Well Winter is hopefully done as we enter May tomorrow. Winter got off to a slow start but we got hit with a 3 foot snow storm in the middle of February and it seemed like we were plowing every day after that. Our last snow was about two weeks ago. We've talked many times about getting the snow tires off the vehicles but it hasn't seemed sensible to do so. We didn't get as much accomplished over in Waterville as we had hoped though we got a number of pine trees down as the winter was ending. I spent a lot of the time over there moving snow. April was going to be milling month but with the weather and some real estate clients it didn't seem to happen. I'm hoping to get the pine we took down milled in the next little while before it gets the infamous blue stain and we can't use it for building projects where we care about the looks.We've been around and around on what is important to get done this year. We've decided that the original spot for the "cabin" just won't work. It's too wet on the approach though the actual location of the cabin would be pretty. We are lucky we didn't get the septic system in last fall or we would probably think we had to go ahead with it. Also our neighbor on that side did a lot of logging this winter so the area across the property line isn't all the attractive, and probably won't be for the next several years.
We are thinking a "shed" this year to practice our timber framing. The plans I have are for a 12' x 16' building so we will probably go with those. We also are looking at it going across the driveway from the wildlife pond to make it easier to access the site. We are also leaning towards using the stone in the area for the foundation.
The barn made it through the winter without a lot of problems. We made an effort to get the snow off after the big snow. As you can see in the picture to the left I was almost up to the shed roof which is about 8 feet off the ground at that point. The plastic we put up survived which surprised us quite a bit. It certainly made things better inside the barn. We are hoping to get the rest of the front shed roof extension done in the next little while and plan on trying to get a good part of the barn sided. I'd particularly like to do the gable ends from the top down to about 10 feet so that we would get less rain and snow blowing into the structure. Obviously it's really high up at the top so I'm not sure how that will work out.
The first big project we have planned is to get fence up in the lower field for the goats. Last summer you might recall they were good for awhile but then decided it was more fun out side their designated enclosure. We are working on milling posts and rails to build a fence. I'm thinking we'll be needing a hundred or so post so it's taking a little while. The goats got a bit stir crazy during the winter but we started taking them for walks as time went on. They got good at going along with us. We'd take them over to visit the neighbors. They actually seemed to enjoy seeing the donkeys over at Sam and Dusty's. The walks have now stopped since they become unruly when they can get to food. 
We recently extended the floor for the sawmill which makes working in the barn much nicer. It isn't the whole floor but we now have 12 feet in width which gives us a lot of space to work without being on Stone. We were commenting the other day that we were pleasantly surprised to see that we didn't have a problem with water accumulating on the floor of the barn. I guess that perimeter drain we put in was worthwhile. The other thing which has made us happy is to see the sprouting of some of the grass we planted last fall around the barn. Hopefully it will keep the brambles down as well as make the place look nicer. I've been working on some possible models for the "main" house in Waterville. More on those in a future posting.
