Autumn Joy – Cordwood Wall Update

Seventeen more walls to go! That’s not so bad considering I started with 64. Of course, that was a few years ago, but who’s counting the years? It’s been a slow process, but it’s fun watching the house slowly take shape. Plans are to wrap up the living room area in the next couple of weeks—weather permitting. The last two walls to be done are located in the living room and are directly behind the wood stove. It will be interesting to see how much heat will be retained by the these walls located close to the stove. So far, the house has been plenty warm without the use of the stove, but November and December is usually quite cloudy and soon enough I will need the stove to keep the house comfortable.

Working on the inside walls has extended the cordwood building season, but eventually it will be too cold to do any outdoor mixing. (As recently as last Thursday, I ran into problems with frozen slurry and water hoses.) Last winter I did construct a cordwood wall but all the mixing had to be done by hand and I had nowhere to slurry and drain large quantities of paper. This makes for a time consuming process, so I probably won’t be doing too many more cordwood walls until next spring.

I do have a list of things that I would like to accomplish this coming winter: cut and bevel logs for the next cordwood construction season, frame and plaster walls, run electric circuits, construct the front door, cut firewood for the next winter and other odds and ends. The big push will be to finish the master bedroom and adjoining closet. This will become my sleeping and living quarters while I build out the rest of the house.

There aren’t too many maples in our area, but there is one near our house that always brings autumn joy.