The peeling has begun

I've started peeling the logs.
I use two Barr drawknives, one is somewhat dull and used for debarking. The other is sharpened regularly to "shaving sharp" and is used for the final peeling.
I'm trying to get the logs pretty clean. I use a Makita curved base planer on the knots. I'm removing all of the bark & cambium, except for some around the knots or in areas where the tree was fluted. The logs will get a once over right before use.
I made some log saw horses. So far they've worked well. They're light and easy to move, as opposed to stumps that weigh a couple hundred pounds each.
During peeling I use a forklift to rotate the logs. I've tried a peavey but at 3500 lbs they don't budge. I use straps set as a choker towards the bottom of the log and lift with forklift. They rotate pretty smooth.
I'm using a telehandler, Gradall, to move the logs around. I'm able to boom them into the shop for peeling. Nice to be indoors, out of the wind and to have light as it's getting dark pretty early. Also cleanup is pretty easy on the slab floor.

Log delivery

Last load of logs arrived. Four truckloads altogether. 50 logs ranging in length from 37' to 46', weighing 3200 to 4500 lbs.
Logs were delivered on flatbeds with log bunks & self unloading log trucks.

I went up to the logging site with my salesman from Sierra Pacific to meet the fellows doing the harvesting and see for myself what the logs look like.
The logging is being done by a small family owned outfit. It was great to meet them and to see the effort they are making to provide some great quality logs with little to no damage from handling. Processing machines are not being used, which commonly damage the outside of logs. Loggers walk through the woods to select trees, then fell and limb the tree with a chainsaw. Logs are then skidded back to the landing. The loggers were quite fascinated that I was going to be building a home out of raw logs and insisted that I cut one down myself.
The logs being harvested are fire salvage logs, they still have green needles but will probably not make it through the year. The fire was the "Day fire", which burned in Modoc County in early August.  Some nice large Ponderosa pine logs.

Foundation is poured and the lot has been graded. Be back in the spring

Day of the pour

Underground utilities are installed, driveway is graveled and footings have been dug. Ready for formwork

We removed 42- 130' tall lodgepole pines for the home site

“There is some of the same fitness in a man's building his own house that there is in a bird's building its own nest. Who knows but if men constructed their dwellings with their own hands, and provided food for themselves and families simply and honestly enough, the poetic faculty would be universally developed, as birds universally sing when they are so engaged? But alas! we do like cowbirds and cuckoos, which lay their eggs in nests which other birds have built, and cheer no traveller with their chattering and unmusical notes. Shall we forever resign the pleasure of construction to the carpenter?” 
― Henry David Thoreau, Walden