Foundation is Almost Finished

We only have to back fill around the piers and put on the seal plates and foundation will be finished! The forms boards did not come off as easy as we had hoped. We had to dig them out and unscrew them all. We will try something different next time.

We had to hire someone to pump the concrete into all the pier forms.

It was a big job to build all the forms. We started out measuring each one, clamping each brace into place and then screwing it on to the form boards, but then Blane, Jr. made a jig that made measuring and clamping unnecessary and it went a lot faster.

We hired a backhoe to dig trenches for the piers.

We used the board and batten system to square up our footprint.

Now the push is on to get all the logs peeled and treated before insects start eating them or they start to rot. It takes a few hours to peel one log. It is not the fun part of building a log cabin. We look forward to these logs becoming walls!

The Simple Life in a Nutshell

The simple life is not to be confused with the plain life. It is not about being self sufficient or being debt free, even though those are good things. It's not about having chickens and pigs or living out in the country. The simple life is about being singular minded. We were created to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. The purpose of everything we do should be to glorify God. You could live off grid in the middle of no where and still give no thought as to what your purpose in life truly is and on the other hand you could live in a high rise in the heart of New York City and have as your single focus to glorify God. It requires denying the false gods of our society and worshipping the one and true God.

Our family strives to be disciples of Jesus. We try to live on less than we bring in and try to be good stewards of what God entrusts us with. That does not mean that you have to live in a 800 sq. ft., 35 year old single wide or drive an old beat up pickup truck as we have chosen to do. God gives each family a different measure of gifts and resources.

The simple life can be summarized in these two statements: 

Psa 23:1 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

and,

Mat 6:24 "No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.

We are not perfect and are constantly repenting, but by the grace of God we continue to press on to the goal.

Project Manager

Blane, Sr. has appointed Blane, Jr. to be the project manager and he has used the Pythagorean theorem to determine the sizes for the foundation pier forms. He has a huge responsibility especially because we can't afford any big mistakes, but we have every confidence that he will rise to the challenge. They are working on peeling log #13 this evening. That will leave 87 logs to go! 

Logs, Logs, Beautiful Logs

Once we decided to build a log home, we could never look at trees in the same way again. A stand of nice straight trees looked like a house to us. So to see these beautifully straight logs arrive yesterday was hugely exciting. The logger could not make the turn onto our road.

We had to hire another fellow to unload the logs at the end of our road. Thankfully our wonderful neighbors allowed us to stack them on their property.

                           

After the first load of thirty logs were unloaded, they had to brought up to our home pad one log at a time, carefully balanced by one lifting strap.

                          

The logs are now on racks next to our homepad ready to be peeled. Well close to a third of them anyway. Our logger was supposed to bring two loads yesterday, but his skidder broke down. It looks like it will be the end of next week before he is back in business. The Lord is giving us plenty to pray about for Billy.

                         

Today Blane and Blane, Jr. are clearing a few more areas to rack some more logs and I am sure they will peel a log or two. 

New Baby Girl

We welcomed Whitney Makayla Grace into our family today. She is a doll, only about 5 lbs.

Logs are Being Cut

Our logger, Billy Harris, has been trying so hard to get our logs cut, but the weather is not cooperating. When the temperature is below freezing, his equipment will not start. He only has about a fifth of our logs cut now and he has surgery on his arm in a few weeks, which will put him out of commission for at least a month. He says he will deliver to us as much as possible before his surgery and the rest after he recovers. That will give us something to start working on for now. We are going to be running at least six weeks behind our original schedule before we even start. Oh well, so goes the house building business. All things in God's timing! There is so much that is totally out of our control and I think God likes it that way. Each day has enough troubles of its own, doesn't it. In the meantime we are waiting for a dry Saturday that is above freezing to finish the outdoor playground. Hopefully sometime before April. We have been spoiled by the dry warm winters of the past few years and it is hard to lay low for these many weeks. I plan to have a few raised garden beds and want to make a compost pile. It is hard to wait when I have no idea when I can get started. We also want to have chickens and need to build a coop. Again now are the days of planning and dreaming and hoping and praying. We plan our days but God directs our paths. We look forward to seeing God's plans for our family unfold.

Adoption

We have begun the process of adopting Benjamin David. He should be officially ours in about 90 days. He is such a sweetie and we couldn't imagine our life without him.