Fixing up the Bruiser Cabin

High above the little town of Langley, tucked deep in the woods out of sight and far away from the reaches of the sun is a little cabin in the development of Talking Circle.

Scary little unfinished cabin back in the woods

If this building was an old trailer, only the most daring would venture inside.  It's easy to picture a horror movie a midst the large fir trees, with broken glass for windows, the stalker bursting through tattered OSB and an endless chase through the giant ferns.

Tar paper and butyl tape creating a moisture barrier for scary little cabin back in the woods.

 But it's not, it's a cabin, built by skilled carpenters with no sense of architectural detailing.  Cute but unfinished with odd details at the windows, rafters not on lay out, corners framed improperly, and connections between additions unresolved.

Shingles (and Yessi's smile) begin to transform scary cabin to cute cabin.

And for almost 20 years it's been tucked in the woods, half scary dark dungeon, half cute cabin in the woods.  Now, we're finishing some of the more important details to make it weather proof and provide protection so it can survive another 20 years.

Salvaged blue metal panels and black window flashing juxtaposed to weathered OSB and tar paper unter towering fir trees create a contemposcary architectural look.

One of my first recommendations, was to finish flashing the windows.  Ideally, window opening sills are taped with a butyl tape prior to installing the windows, then the windows is installed and tar paper, more tape, and flashing are installed from the bottom up so that they all overlap and shed water to the outside.

Cutest Chinese in the world (Yessi Ye) next to the Cutest Aussie in the world (Benton)  in front of the Cutest cabin in the world (Bruiser Cabin)

We weren't able to do these windows like I would from scratch, but we made them lots better.  And then finishing the siding which included setting sheathing nails, tar paper, butyl tape at the corners and then siding which on one section was cedar shingles and on the addition to the addition, metal siding which was salvaged from Skagit River Steel and Recycling.

This large picture window was transformed from a large whole in the wall to an architectural feature with metal trim and siding.

And it's transformed from scary to contemposcary and when we finish, it will be contemporary.  Given the history, the location, and the color of the salvaged metal siding and custom metal trim (black and blue) I'm designating this the 'Bruiser Cabin'!

Though working on this cabin under large trees is dark, needing lights even on sunny days, it's also very sheltered and dry.  Two days Yessi and I worked on the siding while the heavy northwest fog soaked any object it touched, but under the massive trees which seem to soak up even ambient water, we were able to stay dry.  All in all it's been a very fun place to work, the community is wonderful, the owner is terrific and the improvements look great leaving us feeling satisfied and with enough money for another few weeks!

Bruiser Cabin, Talking Circle, Langley, WA, USA

Signage

Signage.  I've been thinking alot about signs, ever since my first week on the Te Araroa trail wishing there had been more.  It has generated a lot of discussions about the nature of signage, what is appropriate or inappropriate, what is helpful, what is graffiti, and if there was a code for signage, what would it be.   How often should a trail be marked and if a sign is broken or missing or incorrect, is it okay to modify it as a user to help other hikers?

dbBrad aka Freestyle poses next to a hand made sign, an asset to the trail and helpful for hikers.

Here I have shown two signs, both made by users of the trail, thus non official, and at both ends of the spectrum.  Clearly the hand painted sign at the top is as official as one can get with salvaged metal plates and enamel paint done by hand; and it is helpful to all users. I would say it's an asset to the trail.  

An official sign that has been graffitied- defined by me as markings of a personal nature and of no value to others.

This one was a good sign but has been ruined by people marking it not with intent to help hikers but in a more personal 'i was here' manner consistent with most graffiti.  This is an example of vandalism.

I'm through hiking with a big pack!

Which means now I'm going to be 'thru' hiking with a smaller pack. The picture below is my alpine pack. I've always had just one pack and it's always full, be it an overnighter, a glaciated summit, or 40 days on the trail.

dbBrad and dbDog with D B-iggest pack on the trial!

So I adopted a new pack, smaller and lighter (just by getting a new pack I dropped 5 lbs!) and it's still full, just with less stuff!

dbBrad with new set. All gear, pack, clothes and electronics weighs 20.5 lbs.

