Ben the Builder

 March 27th.  Locating foundation for the longhouse and first of two cabin

Ben navigating the mud to locate longhouse aligned true North

I met Ben (our pro builder) at his home in Nanaimo and we headed to Sayward to launch his boat and make the trip to Hull.  Along the way we drove by his cabin on Point Neville to see if it was still there, and to check on his sawmill recovering from a hit by a fallen tree.  All was well so we proceeded to Hull.  Trip from Sayward to Hull took an hour.

Together we spent a day and a half establishing the specific location for the long house and first of two cabins.  We wanted to see what the ground conditions would be for pouring the 18 concrete piers that create the long house foundation and 9 piers for each cabin.  Paul had cleared most of the earth and discovered a massive expanse of ground rock.  Ben and I with the excavator, picks, shovels, brushes and hands dug away more dirt and uncovered even more bedrock.  I think the buildings, connected to solid exposed rock will look fantastic!

With lasers, tape measures and more digging, Ben set up small cairns to show where each post will go and guide Paul and his daughters for further rock cleaning.

Construction is now fully in progress, and the major glulam beams and solid timber posts, beams and rafters on order.  2025 is shaping up to be a huge year of building.  The first barge carrying concrete, skip jack (sand and stone to mix with concrete), concrete forms and rebar leaves Campbell River on April 29th and should be to Hull by May 1st.

18 small cairns to show concrete foundation posts