As far as I'm concerned, this is where things started this year. The first task is to lift the first layer of four logs onto the foundation piers. The main problem being that so that they're held properly in place, they have to be lowered onto the metal spikes that you can just about make out in the picture — one sticking out of each foundation. So this involves lowering a three-quarter tonne log onto four metal spikes, hoping that that each of the four spikes line up properly and fit into the tiny tiny little holes we've drilled in the log.
This is, of course, a completely silly way of doing things. The only unsilly thing about it is that none of us been able to think of a less silly method, as yet. Answers on a postcard.
We didn't do any of the lifting by hand, you'll be overjoyed to hear. The two bright yellow ropes that are trailing off to the right are attached to Bernie's five-tonne truck, Bertha. We have Stories about Bertha, but those can wait. Anyway, that's how we work: Bertha lifts the log, then lowers it down onto the spikes. Jon sucks air over his teeth and yells "the spikes don't line up". Bertha puts the log down and Jon fiddles with the ropes (that is the part of the process that Nicki has captured here). Then we repeat the whole thing over and over and over until something improbable and flukey happens.
—dan
