We were finally finished the first floor and ready to frame in the second. We’re dealing with a single-plane roof, so one side is a 3 foot wall, the middle is 5-something and the tall wall is 8 ft. The tall wall intimidated the heck out of us, so we began with the short side. Much lighter posts, for one thing, which translates to less complexity and less danger. They were fairly straightforward – place them, and get them leveled and toenailed in place.

After the easy low posts, the middle row was a greater challenge. For those ones, we had to cut holes in the flooring, and lower the posts through them to rest directly on the center beam. Had we only put them on the floor, the first snow load would have blown them down through anyway and collapsed the roof. Getting the holes placed exactly correctly was finicky and frustr,zating, but we got them up.

We also built the rafters up on top. With a single-plane roof, you dont use a compound truss. Just simple rafters and a center support beam. Our roof will be 24 ft from edge to edge, and lumber doesnt usually come that long. So we butted two 12-foot lengths together and laminated them from each side with a 6 inch x 2 foot 5/8inch plywood scab

‘Round about this time, it started to look as though we might possibly have a real structure by winter. Which left us with two problems to stress and have anxiety about: (okay, my husband was very calm. *I* had stress and anxiety. He’s better at trusting the provision of God than I am.) Namely, firewood and snow clearing.

I hadn’t ordered firewood because if we werent going to be staying, it was an unnecessary expense. We have a few cord here already, but using a wood-fired cookstove uses considerable wood. I’d be happier having closer to ten cord on hand. Too much is fine. Not enough is not fine. So, on a bad-weather day, when we couldn’t be working anyway, I started calling around, and found out we have a major problem — it is too late in the season. None of the local vendors are still delivering firewood. They stopped almost a month ago. Cue panic attack.

I ran into a similar problem with snow clearing. It isn’t too late in the season, we’re just too remote. There is no one who comes out this far with snow equipment. There used to be one guy here on the road who did it, but he isn’t doing it this year. Gas is too expensive now. (For you American types, gas is about $7/gal right now, and that has gone down in the last bit. It was closer to $9/gal). Cue stronger panic attack.

Winter is harsh out here. If either one of these problems couldn’t be solved, we would be forced to leave the land until spring.

Kijiji to the rescue! If you can’t get someone to do it for you, the answer is obviously to do it yourself. We found someone selling a tractor with a 6 ft snowblower included for a price we could sort of almost afford. A tractor was on our ‘eventually’ list, but we had hoped not to have to shoulder that expense this year. At least, given it’s an old tractor, it is only 1/10 the cost of a new one. I did some research (seriously, I ALWAYS do some research), and despite it being an antique, that model of tractor is known for running well, being simple to fix, and getting the job done. Looks like we’re becoming ‘country’ sooner than planned.

Firewood was likewise a kijiji save. I found someone with seasoned 8-ft logs who was willing to deliver out this far for an extra $40. Blocked and split is easier, of course, but also costs considerably more. Logs are a lot of work, but massively cheaper. And hey, beggars and choosers and all that. When you’re scrambling, you take what you can get. ‘Jake’ delivered three trailerloads of gigantic logs – many of them more than 22″ diameter – the very next week. They aren’t great wood (softwood, more than 2 years cut), but they were cheap, and sometimes that matters the most. There is a lot of it, so subpar wood or not, it should keep us warm until firewood season starts again in May.

Besides, when you have to cut and split the wood yourself, it warms you many times over.