enough to not saw into too badly, but a thrift store man's belt could be made to work, too.

If you had a friend to help, a timber carrier or "Sweet William" - log tongs hung on a stout cross handle - would permit you to share the misery, but even a set of log tongs might help when man-handling the logs.  The usual suspects, everyone from Timber Tuff to Stihl and Fiskars make log tongs, at various price points.

What about a skidding cone or pan?  Failing that, maybe cut a bevel or taper on the "front" end of the logs to ease their passage over asperities.

A length of light chain (maybe even dog chain or similar) wrapped around the logs will save the rope from abrasion.  A "needle" - a length of stiff wire or small diameter rod - can help to fish the chain under a log without lifting it.  A slip hook or cold shut can secure the loop of chain around the log.

If the logs are really big, you might be forced to warp them from one set of anchor or picket points to the next.

Here's an example dimensioned drawing of a ladder type of stair, taken from Gennady Fedotov's 2001 book "Russian Stoves" ("Русская печь"), as are the other two attached images.

It could pretty easily be made with alternating paddles treads, by cutting away about half the depth of each tread, assembled with half of the treads relieved on the right, the other cut away of the left.  I plan to use this as a general layout for my shed loft ladder, though longer (i.e. taller) than illustrated here to reach the loft floor about 7-1/2 feet (~230cm) from the main floor.  As drawn, it was only intended to reach the loft bed on the top of a Russia teplushka stove (a sort of Swiss army knife combination heating and cooking implement thermal mass heater, see attached images) - probably about 140cm or 4-1/2 feet above the floor.

No fasteners are shown in the stair drawing, but a threaded rod skewered through the stringers under every step, like an old wooden step ladder, might make it more robust.  Alternatively, the braces and treads could be laid out slightly differently to extend either tread or brace tenons through mortises in the stringers, retained with wedges.  Or, screws or nails could fasten the stringers to the braces.

I'll get some of the Phleps and Hakansson examples of ladder style stairs scanned and posted, too.

White wine in risotto, though lately I have been on a low carb kick, so that's right out.

We make a spiced pears recipe when our little pear tree bears a bumper crop, which has a red wine base for the sauce.

We have a good recipe for a creme sherry cake, which gets fresh fruit topping on each slice when served.  Not made recently, also due to my dietary predilections.

We once bought a nearly undrinkable red - very high tannins - which got turned into a mean beef stew.

My daughter has been making sourdough from freshly milled grain for the last couple of years.  One of her favorite recipes has a bottle of Guinness Stout in it.  I did break down and try some when we visited them at Easter - it was very good!

But, we really don't consume much beer or wine.  Inge's recipes (upthread) are good food for thought.  Pun intended!

Carla Burke wrote:So, my question about the alternative step concept - particularly the type with no common back half of the tread, is how do you manage them, if you have an injury or as you age? Is there a feasible 'plan b' that doesn't require just staying put?

When we thought my mother-in-law would be coming to live with us, I investigated used stair lifts.  Turns out there is a regular market in such things.  In the end, she passed on to her eternal reward before it was needed, but it's still in the back of my mind, should that be needed.  The other thing we have discussed is rejiggering our ground floor bathroom, replacing the laundry sink with a walk-in tub/shower, then installing a small corner wash basin (the laundry sink will find another location, probably in the basement).  That would allow someone to use our front room as a bed room, which can be separated from the living room by closing the still-functional 5-foot wide 1890s-vintage pocket door, with an almost directly adjacent full bathroom.  That arrangement would obviate the need for someone - at least in the short term - to go to the upper floor.  Just in case I were to blow out a knee, or something.  Obviously, both of these modifications would be better done before they're needed, though the stair lift would be a bit more obtrusive.  But, I think the rail could be mounted and the electrics run in preparation, and the actual chair carriage stashed somewhere out of the way, held in reserve until called upon.

A small mechanical freight elevator might be an option, if one could be found.  When I was a kid, my dad briefly worked for a motorcycle helmet factory, before it burned down.  But, the only thing I really remember clearly of my tour of the place was the ride on the old hand-operated elevator.  It used some sort of capstan or Chinese windlass arrangement - I'm a bit fuzzy at 40-odd years remove from the event, but there was a big hand wheel and a lot of rope involved.  I don't know if the rope was actually used for the suspension, or just to transfer the mechanical motion from the hand wheel.  Anyway, such things exist, or once did, and might also be helpful.

