Made this video for an organization I am a member of, Forest Reciprocity Group (FRoG). We have an emphasis on popularizing the use of small diameter fir poles for building. Last year started
hopping around from member to members homesteads and getting out and working in the woods together. Our month was October and we built a round pole woodshed with the help of 15 friends and 7 electric chainsaws. This was our first attempt at video editing, so feedback is appreciated!
For the October Hop we wanted to prove the efficacy of simple building with locally abundant Douglas Fir poles. We chose to forgo the laborious bark stripping process, with the idea that late summer harvested poles were already very dry and therefore would not be prone to shrinkage. What gave us confidence was discovering an old goat shed that had used unstripped poles and was still in good condition 40 years later. The project was designed as a family fire wood-shed, that would provide dry storage in the winter, and fire conscious location in the summer months. It was sized to hold enough wood to heat our houses for up to three years.
Having a group of people to help us informed the design, allowing us to work with 30ft tree sections, as well as exponentially speeding up the time construction took, and fun. Each person brought their skills, tools, and a willingness to share and learn.
In the process of forest thinning, land owners had already picked out some trees that were nice and straight, saving them for building projects. In the days proceeding the Hop we poured the foundation footers, and harvested the trees. The rest of the work of cutting to lengths, adding mortise and tenons, was done during the weekend.
In ode to the ongoing fire thinning and biochar production projects on site, I decided to incorporate up to 60% charcoal during the creation of the foundation blocks. In this way reducing our need to import dwindling sand resources, while creating a lighter weight, fire resistant concrete solution. More experiments using biochar in concrete and cob building are promising directions for land stewards to investigate.
Another technique was employed by driving concrete stakes (3/4”) up into the posts. A jig was created on the fly to send a long speed bit per These posts would then easily slip into steel pipes set into the foundation blocks, thus holding them upright as we assembled the rest of the structure. Tar paper and squares of hog fencing were added between the posts and the blocks. In the end the whole structure was resting on the steel pipe a good 1/2 inch off the foundation. We were happy with this to prevent standing water and end rot.
5
