Saturday ( the 24th) marked both a sad turning point for us, but also turned into an enormous blessing.

Saturday was Jeremiah’s last day. He left in the morning, after a lovely, celebratory team dinner at Saltgrass Steakhouse with us, the kids, and Mallory Friday night. He stayed with us for 5 weeks, and became more “family” to us than he already was and had been for years.

We needed him badly, and the whole stay was an enormous blessing to everyone involved. He is now loaded with inspiration and desire to go home and build another. The only question is when. Thank you, Jeremiah, for everything.

It was very sad saying goodbye, but the positive part of the day were the visitors we got!

Do you remember reading about Jeremy and Candace Sutterfield from a couple weeks ago? They contacted Steve Friday morning and said they wanted to come in that night, again, to help Saturday! They stayed the night in our B&B Friday and Saturday night and helped all day Saturday.

While they and Steve started peeling the last 3 (can’t believe it!!!) logs, our pastor came to visit. He said he was amazed by the size of the house, and that the pictures don’t accurately convey it. He’s a worker and wanted so badly to peel logs (seriously), but had a serious shoulder injury and couldn’t. So he took a quick tractor ride with the kiddos and chatted a while.

Mallory arrived. And Candace told us about some friends of theirs who wanted to come see it and help that day, as well.   Gary and Carol. Wonderful people!! They arrived, got the tour, and Gary picked up a sledge hammer and got right to work pounding in rebar.

As it turned out, once again, we started the day with our own plan, but the Lord had a different one.

Steve decided to put up our first “cap log”… the last one on the wall, that caps it off. Cap logs are longer than the others, and need to be placed in such a way that the ends of it don’t butt up or pass, like all the other logs. Also, the ends need to be in line with the ends of the Ridge pole (that huge horizontal log at the roof peak). The roof rafters (the boards of wood that the roof is built upon) will extend from the Ridge to the cap logs, all the way from one end of the house to the other. (Please forgive my Building 101, for those who haven’t done construction before.).

This cap log required perfect centering on the wall. This is a challenge because T-Rex can’t move its boom from side to side. Only in and out or up and down. The whole telehandler needs to move in order to center the cap log.

One problem. The unplanned tree. Steve couldn’t get a good enough vantage point.

He got the log suspended above the wall, not centered, and then T-Rex got caught in a tree. (Of course.) Ironically, it was the same branch that the crane got hung up in.

He couldn’t put the log where it needed to go, and now couldn’t bring it back either.  At least not without breaking off the limb…which is exactly what happened.

He had to set the cap log down on the wall, cutting across the corner of two walls, and back away from it completely, leaving the log.

He pulled T-Rex around to the other side of the trees and repositioned the log with a lot of help and guidance from Gary and Jeremy. Gary took over T-Rex, Steve climbed up to one end, and Jeremy was on the other. After many shouted instructions (over the loud motor of T-Rex), and much repositioning and eyeballing, and Steve climbing down to see how the ends of the cap log looked in line with the Ridge, they finally had it.

A little flare trimming had to take place on the log below it, before he cold lay the cap flat enough.

Then all that was left was nailing down the rebar!

Watching this whole complicated and unexpectedly challenging process, I knew that, once again, The Lord had looked out for us, sending in 2 men to help Steve in Jeremiah’s absence.

He and I “could” have done it (I assume)… but not nearly as easily, and it would have taken 10 times longer. We didn’t know how hard it was going to be, didn’t know about the branch, resting the log, or about the need for another person on the upper corner pulling on the guide rope to pull the enormous log into place. I’m really not sure I could have done that, and am really not certain that I could have maneuvered T-Rex into the precise right angle and direction to get the log centered, with the trees in the way.

I sat there in awe over how troops were sent in to assist us on the day we needed it, without any asking on our part.

The sun was setting on a great day. We gathered at the B&B and enjoyed fantastic conversation and ended the evening with a local Mexican dinner and huge hugs.

I am so deeply appreciative of the non-stop new friendships that keep trickling into our life through the building of this log home, and the comments, and personal messages we keep receiving from the blog. We are now being read in 7 other countries. It staggers my mind.

Today is Monday. Steve and I are out here attempting to put up 2 more of the last 3 logs. Home Depot just arrived minutes ago with our delivery of rafters from Idaho.

The delivery men were fascinated with the house and started taking pictures and asking all the usual questions. It makes Steve and I smile. We had a good time showing them around and explaining it.

Every single day has been an adventure and brought surprises. Maybe I will even get my car back one of these days.   Go the next post “Sky Deck Dreamin'”  If you’re new to this blog and don’t know what it’s about, click on “What is Cottonwood Creek?”   If you want to start reading at the very beginning of our chronological story, when we first bought the land and built a 130-year old Bed and Breakfast on it, click on: “Welcome to Cottonwood Creek“.   Or, if you want to start reading about our log home build, click on “What do Vegas and logs have in common?“