Postponement

Time and the weather have caught up with us and we have decided to postpone erection of the barn until spring.

Of fifty-eight main timbers and twelve top plates, only four, two 24-ft posts and two 23-ft beams, and the bulk of the top plates (8X8s, 20-24 feet long) remain to be completed. We will finish them this year, but the days are getting very short, the weather will soon be very cold, and about ten of them still need to be cut down in the future pond area, dragged out to the saw mill and "carved out" of the trees.

The foundation still must be dug and poured, and weather is an issue there, too. Also, if we put the timbers up yet this year we would need to install the rafters and roofing in the worst weather. The height of the barn combined with cold and maybe wet or snowy weather could make that a miserable (and perhaps dangerous) task this time of year. So the timbers will be protected under large billboard tarps through the winter.

We will take our time, finish the timbers, and lay out the foundation this year, and dig and pour it and erect the barn when it starts to warm up again. We can always use more time to work on plans for the interior, too.

On another topic, you should see the corduroy road that Sandy built almost single-handedly where the "road" had gotten very muddy at its clearing end. All sorts of wood scrap pieces from the milling operation were used, including some very bumpy left over log sections. It's raining again today, but I'll see her effort again tomorrow afternoon and report on how effective it is.

The tent I'd been using is put away for the winter and the pallet platform it was on is covered with a large tarp. Underneath has likely already been appropriated by some of our smaller wildlife friends. We'll let them have its use until springtime at least.