"We're Building A FirstDay Now"

"We're Building A FirstDay Now", sung to the tune of "You're In The Army Now". We shifted into 2nd gear with the building of our FirstDay Cottage. Although the directions and drawings are pretty clear, there is still a good bit of adventure (read head scratching) involved. We are moving forward though!


A lot happened and is happening at Anam Cara this month. First thing is we found a tractor. Originally we were looking for a gas tractor with front loader. The main driver was cost. After looking at several gas tractors from the early 60's, we realized these machines offered low purchase price but often require a good mechanic. Since I am not a good mechanic and don't have the time, this was not a promising route. I also learned these tractors were gas hogs.

So switched gears to diesel. We had to raise our budget a considerable amount but we got quite a tractor for the money. After I found this tractor with a backhoe, we had a couple of major rainstorms. This revealed our land needs considerable drainage work to properly channel the water away from our new driveway. I was thinking we had all the excavation work done. Reality is I will be doing ditching for several years. In addition we plan a root cellar and several outbuildings. All will need excavation. This machine will pay for itself in a short time and be easy on fuel in the process.

The thing dangling from the bucket is a York rake. It's used to grade landscaping and gravel roads. Another handy tractor accessory on our place. By the way we call him "Ollie". The first tractor we looked at was an Oliver and we like the name.











The "boardwalk" was constructed after part of the worksite turned to clay soup. The area in front of the tool crib doesn't drain well yet. With all the rain we've had, our path to the crib became impassable. So I found yet another use for "useless" pine slab wood. Now we can walk through despite the rain. Not pretty but definitely functional.

We put Ollie to work immediately as part of the "goalpost" raising. Goalpost is the name given to the basic timberframe - like structure that is the first step in building a First Day Cottage. Ollie allowed Cheryl, Jayne and I to erect goalposts by ourselves. We do plan on getting help later but it was great to get going with our little team.



























The third construction picture shows the initial stage of building the roof truss. At this point we were building a portion of the truss to test the design. The actual won't be built until the 2nd floor deck is in place. We will build the trusses on the deck and bring in someone with crane to lift them into place.















Another major happening in March was rain. We got tons of it!! In fact an all-time record was
broken last month. There were two major storms - one with high winds and rain, causing much tree damage. It was a classic New England Nor'easter. Following that storm, another showed up dumping much more rain. Luckily there was gap between, allowing time for water to go down some. This pictures shows washout damage on Salmon Falls Rd. which runs right along the river.















Finally, "Henry" our Mercedes got a Maine antique auto plate. Jayne was especially pleased to have the Maine black capped chickadee on her favorite car!