Hello Everyone!

A brief introduction: Hi I am Jacob.

***TL;DR:*** **There is no ***tl;dr*** because you should have more patience and attention span than a gnat on a high wind.**
<center>[End Introduction]</center>

# <center>The Fantastica Chronicles Day 345!</center>

**Zen As Fuck Construction And I Am Too Damn Tired To Make A Proper Title**

I somehow managed to wake up a little after seven this morning which was mildly surprising because I stayed up a little later than I thought that I was going to. Mostly I was up reading stuff online but I also kept wracking my brain on all the details of my construction project and what order I should do things in to make it as easy as possible on myself and basically keep it 'zen' as fuck. Given that I seldom draw out anything more than some crude doodles for my construction projects anymore it is always sort of critical to go over everything in my mind to make sure that I am not going to screw something up or waste materials which all basically amounts to me visualizing each and every step of the process and keeping a bunch of numbers (measurements) in my head while doing it. At this point in life though (after a few decades of doing construction projects) I have a heck of a lot of confidence in my skill set and actually enjoy doing things without a real blueprint to work off of other than the one in my mind's eye.

I got started working on stuff rather early in the day after letting the chickens out of their coop and building a fire to continue making ashes for my compost mound which by the way seems like one hell of a slow process to be doing in my little fire pit. I spent a good bit of time this morning just getting the layout for the addition measured out and digging the holes for the main two support posts. The digging was not all that bad and I even manged to get that big rock out of the hole that I started digging several days ago.

Fortunately there was someone available to help me carry that big black locust log that I de-barked the other week from where it was near the trail to inside the dog yard so that I could cut it into two pieces for the posts. It was still rather waterlogged but it was noticeably lighter than before when it still had bark on it and was covered in vegetation and not getting much sunlight. My little electric chainsaw did not quite struggle to cut it but it sure took a while which was probably because it was so wet that the sawdust was clumping together and more or less clogging the teeth of the chainsaw's chain.

Anyway, the first post went in rather easy and I only had to slightly widen the hole on one side to get the post plumb. The second post was a bit of a hassle because it not only had a double hook (two curves in the log) but when I dug the hole I ran into a big rock on the uphill side that made getting the pole to at least look plumb rather difficult especially given the double hook. It is really just a visual thing but it sure looks like I put it in there as crooked as hell even though it is actually rather plumb. It did not help that both hooks occurred in the log over only a four foot span but I did the best I could with it and am happy with how it came out.

With the two posts in place I rapidly got the rest of the frame for the floor built and one of my fellow homesteaders helped me get the thick sheets of sub-floor plywood hauled into the dog yard where we placed them atop the newly built floor frame. I could have probably done it on my own but it would have been quite the hassle trying to maneuver while carrying them through the gate, down off the porch, down the little slope and around to the rear of the shelter so I was quite happy to get a hand with that part of things.

Since I am trying to conserve the exterior screws that I have I did not overkill it on screwing the sub-floor plywood into place and wound up only putting them every two feet which should be fine because after all it is just a room for storing stuff in and will not be getting much foot traffic. Also when I add the bottom plate for the walls the screws are long enough to pierce the bottom plate, the plywood and pierce into the framing for the floor so in the end at least the exterior edges of the sub-floor will have a screw every one foot which will undoubtedly be more than sufficient.

I had to change tactics on how I was going to construct the short wall of the storage room because the landscape timbers that I was originally planning to use were way too damned warped to use for it and I was really glad that I had ordered a few extra two by four inch by twelve foot boards just in case I needed them. I am still kind of pissed that the building supply company left all that material bundled up and in the rain for all those days and thus not just the landscape timbers but also the two by four boards got so frigging warped because of it. I did manage to get the short wall finished and all the rafters in place except for the two floating rafters that make up the overhang but damn it was an all day affair and I am quite exhausted at this point even though the entire project went pretty smoothly.

Well I really need to just stop writing at this point because I am fumbling for words and my eyes keep sagging halfway shut as my brain screams at me 'enough fucking work for one day' and I think that I am going to listen to it... right after I edit all this and get it posted! I hope that everyone is doing well and has a nice day/night.

<center>![IMG_20200812_114714.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/jacobpeacock/j1bNGwNm-IMG_20200812_114714.jpg)</center>
<center>*The black locust had a little heart rot but that won't make much difference for this project!*</center>

<center>![IMG_20200812_154846.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/jacobpeacock/PVhlREZa-IMG_20200812_154846.jpg)</center>
<center>*As you can see I will have plenty of storage beneath the addition as well!*</center>

<center>![IMG_20200812_201101.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/jacobpeacock/nHrrg1rx-IMG_20200812_201101.jpg)</center>
<center>*This is the overall progress that I made today on this project!*</center>

<center>**Thanks for reading!**</center>

**More about me:** I have been doing property caretaking (land stewardship) for many years (decades) and live a rather simple life with my dogs doing what most folks would consider to be an 'alternative minimalist lifestyle' but what I often just think of as a low-impact lifestyle where I get to homestead and spend the majority of my time alone with my dogs in the woods doing projects in the warmer months and taking some downtime during the colder months.

A little over three years ago I began sharing the adventures (misadventures) of my life via writing, videos, pictures and the occasional podcasts and although my intention was to simply share my life with some friends it undoubtedly grew into much more than that over the years and now I find myself doing what equates to a full-time job just 'sharing my life' which is not even all that glamorous or anything but hey folks seem to enjoy it so I just keep doing it!

The way that the Fantastica Chronicles came about is that I was living at another place when I started chronicling and sharing my days but eventually I wound up moving to a new place. The new place is a homestead named 'Fantastica' so I started with 'Day 1' upon my arrival here and just kept documenting my days much like I had done for the previous nine hundred and fifty-seven days at the last place that I lived.

I have mostly done that 'documenting' at Fantastica exclusively with words (and pictures) opting not to do the videos because as I learned at the last place, sharing videos over an intermittent and slow internet connection is horribly time consuming and what I often think of as an 'ulcer inducing' experience. All that said, I opted for simplicity with the documentation and have no real regrets for doing so.

The way that I look at it is that I give it all my best each day and while some stuff I write is better than others I think that for the most part I do a pretty good job at doing what I am doing which is simply 'sharing my life' as candidly as I possibly can and whatever folks get (or do not get) from it there is always the satisfaction of me doing what I set out to do... which is to simply share my life.

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<center>**That Is All For Now!**</center>

<center>***Cheers! & Hive On!***</center>