This morning, our neighbor Charlie arrived bright and early with a bucket of tools, ready to help us lay the first course of tongue and groove decking on both sides of our workshop. It was a fairly easy task—we just measured from the peak of the rafters down to the tail, making sure the first course was parallel to it. Without Charlie's assistance, however, we likely would have mulled over every uncertainty for hours.

What a relief it was to have our cheerful, experienced neighbor on-site, happy to answer all of our questions! Occasionally, though, we'd stump him. Faced with a complication stemming from the sheer wonkiness of our nordic building, and unable to put his conventional building skills to use, Charlie would eventually shrug and brush off the problem and say "would Erik the Red care? I think not." I heartily approved of his philosophy.

Now that we have the first row down, it's just a matter of laying the rest until we reach the top!

Thank you, Charlie!