Laughter is great medicine! This weekend, I’m headed North with some friends to a retreat.
Yesterday began my social weekend with visits to various people. I quit working on the cabin around 2pm and then visited with neighbors and other people.
I love sharing the journey with people. I also love my private time. It is important for me to be helpful to people wherever I can.
I especially love those relationships and meetings where everyone benefits. This is becoming my new definition of a working and healthy relationship. It seems to me that if any one person in a relationship does not benefit then something is wrong. I really like this model and it is a very useful guide to how I interact with the world.
Tags: healing
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WOW! Joe and I made great progress today completing four courses including the southern top log. I’m sore after moving so much wood around the second floor. My left forearm is sore to the bone. I’m glad that I’ll have this weekend off again.
As I pulled the last top log into place an eagle circled as if to say HURRAY.
I decided to make the southern wall a bit taller so that I have some extra space on the second floor. I may even put a second floor window on the south.
Now we’re on to the gables which lead up to the peak and ridge, then rafters and roofing. As soon as the roofing is on, I’ll be able to move into the second floor. It feels like it’s within reach! Home is coming home.
New High Range Tractor Ramp
Cribbing under the Ramp
Maiden Voyage with the first load
Both Top Logs Sticking Out
Tags: cabin
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Well, I had a nice weekend away with family in Philadelphia. Back to work on the cabin now and more to follow later.
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I found myself looking at the trees and cloudless blue sky and feeling a sense of joy. Then I realized that I had found some sort of balance in living between seemingly opposing worlds.
I feel halfway between the forest and humanity, halfway between carefree and responsible, halfway between selfish and selfless.
By looking at the contrast between the trees and the sky, I realized these things.
On a different note, I’m off this weekend to see some long standing friends who I’ve known since birth.
Tags: cabin, camping, divine, forest, grateful, healing, heart, journey, positive, shaman, sky, tree
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I slept in to the sound of rain on the tarp that hangs over my tent. I did errands for most of the day.
In the afternoon I returned home and cut three more trees down which made around six more logs. I think I need approximately seven more trees to finish the cabin. We’ll see.
Ian may join me tomorrow if he can make it. Joe is on sick leave as his nurse practitioner wants him away from the forest pollen.
This project is full of improvisation and tomorrow will require some experimentation. The tractor has maximized it’s reach. I’ve used a ramp to gain some height. Now I need to reach even higher. I may build a larger ramp or configure a pulley system to drag the logs up. We’ll see.
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How long has it been since you lay on your back and watched the stars? I know that I cherished doing just that tonight. I had a nice platform to lay on because Joe and I cut planks and laid them on the second floor deck. In the few minutes that I spent gazing, I saw five satellites. I think that there are more human made objects floating around in the sky that when I was a kid. When I see a satellite, I have a childhood feeling of accomplishment, like I’ve found Waldo in the Poster.
The black flies were not too bad today and we had a reprieve from being chewed on.
We’d been saving nice large pine for the floor boards. The tree measured apx 21 inches in diameter at the base before it flared for the roots. We made 15 inch floor boards out if the tree. First, I had to cut it down. The flare at the roots measured around 36 inches wide. First I cut the notch in the direction that I wanted the tree to fall. Then I cut the back side. When I cut those last few fibers, the tree leaned quickly and crashed into the ground. I’m quite grateful for the use of the trees body.
We made 15 inch floor boards out if the tree. We had difficulty with this process and are still unsure if the problems were in the mill or the grain of the wood. The boards are wavy. Being a rustic homestead style cabin, I don’t mind.
My little place out in the forest is feeling like home. When I come back from being away, I have a feeling of calm and nurturing. My relationship with this land is developing well.
Cabin with Tractor Ramp in front
New Fifteen Inch Planking
Stump of Flooring Tree
Saw Mill
Tags: cabin, forest, tree
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I cut down two pine trees today as we are running out of the trees that we had gathered earlier. These trees were full of water and were heavy. They, however, peeled very quickly and easily. I struggled to get the first log up to the second floor.
The black flies today are out in force and are HUNGRY! My morning was fairly miserable as I tried to work while surrounded by a cluster of black flies. They entered my mouth, chewed my arms and crawled up my shirt. Half of my time was spent smearing what flies I could against my skin. I’m covered with pine pitch, dirt and black fly guts.
In the afternoon, a large dark rain cloud approached. I went under the kitchen tarp to cook lunch and large drops started to fall on the tarp. Then I noticed that it had turned sunny outside. The sound was the black flies flapping their wings against the tarp!
So I ate lunch in the refuge of the truck and sweltered bug free with the windows rolled up. I think I’m going to stop while I’m still half sane. Did I just say I’m sane?
Tags: cabin, earth, forest, tree
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Last nights forest was full of sounds. The tree frogs have hatched and are making a full chorus. At one point, some ducks flew overhead in the star light.
I had a curious noise that I couldn’t identify. I was cooking and heard some rustling to the right. I looked but couldn’t make out the animal. The rustling in the leaves circled around my cooking area. I had the feeling that I was being stalked by a squirrel! So I finally went and charged the little animal. I was surprised that it did not move away and continued to rustle the leaves. I finally saw it…it was a frog!
Today, Joe and I put up the floor joists. It was unseasonably hot today and I was all sticky from sweat. The black flies were fairly ravenous and ate their fill of us. The contract is that if they attack us, we kill them. Of course, they keep coming.
An old timer had a trick of putting oil on his hard hat and the bugs would stick to the oil and die. Haven’t tried that yet, but it seems like a good idea.
Floor Joists are in place
Standing in my new bedroom (to be)
Log Butt Imprint
Tags: cabin, camping, tree
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Tired! We’ve gotten up to the second floor. Tomorrow I’m planning on putting up the floor joists and milling up floorboards out of a large white pine.
Beginings of the second floor
Tags: cabin, camping, forest, tree
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The cabin is getting tall and working on it now entails standing on ladders or the top of the wall. There are two more courses before I can put a log across the top of the opening for the door.
In the afternoon Joe pulled a stump that was near the cabin. It took him a while. After he got the stump out, he rolled it out of view with the tractor.
I quit early so that I could spend time in the forest. I rode out the same trail that I took yesterday and parked the bike at the big mud hole where I turned around yesterday.
I was looking for stock to make arrows. My brother gave me a compound bow and I’ve never shot it, so I had decided to try and make some arrows. It’s remarkably difficult to find straight limbs in the forest. I found a somewhat suitable birch sapling.
On the ride home, I thought to myself that perhaps the forest is not the place to be looking for straight branches. Perhaps I’d have better luck close to home. Sure enough, in the village, I found a large bush next to an abandoned house. This bush had tall and straight and flexible branches. I cut a piece of this.
Back at the cabin, I shot the birch and it promptly hit a tree and snapped in two. I got the unknown bush sapling and let it go. That sapling made a humming/whistling sound as it shot clear across the clearing and into the forest. I think I’ve found a good source of arrows. They are too flexible when they’re wet, so I think I’ll need to dry them out.
Peeling the Pine logs
Notching the logs
Standing on the tall wall
End of the day portrait
View from the North
Large window opening to the South
Tags: birch, bow and arrow, cabin, naturalist
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