I also find smoking unpleasant. A volcano vaporizer is more enjoyable. For the doses to effect cancer, it requires eating the oil as other methods won't get enough into the system.
I'd stay away from the synthetics. They tend to be a focus of 1 or 2 cannabinoids and have much higher chances of causing freak out since some of the cannabinoids present in smaller percentages balance out the intensity of THC. There's labs all over the place that test oils for quality and strength.
Halfmoon's journal
Re: Halfmoon's journal
That's good to know about synthetics, Felipe. We're still waiting for more information on this latest recurrence so we can look clearly at the options. Even if there's no hope of a cure, I'd like him to try cannabis for his constant pain and nausea.
Re: Halfmoon's journal
Sorry to hear this, halfmoon. You're both in my thoughts.
Re: Halfmoon's journal
Sympathies from myself, also. I wish for your DH some good moments when the discomfort eases.
Re: Halfmoon's journal
I sincerely appreciate all the supportive messages. I'm looking forward to getting back to our story, because that -- not illness -- is what defines my beloved husband for me.
My strongest advice for anyone, trite and overused as it may be: live your life at all times. Be fully present in your relationships, your work, your everyday life. Don't assume that everything will be perfect at some future point.
Our path obviously wouldn't be for everyone, and it wasn't even really ERE. We retired when DH was 55 and I was 34, and I returned to working from home 10 years later. Still: before, during and after our retirement, we pursued adventures and accomplishments that gave our life satisfaction and meaning. That's a huge consolation to me now, when we can't really go anywhere or do much. For those who want to immerse themselves in physical activity or adventurous travel, I'd advise putting aside fear and doing those things before ill health or inertia narrow your possibilities. When you're young, it's hard to imagine being physically or mentally diminished by age, but it happens to us all.
My strongest advice for anyone, trite and overused as it may be: live your life at all times. Be fully present in your relationships, your work, your everyday life. Don't assume that everything will be perfect at some future point.
Our path obviously wouldn't be for everyone, and it wasn't even really ERE. We retired when DH was 55 and I was 34, and I returned to working from home 10 years later. Still: before, during and after our retirement, we pursued adventures and accomplishments that gave our life satisfaction and meaning. That's a huge consolation to me now, when we can't really go anywhere or do much. For those who want to immerse themselves in physical activity or adventurous travel, I'd advise putting aside fear and doing those things before ill health or inertia narrow your possibilities. When you're young, it's hard to imagine being physically or mentally diminished by age, but it happens to us all.
-
Jason
Re: Halfmoon's journal
Its not trite and overused, its important and important ideas should be repeated, so thank you.
-
saving-10-years
- Posts: 554
- Joined: Thu Oct 31, 2013 9:37 am
- Location: Warwickshire, UK
Re: Halfmoon's journal
@halfmoon - as one of your readers who with my own DH has been following with bated breath the bold exploits of your DH I am at this point reviewing some of those exploits mentally and thinking ... 'what? he was 55+ when he did that pole building/skimming lark?' 'and the tractor in the mud hole?' 'and the truck falling to bits under the weight of materials' and ... Your retirement may not have been extremely early but it definitely (from my reading) had its extreme aspects.
Lives lived fully with hopefully more episodes of reaching high to come. Certainly hoping so.
Lives lived fully with hopefully more episodes of reaching high to come. Certainly hoping so.
Re: Halfmoon's journal
Jason, this was brought into sharp focus for me again because a family member died yesterday. Thank you.
Saving-10-years, I always find your messages inspirational (as in kick-butt
)! My butt is duly kicked, and I'm going to continue our story. Hope to post later today.
Saving-10-years, I always find your messages inspirational (as in kick-butt
)! My butt is duly kicked, and I'm going to continue our story. Hope to post later today.Re: Halfmoon's journal
Let's all step into the time machine and return to 1997 (Ha! We wish.)
THE RETIREMENT YEARS
...SOMETIMES THE BEAR SPITS YOU BACK OUT.
BUILDING THE SHOP:
We returned to our mountain home at the end of February 1997. DH was suffering short-term aftereffects of head/neck radiation, but it only took him a few months to shake the worst of it off. We didn't understand back then that cellular-level radiation damage worsens over time, but that's another story.