Ramps are probably only useful for interior stairs if there are just a few treads.  For outside steps, it's quite common in these parts for people to install ramps - and sometimes just to facilitate snow removal.  This used to be a very common thing, but I suspect that mechanical snow removal, especially snow blowers, has made that less necessary.  When finding room for the last couple of feet of snow, after the previous 300 inches of Mother Superior's finest, every advantage helps, included an elevated walkway - even if you are hale and fully mobile.

Not sure if any of these ideas are helpful in you particular circumstances, however.

I would second John Dean's comment, noting that most spiral stairs are rather treacherous, in my experience.  Last summer, we visited the Astoria Column in our peregrinations, and my wife refused the climb; I made the trip to the top (and back to terra firma) without event, but it didn't improve my opinion of spiral stairs, though your mileage may of course vary.

After having seen an article on the Loretto Chapel staircase as a child, my father, in his later years, built a large, free-standing, helical staircase - a much bigger inner radius than most lighthouse-inspired spiral stairs, with a hand rail on both sides - and it was still rather disconcerting to carry furniture or even a full laundry basket up and down.

https://photos.zillowstatic.com/fp/67f4c80eb57023f37d083b39a035f6be-cc_ft_384.webp


Eventually, I did become more accustomed to it, but I never felt truly comfortable on it.

I'm opting for alternating-tread paddle stairs as shown elsewhere in this thread, maybe with library style hardware, to access the loft space of our little shed at our lake property.  Though the fold-flat wall-mounted type with a bazillion hinges are pretty darn cool!  For wrangling awkward objects into the loft space - kayaks, Adirondack chairs and so forth - I'm setting up a gable end hatch and block-and-tackle, hay loft style, so the ladder will really only be for unladen people.

Hermann Phleps in "The Craft of Log Building" and Sven-Gunnar Hakansson in "From Log to Log House" both show several tradition styles of stairs for accessing lofts, upper stories of granaries, etc., some of which are quite ladder-like, if I recall correctly.  I'll try to remember to bring the books in to work to throw them on the flatbed scanner and post up what I find.

Doug McEvers wrote:Kevin Olson,

Your post on winter wheat productivity is quite noteworthy. My neighbors in western MN planted winter wheat the fall of 2024. The stand was very good and they harvested a large crop in 2025. They did an incorporation of the wheat stubble and got a nice volunteer crop in the fall of 2025, made a great winter cover. Now this spring they are working in the green winter wheat to plant corn. They essentially had 4 soil building crops from just one seeding and they also took some straw from the 2025 harvest. Not much winter wheat planted around here and I am not sure why. Will likely plant some on this farm in the fall, I like what my neighbors did.

Hard red winter wheat is much different than hard red spring wheat in terms of straw production. Spring wheat has become very short and does not produce much straw. In the total equation one must include the straw (brown carbon) as part of the yield. Winter wheat is much like winter rye in terms of soil building and biomass. A winner I believe if you are looking to raise your soil organic matter.

Most modern wheat varieties have some short straw African genes, valued not least for the reduced tendency to lodge (fall down in inclement weather) and for easier mechanical harvesting, but Bonfils relied on heritage long straw varieties from before the African genetics were bred in.  The Marc Bonfils approach for wheat is akin to the Fukuoka philosophy with rice, but adapted to wheat in temperate climates.  In favorable circumstances, Bonfils reported root depths of up to 3 meters.  Between the nitrogen fixing cover crop, and the extensive root mass of the wheat deep into the soil profile, this should quickly build top soil.  But, I can't directly confirm this result, since my efforts are, as noted, as yet unsuccessful.  Running poultry through the harvested plot would help to "clean up" any seeds from which volunteers might spring up, since the method relies on the minimal competition of the very sparse planting for the high yields.  Traditionally, the heritage long straw wheat varieties, to which the Bonfils method is well-suited, were valued for the straw as well as the grain, straw being used for animal bedding, thatching, rough cordage, basket making and so forth.  Eventually, most of the straw would probably have ended up back on the fields, after a sojourn or two in other places.

In Sepp Holzer's winter rye method, it is repeatedly grazed before eventually permitting seed heads to form, which also vigorously builds soil.  But, as far as I am aware, wheat isn't grazed in this way.  If I can get some to germinate, I might try mowing (with a scythe) a small part of the plot to see if the wheat will come back.