This is just a post to say that I sure would like to attend another Timber Framers Guild project. I'm sure that I don't have time or money but thanks to all that made the last project in Geneseo that I did attend possible. Thanks to all of the inspiration from the people there I have started a Timber frame project. At the rate that I am going this may be a several year project but, I am making progress, so I consider the project officially underway. I live in Nebraska, not by choice but by chance. And I have noticed the lack of trees in Nebraska but that never really bothered me untill I set out to build a timber frame. Most of the trees in the sandhills of Nebraska were planted around the homestead sites. I saw a chart of forrested states and Nebraska is #50 at only 2% forrested ground. But thanks to Isaac suggesting the Niobrara river valley, which I live just a few miles from, I have found a large supply of pines, along with some native oaks and other hardwoods. To make a long story short, I also found an old saw mill. Part of my goal was to build this shop out of local timber and I think with the sawmill that will be possible. The mill needs a lot of work though and as I only have weekends to work on it it may be a month before I have it cutting. So the shop is at least a year off, but it will be fun to show what I can do. Well, this is getting to be a long post and way off topic, but I would like to say thanks to the Timber Framers Guild and I hope to see a project close enough to me that I can attend in the near future.

I remember an enjoyable paddle down the Niobrara, walking up to the waterfall and seeing the wildlife sanctuary some years ago, nice country. Driving through the sandhills the thought kept occuring to me how easy it must have been in earlier times to have become disoriented there. I'm used to being able to climb a hill and spotting some landmark in the distance. It made me appreciate the necessity of soddies and dugouts. What kind of mill did you get?

Yes, in the old days it may have been easy to get disoriented. But, as long as you could tell where the sun was you could tell direction. Distance would be another matter. If possible, I would think people would have traveled along rivers. Soddies were the typical means of construction in the early days for odvious reasons. In fact, there is an old homestead site on my Dads place with a square of silver maples planted around it and a deprecion in the ground that we believe was a dugout. We have no idea who homesteaded it as it must have been before the area was deeded. But most of the maples still stand.
As for the mill. I think it is an old Ireland but have not found any identifying marks on it. I have seen pictures of both a #6 and #8 Ireland and it looks similar but not an exact match.