The shed: Part 1 (a tiny home/land development report)

It's been a very busy week since my last update.

The building permit for the shed was approved on Friday.

On Sunday evening/Monday morning, we staked (and then adjusted) the location for the shed.

The location of the 8x10 shed

There were a couple of oak and spruce trees in the area that will be directly covered by the shed, so a little tree transplanting became necessary:

Save me from the shed!

Relocated to a peaceful new home on the forest floor

On Tuesday morning, a fellow came with the pole-digger machine (I hope you are impressed by my grasp of technical construction language). He installed a post at each corner.

Nowhere near as noisy as I thought it might be

The posts look like this. The platform at the top is adjustable to enable the builders to level the floor.

X marks the spot. Put building supplies here.

And they were put!

Construction begins today. We are hoping that the forecast for three days of clear weather will hold.

Meanwhile, all of the limbs/trees that were marked for removal by the NSPower surveyor have been limbed or felled. I've called NSPower, they've updated their work order and at some point (I have no idea when), they will send a crew out to install the power poles.

How does it feel?

It has felt like a pretty overwhelming week for me. I've been having trouble sleeping (partly due to excitement/anxiety and partly due to my peri-menopausal inability to regulate my body temperature), so I'm tired. And with the deadline (for self-employed people) fast approaching, I've been preparing my taxes. Fortunately, for the first time a can remember, I actually have money ready and waiting to pay my taxes (Thanks, YNAB!) but that doesn't make the bill feel much more welcome. I'd rather be able to spend that money on my own home. But: roads-schools-hospitals-social safety net, as I remind myself every year. I like to think that's where my tax dollars are going – and not to military spending, corporate welfare and/or some corrupt fat cat's summer home. But I'm sure it's a little of column A and a little of column B and there isn't anything I can do about that. I'm lucky to have work and I'd rather feel grateful that I'm able to make a contribution to our collective well being, than resentful that I have to hand over all of that money.

On the plus side, I'm enjoying a brief lull in my work. I've only worked 3.5 hours so far this week and that has been a welcome break. I overdid it with work this winter. It is very tempting to do that, since I have all of these big plans that require a lot of money to execute. To be honest with myself, I'm going to overdo it with work this summer, too. And doubtless next winter. And next summer.

So it's been nice that this week has been more about my land – making an enclosure for my compost heap (zipties! pallets!), planting things in my garden (the pea plants are up!), transplanting trees, fixing Salinger's back door entry (zipties! pallets!).

Salinger has also had a mixed week. There have been a few D-O-G-S here, accompanying various folks helping with projects. This has naturally been upsetting and has resulted in Salinger making himself scarce for long periods of time. But he's been coming back at the end of the day, so that's good.