"'Cause I try to climb your steps..."

Good progress today: we've cleared the south exposure of the house, dragged tree crowns and branches into the woods, organized lumber into stacks, and started to dig the dry well. I'm hoping to spend May digging trenches for plumbing and electric, and draining the moat around our castle er... cabin. Oh, and leveling the foundation. And installing a vapor barrier. And buying materials and tools for framing. Whew. It's going to be a rush to get this cabin done by September 1st. Wish me luck and dry days!

It was incredibly satisfying to cut down all of the trees by hand. No chainsaws! I'm hoping to cut and hew the center beam of the house by hand as well -- for looks, if nothing else. And, it is a pleasure to work with yellow birch this time of year; our whole cabin site smells like root bear and sugar. You can see the sap dripping from the stumps like a leaky faucet. Fascinating, but watching a stump bleed reminds me of the cost.

Trevor is learning how to use my camera, so he took this nice photo of the front path to the house. It will be beautiful once the trees leaf out!

Stay tuned.