As soon as the snow melted, we continued our project of thinning sick trees from our property. One of the patches we'd been avoiding was a stand of good-sized larch infested with mistletoe. We clearly needed to cut them down in order to protect the new growth from being infected, but it was just painful to think of using these gorgeous, arrow-straight trees for firewood. One bright day in early spring, I came up with a brilliant idea: we should use the larch to build a log shop.
This is a trait DH and I shared: our reach exceeded our grasp on a regular basis. The last thing we needed was another project, but we latched onto this with religious fervor.
The logical spot for a shop/garage was at the base of the tower. That was the only area free of large trees, and we weren’t about to cut healthy trees. Being us, we went out and measured how much room we had between the tower base and a big old pine at the other end. That determined the size of our building. No point in wasting opportunity by making it any smaller!
We designed the building to be a 20x20’ log-enclosed shop on one end and two 20x10’ open bays for parking the truck and tractor and...stuff. The enclosed end had two notched and fitted corners like those you see in most log construction. The other two shop corners (and the door openings) had vertical poles into which we butted the logs and pinned them with rebar. We did this because the notching/fitting takes a long time and also eats up more space. The photos can explain this better than I can.
Required steps:
1. Cut down the diseased trees (about 40 of them) and peel the logs. Allow me to say that again: PEEL THE LOGS. Very short description of a huge job. You see some log cabins with the bark still on, which is easier but makes the logs more prone to rot. Not for us. We used draw knives and peeling spuds, then laid the logs out to dry with spacers keeping them off the ground. I unfortunately have no photos of this process.
2. Measure the diameter of each log on each end and determine where they would go in the building for maximum uniformity. These larch were ideal for log construction because there wasn't much variation in diameter from one end to the other. That means you can fit the logs pretty tightly and keep the layers reasonably level.
3. Mark each log to key with our layout diagram.
4. Move the logs to the building site. This actually happened gradually throughout the building process so we weren’t tripping over logs. The harvest/peeling site was halfway across our 40 acres from the building site.
5. Hand-dig 12 holes for the foundation piers. Hand-mix concrete, pour the piers and insert rebar.
6. Lay concrete blocks between the piers for the 20x20' enclosed portion, bedded in the ground to achieve a level top. Lay tarpaper on the concrete blocks and then pressure-treated lumber on top of that. Level, level, level.
Finally! We have a blurry photo.
7. Lay down the size-coded logs one at a time, chain-saw notches in each end, finish the notches with a chisel, then fit the logs together at the corners. Again: we only notched and fitted the logs at two corners of the building.
8. Drill holes through two layers of logs and pound rebar into the corners and wall intervals.
Inspector General
9. Use the Alaskan mill to square off one or two sides of the vertical posts as needed to butt the logs against. I don't have an action shot for the Alaskan milling, but you can see the result. This side has the man door opening.
This is the beginning of the barn door opening (actually earlier than the previous photo). The green steel rails we set up for the Alaskan mill are in the foreground.
10. Use the Alaskan mill to square off three 48-foot logs into beams for the ridge beam and the two that went on top of the walls. (@ffj or Riggerjack, I need some help with what these are called. I’m pretty sure wall-topping beams isn’t the term.)* The Alaskan mill is just a chainsaw attachment, so it's a fairly miserable process: noisy, smelling of exhaust and and all the sawdust you can eat.
*Edit: Saving-10-years helped me out here. The term is wall plate.
11. Use tall posts, come-alongs and chains to hoist the beams into place; secure everything with rebar and threaded rods. The first photo is horribly blurry, but it might help to understand the hoisting process.
I want to point out that DH is 60 years old in these photos and just over a serious bout with cancer. Pretty impressive, I think.
12. Construct and hang the big barn doors. Hang a small man door on one side. We also planned to cut windows in, but we never got around to it.
13. Fit dimensional rafter lumber to the hand-milled beams, cutting in birds heads at the top and the side beams. FYI: calculating the cuts was HELL. Do not ever try to fit dimensional lumber to hand-milled beams unless you’re a math genius with the patience of Job (...or maybe just know what you're doing). I came close to burning the whole thing down in frustration.
