141: The beginning of a goat cabin!

Coldholler is sunnier now, after all the logging in its very center.  For those concerned, it's a bit less deep and green because the trees I took out were huge white pines, over 100 years old and very tall and grand, but they grew in the center acre, the one that "joins" all other 9, and now that they are gone you can stand up at the trout ponds and gaze down, across the treehouse clearing, and down the ridge to the Coldholler log cabin and beyond to the blue ridges of the Plott Balsams and over to Clingman's Dome in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.  That which was thick pine and underbrush will now be high-bush blueberry, an orchard, and goats.  The new clearing is bordered by mixed hardwoods, oaks, beeches, and birches that will thrive in the sunshine and spread great canopies.

Last weekend, I spent a few hours with a single big poplar tree and a sharp chainsaw to create the first story of a second log cabin -- this one even more rustic and intended to shelter the goats that we'll get in the spring.  Each goat requires about 25-square-feet of shelter, so with upstairs under a peaked roof and downstairs beneath the platform floor, it'll provide for up to 4 comfortably.

I ripped the green poplar from end-to-end and fashioned saddle notches to face the smooth side out.  This time of year, I couldn't get the bark off with my spud, but it rests on locust poles (like the cabin) and will stay under cover.  Should last many years.  Later, I'll build some gangplanks from the second story up into the trees, for entertainment (the goats' and ours).

The boys and their friends are here inspecting my work...

The day before...

 And a lonely gate, needing a fence.  First, I'll have to burn the large slash pile on the left, as it's right on the fence line...