Have you ever stood in a great cavernous log lodge (or seen one on TV) and wondered how the enormous log roof system was constructed? Surely you wonder about this daily. Well…Coteau des Prairies Lodge will have that majestic Rocky Mountain lodge feel. And we have captured some interesting snapshots from the log truss and purlin assembly process. Enjoy!
The Cookie Lady treats the workers to a jar of fresh baked cookies.
Is your mouth watering? That's OK, it's a natural response to the site of Janny's fresh baked cookies.
Log trusses assembled and waiting to be lifted and set on the lodge.
As the days get shorter, work continues after sundown. It's a race against winter to get the roof on!
Three down, three to go. Kirk and Joe fasten the trusses to large poles to keep them in place.
Square headed bolts help give the log and steel combo a classic industrial architecture look.
A crew tightens bolts on a bottom corner. Gee, are they working? Sure looks like fun!
'Captain' Kirk Ivankovich doing what he does best...looking cool and bossing Nate around.
Tossed chainsaw salad with bits of real ponderosa pine and power tools.
Nate Rude shapes a log with a grinder and uses his face to collect the sawdust. He says that's how you build up the calluses on your eyeballs.
The crew is at work aligning and drilling holes before attaching steel plates.
Truss number one of six being assembled. It is a good day and a half with a strong crew to put one together.
7 year old, Noah Breker, watches from below as the 'hole hawg' bores out a hole.
Eugene Breker designed this special jig and bushing device to get our holes and plates to line up.
Olivia Stenvold and Jerry Sapa use a special jig to drill aligned guide holes.
Noah Breker mans the bolt pallet...making sure each bolt has its own washer.
Visitors arrive as the log members for the first truss are in place and ready for holes, plates and bolts.
12.5' purlins cleaned, cut, shaped, stacked and ready to be installed.
A chainsaw is used to shape the purlins. The notched portion is 5" thick and will rest on the top chord of a log truss.
Jeff Richards uses a grinder to do a little more detailing on a purlin.
Nate Rude uses his monster timber saw to notch purlins. Purlins will be installed on the trusses to attach the roof.
It looks like Nate is finding his timber! This one happens to be a ten incher.
We are enjoying an unusually beautiful late fall/early winter this year in southeast North Dakota.
Chainsawing with the grain results in large amounts of this wooden fettuccine looking stuff.
Nate's choice of truss log shaping tool: A chainsaw, of course!
Nate Rude said: "Inside every log is a perfectly square timber, it's my job to find it."
A pile of beautiful ponderosa pine logs which will soon be fashioned and outfitted for a worthy purpose
A stack of custom made steel plates ready for use in truss assembly.
Just some of Doug's handiwork, by the end he filled several more pallets with homemade bolts.
Doug Spieker and his helpers in the bolt making workshop. We used 1" ready rod and square headed nuts to make the bolts.
