@#$%!!!!

It's the simple things that screw you up. The simple, obvious things that you saw right off, thought "I've got to find a way around this!" and then forgot all about until you're just totally screwed because those were the first things you should have been dealing with.

Got the 2X12 timbers cut and spliced for the cabin's footer forms, and this morning I went out to set the forms in place. The first form, of course, is the most important because I'm measuring every subsequent one from that, right? So I set the first post, put one nail in the 16' form, then go to the other side, set the second post, and lift that end of the form to get it level. And lift. And lift.

And the sunuvabitch is right out of the frigging trench before the level says it's right, because I haven't given a single thought all winter that the ground I dug the trench in is no way level in the first place!

Stupid! You are so stupid!

I am totally back to square one. I can spend all summer trying to level the site with a pick and shovel, or I can go back to what I should have done in the first place and use round forms for pylons which is exactly what the experienced builders told me I should have been doing all along.

All that trenching. I think I may just move the cabin site, so I can leave the trench visible as a monument to my world-class stupidity. Maybe there's a Guinness category for it, or something.

Yerg. It is just barely possible I can get away with filling in the trench on the low side. If I dig down to level on the high side, I'll need more concrete than I could ever pour by myself or even afford to buy. I must consult the neighbors. Which means confessing my idiocy to flesh-and-blood people who will laugh. Hell, I would.

Drink. It is time for drink. Alas, I have no booze.