Weekly Update: 9.2.23

It's September. Yes, summer lasts three more weeks, but autumn is so close we can taste it in the cool evenings and crisp mornings. We started today off with a campfire for the first time in months -- and it was delightful. I couldn't be more thankful for this change in seasons, as the heat has been harder on us than we want to admit. I actually slept through the night several times this week -- something that rarely happened in the heat of summer.

With the change of weather, several of us developed cold symptoms. Whether we have been dealing with bad allergies or a virus, it slowed us down a little. It was cool enough in the mornings and evenings to enjoy some hot cups of tea, and that helped with some of the symptoms.

We finished sheathing our floor on Tuesday. It was a long day, and we realized we didn't take many photos. I got to use the nail gun for quite awhile, and after that experience, I am very much a fan of pneumatic nailers. I couldn't believe how fast I was able to work. When we were done with the sheathing, it felt amazing to actually walk around our bunk house. We covered the whole platform with plastic in case of rain. This tip was recommended by Deep South Homestead, and it seemed like a terrific idea. We celebrated with sandwiches with real bread for dinner. It might sound silly, but when most of the family doesn't eat bread very often, sandwiches are quite the treat.

Once the floor was done, the whole project was too high off the ground to make access easy, so we decided to use some leftover lumber to build a small stairway and landing where our back door will be. We had almost everything -- we just needed a 4x4 and some decking from the local hardware store. We built the porch on Friday and plan to finish the stairs early next week.

I also spent a lot of time this week planning our wall layout. My mom and I spent an afternoon researching windows, as we need exact sizes to build our headers for the walls. I used SketchUp to start drawing a plan of what we will be doing, as detailed plans simplify the building process.

While I was working on plans, Grace deep cleaned and organized our tool totes. It was a huge job, and I couldn't believe how nice it made things once she was finished. It saves so much time when you know where to find tools and supplies.

Bonnie-Jean is still very busy looking after pups most days, but she supports the project by doing a lot of domestic work while supervising the dogs. She blesses us with lunch most days while we work, and she helps keep the camp area looking spiffy. The pups -- Tilde and Dagger -- are growing so fast, it's hard to keep up with them. Tilde is more than 30 pounds and Dagger more than 40 pounds -- already about the size of the Border Collies we had growing up. But Tilde and Dagger aren't even half their mature size yet. I'm not used to puppies this big! They can be a handful for sure, but they bring a lot of laughter wherever they go.

I'm thankful for our progress this week, and I'm looking forward to the holiday weekend. We plan to be productive, but we hope to have some fun along the way. We will have the entire family home on Monday (something that doesn't happen all that often), so maybe we will get a good start on the walls. We will see what God has in store for us -- the bunkhouse will come together in His time.