well, that worked out differently than we’d hoped.

but quite well, all the same. Jeremy didn’t make it over to trim the trees—it’ll either be some random day this week, or early in January. as the house is out of danger due to the work he did last weekend, that’s okay. we didn’t finish the deck, either, though. we got the batt insulation laid, cut the rest of the boards, and then hit a design conundrum that kept us puzzling and repiecing the surface boards for hours. we did get one “pie-piece” completed, and we have a much better idea how to do the rest of them. (the deck is radial, basically an octagon, an octagon with personality, suitable for this place, so it has 8 “pie” wedges for which we made triangular plywood boards for the surface, but the triangles are more complicated than at first they seemed. we learned a lot today about how to do this.) we’re all glad we’re starting with a deck and not the house. if we can make as many mistakes as possible on the smaller projects, there’s some hope we’ll do the strawbale house right. :) we’re thinking that the straw-bale garden-wall at Caer Aisling and then the cold storage/root cellar will be positive learning experiences, too. those are the next building projects (next non-building projects are clearing the ritual grounds, now ongoing, digging up the south field for gardening, and goat-fencing and existing-structure repair).

so i’m taking Tuesday off work, and will work on the rest of the deck surface with , and her dad (who has some experience with these things, which might be a very great blessing towards getting this done in time to set the poor yurt up on the 24th). if you’re free on tuesday and want to help solve a physical geometry problem, feel free to drop by! not to mention if you’re interested in helping to set up the yurt on the 24th. i know that’s a holiday-conflict for some folks, but i can’t think of anything i’d rather be doing, myself. if you can’t drop by, feel free to send us positive energy towards the completion of this project! energy pours into it.

and blessing of blessings, is willing to and interested in helping me repair the hub, and has really good ideas about how to do that. so we’re getting together wednesday, and the yurt itself will be ready to be set up on the 24th.

i’m realizing that i get really ambitious about what i, or even all four of us, can accomplish in one day. but when i really give myself my head, and just do all day, i accomplish enough to make good on that ambition. as long as i’m not to attached to outcome, this can be a really good thing.