I recently hiked 285 miles of Washington's PCT (Pacific Crest Trail). I started out with a 55 pound pack (pictured above). Way too heavy. No fun, too heavy and too slow. Carry less- hike faster- go further- carry less food. I started thinking about a lighter pack about five minutes into my first day. After a couple weeks I had dropped it to 45 with food and water.

dbDad and dbBrad with humongous packs with everything from spatulas and non stick frying pans to fresh veggies, tuna, a full medical kit and even a compact 45 which is both the size of the gun and the weight of my base pack!

When I was rejected by bad weather from passing over Goat Rocks and ended my trip a few days early, I was soaking wet and my base pack weighed about 40 pounds. When dry it weighted just under 35 lbs. However the Mountaineers wouldn't approve of my pack, because I had reduced their 10 essentials to about 4!

dbBrad returning to White Pass soaked and tired after getting 'rejected' by the weather at Goat Rocks, PCT WA.

However, 35lbs is still way too much if one is going to hike more than 15 miles in a day. It's roughly twice the base pack of the average through hiker I saw on the trail. During my hike, I crossed paths with over 75 people, 50 or more who were hiking the PCT in it's entirety.

dbDog is okay with the 'cats meow' but he wants North Face to make a 'dogs Roof" to sleep under!

So I looked, asked questions, analyzed and scrutinized products, methods and sound reasoning and came up with a reasonably safe yet much lighter selection of gear which has just enough comfort and warmth. I now have a base pack of about 20lbs including all my clothes, gear and electronics.

My new pack was a hand me down I had yet to use because it seemed so light and flimsy. Tent is my beloved Zoid II from MSR, Sleeping bag is my Cats Meow from North Face and cooking gear is the MSR Reactor. The Reactor and all my clothes came from Wander on Whidbey, closer, friendlier and cheaper than REI!

Friction Fit db Bird Blocks

Many of my roofs have perlins.  They create a strong roof by having dimensional lumber running in two directions.  They provide structure for overhangs.  And they create a roof that looks great without the need for soffeting.

Sometimes I fully notch the perlins, but often I just set them on top the rafters as another layer.  This works great for venting allowing air flow in two directions.  However it creates a need for additional bird blocks to keep critters out of the insulation and roof cavity.

My latest solution rather than make a bunch of miniature blocks, is to make breathable bird blocks that friction fit with foam pipe insulation and nylon screen.

Just tape one edge of the screen, roll it over the correct size of pipe insulation and run your hands over it until the tape sticks.  Cut to length with a knife and stuff into place.

Super easy to install, even after the roof is done!  Great look because they disappear in the shadows.  Relatively durable because the foam is protected by the same screen as every other Bird Block.  Great solution for bird blocks between perlins 1.5"-2" thick by any length up to 6 feet.

A green wall system using old futons and fallen branches.

The GWS (Green Wall System)
and futon recycling project-another dbBrad original

Recycled steel left over from another project, discounted/damaged hog wire panels doubled up and off set to make a 2x2 grid, old door hinges, fallen branches and some door hinges complete the list of materials.

Cutting and fitting the panels.  Note the offset 4x4 panels to make a more dynamic 2x2 grid, perfect for moss and plants.

The simple frames are made of hog wire and 3/4" angle iron.  Four little welds in the corners and about a dozen tacks between the hog wire mesh and the frame complete the basic panel.

Welding the WWM (Welded Wire Mesh) to the angle iron frame.

Recycled door hinges are welded at the bottom so I can open it and maintain it.  I weld right through the holes and fill them up which makes for a quick strong nice looking weld.

The panels are hinged for assembly and major re plantings. Gravity and time can be problematic with moss, earth and decaying wood so with time will settle out and need re-doing, but it's far from a quick process to take them back down.

There are no baffles inside my wall. It's 8' tall and the mossy branches I collected which run vertically and fit into the corrugations of my container. The remaining space is filled with sawdust and mulch.

And then the recycled futon is installed to act as a drainage plane for the container, a membrane to help support the material and keep it from sluffing and my hope is to provide great water storage and growing medium for the moss.

Zip strips were used to hold the logs to the mesh.  the futon was just tacked at the upper corners to hold it in place during assembly.

The panels get tipped up and bolted to carriage bolts which I welded right to the container.  Four bolts will hold it tight and ensure it cant fall of during transport.

The moss panel being hoisted into place on the side of my container/shop.

There is a gutter running along the entire top edge of the container.  This is to shed water that drains off the roof from dripping onto my tools and work space, but is also the support for the awnings which are welded to the outer edge of the channel.  This serves to hold them out for the side of the container, allowing for the thickness of the moss panel as well as to direct water to the panels where it waters the moss.

