My barn construction progress update for 3/1/12

A quick photo update of my barn construction progress for 3/1/12. The first trusses are set.

Maple Syrup

This past weekend William and I boiled down 30+ gallons of maple sap over a wood fire. The day was cool and breezy, but the fire kept us warm. Early on we decided to put a lid over the large boiling pot of sap in order to prevent smoke and ashes from ruining the taste of our syrup. It took us about 7 hrs to reduce by boiling the sap down to about 4 gallons of sweet water.

We finished boiling the sap indoors over the stovetop. The final result was about 3 and 1/2 quarts of very tasty 100% homemade maple syrup. YUM!!!

Maple syrup and barn progress.

The weather has been very good for february here in Indiana. Because of that I have made some good progress on barn construction. With the help of my two sons, I have began erecting the roof framing. This excites me, to see the barn start to look like a barn.

We have took on another project this year. My eldest son William, my dad, and I will be collecting and boiling down sugar maple sap to try our hand at homemade maple syrup.

We have tapped 5 trees so far and will be tapping at least that many more soon. With the warm 45'F days and freezing nights, the sap is flowing pretty well.

For any of you that havn't heard of where maple syrup comes from, heres a simple web definition for you.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Maple syrup is a syrup usually made from the xylem sap of sugar maple, red maple, or black maple trees, although it can also be made from other maple species such as the bigleaf maple. In cold climates, these trees store starch in their trunks and roots before the winter; the starch is then converted to sugar that rises in the sap in the spring. Maple trees can be tapped by boring holes into their trunks and collecting the exuded sap. The sap is processed by heating to evaporate much of the water, leaving the concentrated syrup."

I will post updates when we have collected enough maple sap to boil down into syrup. Ive been told it takes about 35 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup. So thats gonna take a bit of time.

Barn construction update 1/10/12

Heres a photo of the barn build so far. Its dimensions are 24' x 24'. Till now I have had it pretty good this winter with the warm weather. But as of today winter and cold is back.

High water

Heavy rains last week put the bridge to its first real test of its foundation. Several inches of rain pushed the water level of the creek up to within a few feet of the bottom cord of steel. All went well. No damage or undermining found. Very happy.

Bridge construction update, temporary deck.

Here are a couple photos that show that i have installed a narrow wooden deck on the bridge. With the weather getting cooler and winter on the way, I wont have time to cut and prepare all of the heavy timbers for the full deck. That will have to be done next summer. So, until then, to get use out of all my hard work so far, I went for a temporary decking for my 4 wheel ATV.

This will be a big help during the heavy spring rains and high water. Crossing the creek in high water has been near impossible since my old bridge was washed out.

Next year I hope to redeck it for heavy traffic, like the big truck in the background.

Visit to a nearby treasure. Colonial Brick kilns at Cayuga.

Driving home to Indiana from Denver, Colorado over the weekend with my wife, my sister and her daughter, I made a short visit to a brickworks in Cayuga, Indiana. Id known about it being in my state for over a year. But never had found time to make the trip to see it.

The 10 or so beehive downdraught kilns are operated by Colonial Brick Co. and still are coal fired to this day. They specialize in recreating old and out of date brick for important historical restorations all over the country.

The sights and smells of the smoke here is a powerful step back in time. If I lived closer, id work for free on the side, just to learn better some of the old ways they made and fired the brick.

I really want to build my next brick kiln like one of these scaled down for my needs. Maybe next year.

Bridge in location

Finished moving bridge over the piers yesterday. Now waiting for the rain to let up so I can jack it up and level it out. Then its time to anchor it in place and work on the decking.

Bridge on the move

Today was a good day. The bridge is now resting on its concrete piers. It was manual labor with a ratcheting chain winch and two comelongs. I used the dozer as a fixed anchor point only. The move and positioning of the trusses was too delicate for brute diesel power.