14. Sheath the rafters with OSB and then roofing felt.
15. Lay metal roofing panels and screw down.
16. Collapse for the winter.
We started this project in spring and barely finished it by the end of September with early dustings of high-elevation snow on our tails. We worked 10-hour days and lay awake nights toward the end fearing that we'd bitten off more than we could chew. Pretty typical for us.
THE RETIREMENT YEARS
...SOMETIMES THE BEAR SPITS YOU BACK OUT.
BUILDING THE SHOP:
We returned to our mountain home at the end of February 1997. DH was suffering short-term aftereffects of head/neck radiation, but it only took him a few months to shake the worst of it off. We didn't understand back then that cellular-level radiation damage worsens over time, but that's another story.
As soon as the snow melted, we continued our project of thinning sick trees from our property. One of the patches we'd been avoiding was a stand of good-sized larch infested with mistletoe. We clearly needed to cut them down in order to protect the new growth from being infected, but it was just painful to think of using these gorgeous, arrow-straight trees for firewood. One bright day in early spring, I came up with a brilliant idea: we should use the larch to build a log shop.
This is a trait DH and I shared: our reach exceeded our grasp on a regular basis. The last thing we needed was another project, but we latched onto this with religious fervor.
The logical spot for a shop/garage was at the base of the tower. That was the only area free of large trees, and we weren’t about to cut healthy trees. Being us, we went out and measured how much room we had between the tower base and a big old pine at the other end. That determined the size of our building. No point in wasting opportunity by making it any smaller!
We designed the building to be a 20x20’ log-enclosed shop on one end and two 20x10’ open bays for parking the truck and tractor and...stuff. The enclosed end had two notched and fitted corners like those you see in most log construction. The other two shop corners (and the door openings) had vertical poles into which we butted the logs and pinned them with rebar. We did this because the notching/fitting takes a long time and also eats up more space. The photos can explain this better than I can.
Required steps:
1. Cut down the diseased trees (about 40 of them) and peel the logs. Allow me to say that again: PEEL THE LOGS. Very short description of a huge job. You see some log cabins with the bark still on, which is easier but makes the logs more prone to rot. Not for us. We used draw knives and peeling spuds, then laid the logs out to dry with spacers keeping them off the ground. I unfortunately have no photos of this process.
2. Measure the diameter of each log on each end and determine where they would go in the building for maximum uniformity. These larch were ideal for log construction because there wasn't much variation in diameter from one end to the other. That means you can fit the logs pretty tightly and keep the layers reasonably level.
3. Mark each log to key with our layout diagram.
4. Move the logs to the building site. This actually happened gradually throughout the building process so we weren’t tripping over logs. The harvest/peeling site was halfway across our 40 acres from the building site.
5. Hand-dig 12 holes for the foundation piers. Hand-mix concrete, pour the piers and insert rebar.
6. Lay concrete blocks between the piers for the 20x20' enclosed portion, bedded in the ground to achieve a level top. Lay tarpaper on the concrete blocks and then pressure-treated lumber on top of that. Level, level, level.
Finally! We have a blurry photo.
7. Lay down the size-coded logs one at a time, chain-saw notches in each end, finish the notches with a chisel, then fit the logs together at the corners. Again: we only notched and fitted the logs at two corners of the building.
8. Drill holes through two layers of logs and pound rebar into the corners and wall intervals.
Inspector General
9. Use the Alaskan mill to square off one or two sides of the vertical posts as needed to butt the logs against. I don't have an action shot for the Alaskan milling, but you can see the result. This side has the man door opening.
This is the beginning of the barn door opening (actually earlier than the previous photo). The green steel rails we set up for the Alaskan mill are in the foreground.
10. Use the Alaskan mill to square off three 48-foot logs into beams for the ridge beam and the two that went on top of the walls. (@ffj or Riggerjack, I need some help with what these are called. I’m pretty sure wall-topping beams isn’t the term.)* The Alaskan mill is just a chainsaw attachment, so it's a fairly miserable process: noisy, smelling of exhaust and and all the sawdust you can eat.
*Edit: Saving-10-years helped me out here. The term is wall plate.