The finished moss wall panel

My primary objective with the container is to create a great shop.  My goal with the green wall panels is to create an interesting container and to explore the concepts of living buildings that are affordable.   I've got a lot of work to do yet, but it's looking good so far.

A truly 'Green' Gate

Cheryl's Living gate.

Designed and built by Brad Hankins, the green guy.

dbBrad is Mr. Greenguy.

Almost 5' wide and 5' tall, this gate weighs about 400 lbs. And it's filled entirely with natural materials (forest duff) and moss harvested from my dad's property in Snoqualmie, WA. This moss comes with a layer of bark for nutrition and is wonderfully embedded with licorice fern. Because it's old, its dense with decaying layers under healthy moss and its able to absorb an incredible amount of water. My guess is the gate can hold about 50-100 lbs of water. This is about 5-10 gallons.

Jimmy had some massive hinges left over from a project that worked perfectly for stealth mounting and are plenty strong. Pleasantly, the gate swings freely and has a nifty Inertial Latch I designed.

Using Newton's First Law (also known as the Law of Inertia)  that awhichstates that an object at rest tends to stay at rest and applying the knowledge of momentum, which is equal to mass times velocity, I was able to design a prototype inertial latch that seems to work like a charm.  It's actually no latch because the resistance of the hinges and the mass of the gate ensure that where you leave it is where it is. Thus, the Inertial latch is a fancy name for no latch.  Simple is always better!

And it comes apart, just by removing four bolts, two of which are pictured above. The tricky thing here was that in order to access the center, the ring had to come apart too.

From Below to Bottom-
The removable washer allowing the mesh to be installed and supported by the flange of the ring.
The components
Brad artfully fits the gate with forest duff, moss and salvaged plants
Side view showing innards of the living gate.
The top mesh is placed and the removable ring installed
The gate, mostly assembled and stood on edge, ready for the top (edge) piece. Cheryl through the center.
Josh demonstrates skill trimming a portion of the panels for assembly with a grinder and shielding the cedar from sparks at the same time.
The gate on edge showing the massive scale relative to josh.
Tightening the bolts on the removable edge.
The hinges

Because I wanted a 2x2 grid (the ideal spacing to hold material but allow plants to grow through) but didn't have a budget for fancy woven steel materials, I took 4x4 mesh and welded two sheets together. As a result, there is a depth to the material lacking in the standard 2x2 grid. Next time I'll take 3 sheets of 6x6 to accomplish the same but with even more complexity and depth.

The components are simple. A rectangular frame and hinges strong enough to hold the weight. Two panels, one for each side. And the ring.

The finished product a bit more complicated since it is all designed to come apart to be redone, though I anticipate with watering, the plants have enough organic material to survive for at least a decade.

Once all the pieces were designed, priced, iterated and completed, they still needed to be assembled. In my 25 years of building, ideas that seem great in theory sometimes don't work out so well in reality. Needless to say, I was very pleased when everything fit together as planned and the gate was planted, assembled and hung in less than 4 hours.

Because I used forest duff, I had log pieces that I placed around the edges to help hold the other material during assembly. We filled any voids left over with wood chips and covered it all with a thick layer of moss.

The first glimpse of the finished project with Cheryl in the background. This was one of those projects that was so satisfying to see come together that there was quite a bit of 'stand back and looks so cool' going on!

Once the panel was slid into the 3 sided channel frame, we had to trim a few pieces of the mesh to get the top (side) on. And then we had to stand back and look some more!

Finally fitted, the side bolts are tightened and the gate is ready to be installed.

The hinges were drilled and tapped so that 7" x 5/8" bolts come from the backside of the post. This was done to grab more wood, to hide the fasteners and dock washers and because on a butt hinge the screws have to be flush which isn't so easy to do with big bolts. We trimmed the bolts flush after torquing with a grinder.

All steel fabrication, much design credit and special thanks to Jimmy and his two sons, Jack and Aiden Cussen, the Irish Welders.

All steel from Skagit River Steel and recycling except for the custom hog wire, by dbBrad and Skagit Farm Supply.

Steel plates and Cedar from Pete @ Two Dog Timber works

Steel chain and special thanks to Dave at Island Recycling, not located in cyberspace but still just north of Freeland on Hwy 525.