The cabin is nearly complete. We are in the process of installing screens and window hardware. Shelving and electrical will follow shortly. It’s almost sad, but tomorrow all the beautiful cedar you see in the picture above will be stained to match the existing cabins. This will only be done on the exterior. The interior will be allowed to age naturally.
Both interior and exterior structural members are held together using custom plates bolted at the joints. This is similar to the materials used originally. Siding and other wood members were assembled using non-staining galvanized nails. The roof deck is visible from the bott0m here. The deck is made from tongue and groove 2 x 6 cedar.
The cabin should be complete next week. None too soon as Woodcraft Camp will be starting shortly. We want to be out of there before 200+ elementary school girls take over this part of the camp!
Images taken from the Tribune Business Weekly, May 30, 2011
Yesterday I attended the St. Joseph County Chamber of Commerce’s Forty under 40 luncheon at The Gillespie Center in South Bend. I was there as Chairman of the Marshall County Economic Development Corporation (MCEDC). Jennifer Laurent, MCEDC Executive Director, was one of the honorees. I was pleased to see that Andrea Cook of The Midas Center in Plymouth was also there as an honoree. MCEDC is working to increase our regional ties and the recognition of these two influential women from our community can only help this effort.
Tracy Graham, former Notre Dame football player and current South Bend entreprenuer, was the keynote speaker. He gave a motivational speech on the future of South Bend, refuting some of the negative connotations left by the Newsweek article naming South Bend #8 among America’s dying cities. The University of Notre Dame, the convergances of transportation nodes and the high speed internet access provided by the Metronet were among a few of the positives he listed. For better or worse, regionally our fortunes are somewhat linked to those of South Bend.
Thank you to the Chamber of Commerce of St. Joseph County and the Tribune Business Weekly for recognizing two of Marshall County’s bright young women. Now we need to press the honorees to continue their efforts and not rest on their laurels. Jennifer? Andrea? We’re waiting! What are you going to do next to put Marshall County in the spotlight and on the map? Best wishes for future successes!
Grace Baptist Church in Plymouth will be celebrating their 50 year anniversary this summer. They have a dedication marker in the corner of their front entrance commemorating the 1961 establishment of the Church. There has been some debate regarding whether there is a time capsule behind this stone. Some of the Church Elders believing that there is a time capsule there and would like to open it as part of the anniversary celebration.
Because of the various projects we’ve completed for the Church, Pastor Elliott asked if we knew if there was a time capsule there or if there was a way of finding out without damaging the marker. I looked at the marker and the wall and was a little skeptical. The marker is carved limestone. From all indications the wall is block with the limestone exterior as a veneer. The thickness doesn’t really lend itself to allow for a cavity since the total wall thickness is not much more than 12″. That would allow for 8″ block with 4″ limestone veneer. If the marker stone is 2″ thick, there might be a 2″ cavity behind it. If they had also switched to 4″ block in this area, they could have possibly created a 6″ cavity.
I discussed removing the marker with Pastor Elliott. Even if the marker is only 2″ thick, it would be difficult to cut the mortar surrounding it. We would not be able to cut all the way to the corners to the full depth with a circular blade without damaging the surrounding stone. If we stopped short of cutting full depth at the corners to protect the surrounding stone, we would be forced to chip out the remaining mortar taking the chance of damaging the marker. This on the chance that there is a time capsule…
Matt Peregrine
I made an alternate suggestion that we drill a hole in the block behind the marker and use a camera to check for a cavity. Matt Peregrine of Peregrine Heating and Cooling has a camera and volunteered to donate part of his Saturday to help. Matt’s son Steven just completed 5th grade at Grace Baptist School and came along to check out the exploration. We met this past Saturday, May 28th, to see what we could find.
We used a hammer drill and drilled three holes in the wall. The first hole was drilled directly behind the marker. This hole found no cavity. Not even a block core void. We went as far as we dared for fear of damaging the marker and were in approximately 8″ when we stopped. The second hole was drilled above the marker with the idea that we could look down into any cavity. We had difficulty bending the camera to see down in the gap between the block and stone, so we used that same hole as a starting point and drilled at a 45 degree angle down towards the marker. In second and third holes we were able to see the gap between the stones, but found no void. While this didn’t conclusively eliminate the possibility, we felt we had pressed our luck far enough and the Church Elders needed to hear what we found and decide if more destruction was warranted. I spoke to Pastor Elliott this week and he is going to report our findings to the Church Board. At this time they plan no more exploration.
I want to thank Matt Peregrine for generously donating his time. He told me he felt like Geraldo Rivera when he was looking for Al Capone’s vault since the whole thing had an anticlimactic ending. Apologies to Steven. I guess he didn’t get to be the first to see the time capsule, but he did get to see his father giving generously of his time and equipment. Hopefully that will inspire him in the future.
“Word of Mouse” has replaced word of mouth as the most viral means of gossip, grousing and groaning… Today’s Internet connections, whether blogs, tweets, or other forms of social media, have five times the impact of traditional word of mouth.
From the book Wired and Dangerous by Chip Bell and John Patterson per Builder Magazine, May 2011, pg 54
So the other day I saw a picture of Joe Biden and couldn’t get over how much he looked like Jeff Dunham’s puppet, Walter. I went to google some pictures to prove my point and found that I’m not the only one that noticed the resemblence! Ha! There is a site here that points out what I noticed.
The cabin is nearly complete. We are in the process of installing screens and window hardware. Shelving and electrical will follow shortly. It’s almost sad, but tomorrow all the beautiful cedar you see in the picture above will be stained to match the existing cabins. This will only be done on the exterior. The interior will be allowed to age naturally.
Both interior and exterior structural members are held together using custom plates bolted at the joints. This is similar to the materials used originally. Siding and other wood members were assembled using non-staining galvanized nails. The roof deck is visible from the bott0m here. The deck is made from tongue and groove 2 x 6 cedar.
