Walking the Log

Wood is a very important part of our lives. Our floating cabin is wood framed and built on a large raft of cedar logs. Our "yard" is bordered by log booms. We use floating stumps for protection from waves and decoration. Firewood keeps us warm all winter.

Whenever wood floats our way, we think about ways it can be used. One day a large end piece from a cedar float log drifted up to our cabin deck. It was mostly submerged, but when we saw what it was, we decided to pull it aboard to save for a future use.

And there it sat waiting for two years.

We were down the lake visiting our good friend John, and he showed us how he used a log round to make a portable installation for a hand winch to draw his tin boat up on the dock for storage.

We thought, what a great labour saving device! Wayne first tried installing a winch on the back dock with a smaller round from our firewood stash. But it was too short and wimpy (you can see it in the last picture). Even though it would be hard to move, we knew the large cedar chunk would be perfect (and just like John's).

We may be new at living off the grid, but we aren't just babes in the woods. We decided to use the mechanical (aquatic) advantage of floating wood to get our big, heavy chunk from the front to the back of the cabin. So rather than walking a dog, this morning Wayne went out walking the log. -- Margy