11. Use tall posts, come-alongs and chains to hoist the beams into place; secure everything with rebar and threaded rods. The first photo is horribly blurry, but it might help to understand the hoisting process.
I want to point out that DH is 60 years old in these photos and just over a serious bout with cancer. Pretty impressive, I think.
12. Construct and hang the big barn doors. Hang a small man door on one side. We also planned to cut windows in, but we never got around to it.
13. Fit dimensional rafter lumber to the hand-milled beams, cutting in birds heads at the top and the side beams. FYI: calculating the cuts was HELL. Do not ever try to fit dimensional lumber to hand-milled beams unless you’re a math genius with the patience of Job (...or maybe just know what you're doing). I came close to burning the whole thing down in frustration.
14. Sheath the rafters with OSB and then roofing felt.
15. Lay metal roofing panels and screw down.
16. Collapse for the winter.
We started this project in spring and barely finished it by the end of September with early dustings of high-elevation snow on our tails. We worked 10-hour days and lay awake nights toward the end fearing that we'd bitten off more than we could chew. Pretty typical for us.
Last edited by halfmoon on Tue Aug 01, 2017 8:38 am, edited 2 times in total.
Re: Halfmoon's journal
Awesome!
-
Jason
Re: Halfmoon's journal
The picture of him perched on the beam between sky and earth should be sent to Meriam Webster to be placed under "badass".
-
saving-10-years
- Posts: 554
- Joined: Thu Oct 31, 2013 9:37 am
- Location: Warwickshire, UK
Re: Halfmoon's journal
+1 awesome. Have pointed out to my DH what your DH was up to in his 60s and also that I am not the only person who has bright ideas that get us into uncharted territory (and your ideas are brighter and bolder than mine IMO).
Wondering whether you thought that by building a vast 'shed' at the bottom of the very tall and massive tower that you might draw further attention to how tall and massive the tower is. If so you definitely succeeded.
Is the term you are looking for 'wall plate'? (I too have a barn story to tell at some stage but this one is brick and restoration rather than creation).
Enjoying the storytelling (and education) as usual. Thanks.
Wondering whether you thought that by building a vast 'shed' at the bottom of the very tall and massive tower that you might draw further attention to how tall and massive the tower is. If so you definitely succeeded.
Is the term you are looking for 'wall plate'? (I too have a barn story to tell at some stage but this one is brick and restoration rather than creation).
Enjoying the storytelling (and education) as usual. Thanks.
-
saving-10-years
- Posts: 554
- Joined: Thu Oct 31, 2013 9:37 am
- Location: Warwickshire, UK
Re: Halfmoon's journal
+1 badass (totally agree).
Re: Halfmoon's journal
Thanks! I see that you're from (or at least live in) south Germany. DH is from Munich, and he says that in Bavaria every day of the year is some sort of saint's day and reason to celebrate.
Re: Halfmoon's journal
I wrote this somewhere else, but it's a privilege of old age to repeat myself: a neighbor used to say that DH was put on this earth to make the rest of us feel lazy.saving-10-years wrote: ↑Mon Jul 31, 2017 5:34 pm+1 awesome. Have pointed out to my DH what your DH was up to in his 60s and also that I am not the only person who has bright ideas that get us into uncharted territory
Wall plate...that's it! Now I REALLY need the barn story. No fair to tease.saving-10-years wrote: ↑Mon Jul 31, 2017 5:34 pmIs the term you are looking for 'wall plate'? (I too have a barn story to tell at some stage but this one is brick and restoration rather than creation).
Re: Halfmoon's journal
I'm amazed, too. And inspired. This is what humans are capable of, if they try. Wonderful.
Re: Halfmoon's journal
DutchGirl, thank you! This journal is partly your fault because you encouraged me back when I first joined the forum. 
Also: I edited the shop-building post to include a photo I'd forgotten to upload of the Inspector General (me), also known as Mrs. Badass.
Also: I edited the shop-building post to include a photo I'd forgotten to upload of the Inspector General (me), also known as Mrs. Badass.
Re: Halfmoon's journal
((Halfmoon)),
When you wind it up, be sure to bind it up. Classic.
When you wind it up, be sure to bind it up. Classic.