kan-green: The Cabin is more than a dream

After putting in a twenty four hour shift with many calls and little sleep I had little motivation to get started. However since we had a plan to get out there and get our needed work done I pushed ahead and put my weariness behind me.

The truck and trailer had been loaded prior to my leaving for work. Jennifer headed over after she dropped off the kids at school. After getting off duty I headed to Sutherlands. I had to purchase the 4x6 beams, concrete block, and precast pier blocks. I was in luck because they were just preparing to leave on a delivery near my land and they delivered my load for free.
I headed out to the land to await my wife and materials. The delivery showed up first and my wife pulled up just as we unloaded the last of the 30 concrete blocks.

The plan for the day was for Jenn to mow, burn a couple of our larger brush piles, water the blueberries, raspberries, and of course start on the cabin. We managed to get to the land with everything we needed except the weed trimmer, my tool belt, and a few more 2x6 boards I needed for floor and rim joists. Not to bad considering all we took.

After Jenn arrived we unloaded my trailer and reloaded the beams, piers, concrete blocks, and generator. The pass from the front to back of our land is still swampy. We had no problems with getting through it with the 4x4.

It was too windy to burn the large brush piles but we had another pile we were able to burn without fear of igniting a forest fire. If we ever have a fire in our woods it will be a major problem. Our current practice of immediately extinguishing fires leads to worse fires with the build up of dead leaves and materials on the forest floor.
Once we prepared our equipment and unloaded the supplies we got to work. Jenn multitasked by tending the fire, assisting me when I needed it, and mowing.

I had already prepared several of the holes for the pier foundation. We dug down three feet and removed all organic materials. The dirt was tamped and we added several inches of gravel. We then used 4x8 solid concrete blocks and set the precast concrete piers. I did not want to use posts because we may want to move the cabin in the future.

The first beam was set and leveled and ten the fun began. It took longer to get it all square than anything. We managed to get the beams set and began setting the 2x6 floor joists. I got all but three set. If I would've had the forgotten ones I would've finished.

The cabin is 12x16 with an additional four foot porch along the entire front. It is sitting just in the woods on the north side of the property on the high side and faces south overlooking the berry field.
I didn't finish everything I wanted, I had also wanted to get the deer fence up around the garden I am happy with what progress was made considering the amount of hours I've been working. The plan for the next few weeks is to get the floor on and the walls framed. I'm attaching pictures but considering I'm updating this on my phone I may need to get on the computer later to resize them.