Started into creating the wall finishes today... exciting stuff. First part of the day was finishing the retaining wall forms and forming the edges of the door openings. There was a lot of precision chainsaw work today... not the most ideal tool for the job, but it's what I have available, so I'm making it work... and it's a good opportunity to gain some new skills!

Ripping to a line with a chainsaw. I wouldn't have thought this was possible if I hadn't watched some crazy-skilled guys in the Philippines (via YouTube) free-hand milling beautiful lumber with a chainsaw like it's no big deal. I copied their technique, and amazingly enough it worked out just fine with a little practice. 

Here's the board from the previous photo installed in the retaining wall form. It's the narrower, slightly wedge-shaped one in the middle of the photo. Fits just fine!

I bought a dutch oven today. I had never actually used one of these before, and was pleasantly surprised at how well it cooked a pot full of food with just a handful of briquettes. 

Chicken, potatoes, and wild onions... this smelled heavenly when I opened the lid to take a look.

I'll definitely have to borrow a generator big-enough to run my air compressor and nail gun. Working around the rebar and finish-nailing these little boards on by hand got very tedious, very quickly.

...but it was well worth the tedious work to get a peek of the finished form pattern. This is going to look awesome when it's cast in concrete!

One interesting side-note: the physical changes from doing this amount of work have been a little startling. I have lost four inches around my waist in four weeks, while eating all I can fit into my stomach... and at the same time I have gained about three pounds of body-weight. I've been lifting weights off and on for the better part of 20 years, and I've never seen these kinds of changes, this quickly, in the gym. Hard, sustained physical work can work wonders if you're getting a little soft around the middle!