Building | Island Time

Finally, the island update…

July 16, 2013 at 7:40 pm (DIY, Island, My Designs)
Tags: Building, Dock, Outdoor Projects

I have meant to post on the island for a LONG time, but just have not seemed to get a round to it. Could be I was avoiding it because it was just so depressing.

This spring, it flooded…BAD there was 4 feet of water over the WHOLE island!!! We did not leave much, but almost everything was destroyed. The platform we had built (in hope of making a tree bog) was just high enough that everything there was untouched. But our tent, chairs and some tools and the shed itself was destroyed. And the picnic table and a large part of the dock were also washed away. 😦

But, the flooding this spring (and again more flooding this June/July) taught us a very good lesson before we built too much. The west end of the island we were building on we had chosen because it was the open area (no tree cutting!). But we found that there is really only one area of the island (the north end) that was not flooded this summer. It is a little higher than the other areas. Although there are many trees that we will have to cut to build here, it does have the best view and has the sandiest beach. YEAH! (I’ll have to take a picture and post that!)

This last Wednesday was the first day that the flooding had gone down enough that we were able to stay on the island. We were off for the week, so we headed out to get started on projects.

Project one: new picnic table and rebuild the dock. We got a picnic table kit, added some wood preserver with color. Looks great.

Of course it had to be dog approved first….

The 12×4 piece of the dock floated away, so we had to replace it. We also found that the water is much more shallow on the northeast end where we had to put the dock (there was only one spot that did not have to many fallen trees). So in rebuilding we went with 2 8×4 pieces instead. The end of the dock is still very shallow, so we may add more piece to the dock later. We used a modification these plans for the dock.

The big 8×8 piece of the dock did survive, but it was up in the west side of the island in a lot of mud, that was NOT fun getting that piece back into the water to move it over to the new position. A little muddy, but I like the results…

While putting in the dock, I also found some really cool, old railroad ties that I was able to use to make some great steps down to the dock. (Sorry again, I need to take a picture and post).

Next project: an outdoor shower. I have designed a really quick shower we are sure we can get up in one weekend, so we’ll do that project next. I am using cedar-fencing panels so it should go up super fast!!! For now, the shower will just be for solar camp showers (those plastic bags).

We used them before and they do get hot! We may upgrade to a nice propane outdoor shower later, but we want to figure out the well first and see if we could pump water to the shower from there.

Here is a sneak peak at me design.

For the benches, I am planning on using Ana White’s simple outdoor bench.

I think I will change the 1×4 legs to 2×4 and the 1x3s for support also to 2×4. I want to be sure it is sturdy,

Long term goal is to get a yurt on high decks or a cabin on stilts put in. We kind of envision…

I hope to update with the results when we finished project 2.

Long Time No Post

June 2, 2012 at 7:28 am (DIY, Gardening, Island, Nature)
Tags: Building, DIY, gardening

Work has been crazy!!!! To many projects going on at the same time! So what (other than work) have I been up to? Island stuff of course! 🙂

Until this spring, the island only had two types of trees…Silver Maples and Black Walnut. So this spring, we planted a bunch of fruit trees (apple, cherry, peach, plum, pear and apricot). I may have to remove some black walnut trees from near the fruit trees….I have been told that silver maple is one of the few trees that can survive near black walnut trees (they put out toxin into the soil around them). So far, so good. The peach tree has peaches on it already! 🙂

We took Friday and Tuesday off around Memorial day, so we have 5 whole days on the island!!!! I spend one whole day pulling out nettles….I HATE those plants (they sting) !

Now we are finally on to building on the island. First up…a bathroom please!! I was torn on this one for a long time….do we put in a septic system or go with an outhouse or a composting toilet. Well, after reading that a septic tank has to be pumped out from time to time, I thought it was a bad idea…I don’t think any company can get to an island to pump it! Our last trip to St. Martin, we stayed in a cabin that had a outhouse on the side, and I hated the way that smelled! And composting toilets have to be emptied out….gross! So I found one more solutions….a tree bog!!! It is a composting toilet that you NEVER have to clean out! Basically, you build an outhouse that is at least 3 feet up off the ground. Underneath, you have hay, wood chips and/or ashes and around the outhouse, you plant willows and other nutrient hungry plants. The waste from the outhouse falls into the wood chips below and turns into compost for the willows! Just add more wood chips/ashes after using the outhouse. I hope this does not smell like a outhouse smells…. Also to help with the smell, we are building the outhouse with cedar siding 🙂

So to get materials to the island was a challenge…we had to boat it in…

It took three trips to get everything over!

So far, we rented a pole digger,

it was difficult to use….on our first try, it got stuck and we had to dig it out. We found that adding water as we went helped a lot….

and used 8′ long 4x4s that we place 4′ feet into the ground) and added some support of 2x4s around the structure and have the floor in place.

I have the frames completed for all the walls except the one with the window, Menard’s did not have the window in stock last weekend, and I wanted to wait to put the frame together until I could see the window actually fits i the space.

After working very hard (and getting very sore), the last thing I wanted to do was cook, so we ordered a pizza…and they delivered!!! We just had take the boat and meet them across the river. AWESOME!

Last weekend I also found the biggest spider ever on the island..huge and creepy…..he was as long as a D battery! I was in the tent and he crawled up the screen (on the outside thank goodness), so I got his picture: