The days have been packed recently. A few days ago, I began cutting down pin oak trees for the living roof of my cob house. On Tuesday morning, Dan lent me a hand and we took down three trees in an hour and a half, despite the ground being quite muddy.

This morning, I went out alone and cut down a tricky tree more centrally located in a dense patch of pin oaks. It was very tough to bring down, since it was hung up in the tops of the trees. I walked back to the village, and thankfully Liat offered some help, and together we shook and pulled and dragged the tree down. This afternoon, I cut a smaller tree and easily toppled it. That leaves me with five total trees thus far. Hopefully I will be able to get at least two rafter poles from each. I need between twelve and sixteen of them.

The patch of land that I have been doing the cutting is very dense with pin oaks. Some are growing mere inches from one another. Pin oaks are tall and straight, making them appropriate for the reciprocal roof I want to build. The toughest part of the job is not so much the cutting, but the toppling of the trees, since they are so tangled with their neighbor trees. All of the cutting has been done with a bow saw, a hatchet, and a smaller saw for branches. It has been gratifying work.

Unfortunately, I don’t yet have a plot of land for my house. I have been in talks with another member here who is interested in letting go of his warren, since he has determined that it’s not worth the cost to him for the small amount of gardening he does on it. So there is that possibility. Because it’s not definite, I have not bothered with transporting the trees back to the village. (A damp ground doesn’t really help with that, either, though, which is probably the real reason I haven’t carted them back.)

We shall see.