PORT TOWNSEND — The logs have been peeled, the foundation poured, the basement walls raised and the floor joists laid.
Now, volunteer workers who are putting their heart, soul and backs into creating a place for Boy Scouts to meet are ready to raise the log walls.
And according to Ralph Ericksen, project coordinator, it’s been fun.
“It’s been over 25 years since I’ve been on a construction site,” Ericksen said.
“I used to tell my dad, I’d like to build one more house. Now I am getting my chance.”
Ericksen, who has a consulting business, is one of the community volunteers of the Fred Lewis Scout Cabin Association, which formed to build a cabin on property donated by the American Legion post after the site of the old Scout cabin was sold and the structure demolished.
In November, Bruce Seton Jr. of Seton Construction used an excavator to break ground for the cabin.
At the first of the year, the foundation was poured, and a month ago, Julian Arthur, who owns a crane company, set the beams and the volunteers started laying the floor joists, Ericksen said.
“It keeps me hopping to stay ahead of these guys,” Ericksen said.
Last Saturday, volunteers — who have been working two days a week — prepared the “plate” that will serve as a base for the first log.
A crane will be brought in for the next log-raising stage, which will be supervised by a professional contracted for the length of the project.
Because of that, it is necessary to work five days a week, Ericksen said, so he needs people willing to form teams of four or five who can work one day a week or more to get the walls up.
“We will probably lay two to three logs a day,” he said. “It’s a slow process, scribing and fitting.”
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Port Townsend/Jefferson County reporter-columnist Jennifer Jackson can be reached at jjackson@olypen.com.
