75: Chinking, underway!

It's been a long winter up the holler.  Gravel never broke through the snow on the drive during the month of January.  It fell on Christmas Day and then fell again on January 9.  We got 35 inches during the season, including December.  Remarkable, since February felt  tropical.  The cabin roof, with its stout rafters, fortified top plates, pole-supported ridge beam, inch-thick planks, and galvanized metal sheathing held up fine under the dull weight of 14 inches of wet snow.  The deep eaves ably protected the walls from moisture -- they dried and checked and settled.  It's time to chink!

I decided to cut strips of galvanized diamond lathe and nail it into the gaps using 16 penny galvanized 3.5 inch nails.

Although lots of good folk provided excellent recipes for chinking, some rustic and some more mainstream, I found a sand-based mortar solution with fiberglass reinforcement and only about 10% portland cement.  I had considered making my own with cement, lime, and sand with small polypropylene rope fibers to hold it together and combat cracking.  This stuff is bright white, but I can dye it mud-colored to avoid a candy stripe look.  This may seem to fly in the face of the spirit of the project, but I'm sold on the ease and consistency it'll bring to this phase.  Remember, for us, "Postmodern" means combining the traditional and the contemporary wherever it makes sense, visually or structurally.  And the expensive high tech chinking products really do violate the Thoreauvian ideal thus far realized through making stuff myself or using inexpensive local products.

Soon, maybe this weekend, I'll be able to test this concept.  Look for some pictures and posts next week!