No one here but us......

Possums.

Wonderful furry little marsupial friends, big brown eyes and curly little tails.

Fun to watch as they wander through the tree tops, eating seeds and young tree shoots.

Not so fun when your balancing up a ladder, jemmy bar in one hand and claw hammer in the other, pulling off the last cement sheet from the skillion roof in your house and one appears four inches from your face!

I'd like to say that as the sheet dropped and Mr.Possum presented himself at eye level, close enough to breath on me, that I calmly said "hello" and continued on my way.

More accurately, I dropped both hammer and bar stumbled backward off the ladder and onto the floor, muttering expletives under my breath and wondering what the hell was glaring back at me.

Of course my brush tailed buddy was completely uninterested about the whole episode  and calmly sat there while I took a photo for my boy Tom. I left a lump of stud leaning against the wall up into the ceiling for him and this morning he was gone.

What wasn't gone though were the big posts that I had to man handle into position today. All three ended  up cut to length and sitting in place ready for measuring the beams in between. I even managed to cut the tenons on the 1st beam in what will be the opening to the kitchen. I've got to say at 100mm long and 50mm ( 4 " x 2" ) thick it's by far the biggest tenon I've ever cut. But then again, this ain't no Shaker hall table.

Best part though was finally getting to use my 3" slick that I bought from Patrick Leach in Massachusetts  while I was there late last year. I've turned a Gidgee handle for it and it's a joy to use.

Here it is next to my little No.3 Stanley, which it dwarfs. I have re-thought my timing on getting this whole thing together, especially when cutting all mortises and tenons by hand. Sometimes it's better to take your time ( or admit your slow at it ! ) and savour these enjoyable parts of a build, rather than force yourself to follow a timeline and rush things and that's just what I'm doing. ....and loving it.