I spent all day on the move, inch by inch it crept outward over the abyss. Help arrived in the afternoon when my son returned home from school and lend me a hand to finish the work. Im greatful for his help. Im blessed with two near adult sons that I lean on from time to time.

The work is far from done, as now I have to finish the positioning and anchor the bridge in place. Then its putting in the beams and deck.

Second truss is up!

I had some time on Labor Day to work on my bridge. The second truss is up and aligned with the first. Some more bracing needs done and all the cross framing needs added to give it rigidity. Then the path has to be cleared up to the creek.
The plan is to drag it up to and then across the bridge abutments and over the creek with my dozer. More to come!

Bridge progress

Here is a photo of the first steel truss being lifted into its upright position.


The next photos are of the work around the pier and abutments in the creek.

I will be working more on it today!

Just wanted to let you know about a blog that is an inspiration to my bridge build here.

http://bridges2thefuture.blogspot.com/

Working on my truss bridge again.

Really I have been working on it off and on all spring into summer. But I thought to post an update on where Im at with it. There are to efforts going on at the same time, pier construction and truss fabrication.
Im in the first stages of laying out the scrap metal to see what the trusses will look like and make changes where needed. I then have to cut all the pieces to fit together and make ready for welding.



Most of my work has been on the center pier lately. Adding height to it in order to bring it level with both bank abutments. Laying courses of free salvage concrete blocks and filling in the center of the pier with rocks and rubble from the creek, I have built a solid center load bearing structure. Both the ends are made from 55 gallon barrels filled with rock and covered in concrete. Im thinking about covering the long faces of the pier with brick to match the abutments.

Firing results from the brick clamp kiln.

As promised, some photos of fired brick and tile from my latest kiln. It worked very well for a first firing. I have some cold spots and hot spots to improve on next firing. I think nothing will change with the kiln design for now. I will modify how I push the hot coals around in the firebox and stoking in the later stages. Its a learning process, but Im excited about this. Looks like it should be alot of fun!

First firing of the brick kiln at Canal Park.

We had our first firing of the brick kiln at the Wabash and Erie Canal Park in Delphi, Indiana friday and saturday. Thankfully the rain didn't come as had been forcasted. All went well and the firing from start to finish took a little over 26 hours. The kilns hunger for wood wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be either. We went through about half of the wood I had set aside for the firing. In total, about 120 bricks, 50 tiles, and 30 clay coasters were loaded inside.

My pyrometer temp sensors wern't in the best locations as they didn't seem to reflect temps I was observing in the kiln. So next time they will be relocated.

Today I will be going out to break it open and see the results of all the hard work. I will post pics and results soon.

Death and rebirth, A new kiln for Wabash and Erie Canal Park in Delphi.

With much excitement and some sadness I report to you the ongoing construction of a new brick and tile kiln in Delphi. I have been honored with the task of building a replica historical brickmaking kiln at the Wabash and Erie Canal Park. There you can find a village with several cabins and period homes and other structures from the 1830's to 1880's time frame. They also have an actual reconstructed canal boat that offers rides. For those of you with an interest in metalworking there is a blacksmith shop as well as two iron bridges nearby that have been restored.

The new kiln is a scaled down simple updraft clamp scove fired by wood. This is much like kilns of that time in this area. It is designed to fire a few hundred bricks or tiles each time. The inner body of the kiln is made out of recycled firebrick. This is surrounded by an outer shell of common red brick. In between is filled with dirt for insulation and to stop cold air leakage into the kiln.

The new kiln is the largest I have ever built so far. Because of that it has put a strain on my supply of brick, requiring me to tear down and recycle both of my other kilns for the needed brick.

The barn kiln wasn't a big loss to me as it never worked out as well as I would have liked. Failing to reach peak temps no matter what I tried.

But to loose my backyard bottlekiln is sad. It more than did as I hoped it would. Its sacrafice for the greater good will not be in vain. I hope to one day bring it back bigger and better.