Hello, Sunshine!

It is the end of April and the weather is gorgeous!

With already more than 16 hours of daylight, the snow is disappearing faster than the security footage of Jeffery Epstein’s prison cell!
The warm weather has allowed us to get out and stretch on a daily basis, which is a welcome change. The fresh air and exercise feels good and also gives us more energy. Baby Girl has been loving her outdoor adventures. Not a day goes by where she doesn’t see, smell, taste, feel, and/or hear something new. Whether it’s riding in the wagon through mud puddles or just rummaging through the sticks and leaves on the ground, she loves exploring this whole new world of hers. Outside, it’s a bit more comfortable now than the cold, dark place it has been for most of her life.
Water from the snow melt has left the driveway a sloppy, rutted mess. Fortunately, no vehicles have gotten stuck and now, at the end of April, we are regularly seeing daytime temperatures above 50ºF and the water is drying up more and more every day. The morning smell of the cool, damp forest has returned and that must mean summer is just around the corner!

"Please wipe your shoes!"

In the garage, Pete built a couple of racks for storing wood on. The lumber pile in the garage was getting out of hand - we were constantly having to step around it and it was difficult to dig through it to find what we needed, so he built a couple sets of shelves out of some scraps. He used pieces of steel strap to wrap around the posts and screwed them into the metal frame of the garage. This was one of those quick and easy projects which we should have done a long time ago. Instead of having a mess of materials taking up space, we could have had a nice and organized stack which we could easily pull from. Live and learn!

Trying to be organized, seeing if we like it.

We finally got around to putting down the flooring in the living room and it looks a thousand times better than the white painted sub-floor. We had bought the flooring back in October, but just had to take a break from working on cabin projects for a few months over the winter. After taking a break and having the time to sit and think about things, we are back at it with renewed vigor!

He was in such a rush to get the flooring down he forgot to comb his hair.

We also now have our landing and two ship ladders in place which has made getting up to and down from the loft much easier. We may change the design in the future after we use it for a while and see how we like it. But only if there’s time!

We are planning to make a stone clad hearth using stones we have found on the property.

Pete also milled up some Birch boards which we’ll use to make window sills and trim. We’ll need to let the boards dry for a while, but we cut a windowsill to shape anyway just to see how it looks. It’ll do!

Checking to see what the live-edge Birch window sills will look like.

We currently have all the boards “stickered” in the garage, but we’re not going to let them sit there drying for many months or a year as we probably should. Maybe we’ll wait a week or two, sand them, put some stain on, then tack them up and see what happens. It’ll just become another part of this whole cabin experiment!

Rough-Cut Birch

Stickered and Drying

Pete was also able to whip out a wood floor for part of the garage in about a day. Moving and organizing all of the clutter which had accumulated over the fall and winter was the most time consuming part. The floor will provide a very nice work area for us. He'll also be building a loft above it for storage, and then in the fall will add some walls with insulation so we can comfortably use the space throughout the winter. This workshop will be the headquarters of Wild North Design  as we get back in business!

Wood floor for the garage

Upcoming plans for the cabin include a front porch, siding, finishing up the roof flashing, and about a thousand ten minute projects. This summer we also plan to put up a sawmill/wood shed and also a greenhouse. And, of course, we will be making more videos to document our progress!
One more thing - Millicent the Moose came back for another visit! It was good to see her again. We had other moose in the yard over the winter, but we hadn’t seen Millicent for a while. I think she wanted to mill up some lumber, but then it looked like she got distracted.

"Good Morning, Millicent!"

Pete keeping an eye on the trees

Well, thanks for reading, Everyone!
Stay Safe, Happy, and Healthy