When Tyler came back from Becky and Charlie's place a few days ago, casually informing me that we'd be building our solar shed this week (during a brief window when the forecast called for warmth and sun), I could not have been more surprised or more thrilled. I think I stood there gaping until Tyler said, "Yep! Charlie's going to help out, and it should just take two or three days, and by the way, here's a shopping list for everything we'll need."

In my mind, the solar shed (where we'll house a battery array that powers our homestead) was a distant goal, looming in the endless list of projects that need to be done on our homestead. Things like "finish complicated living roof for grindbygg workshop," "build tiny straw bale house," "plant impeccably designed permaculture-style garden and orchard."

This homesteading project is basically an endless collection of huge, multi-faceted endeavors which are completely out of our realm of expertise. The sheer number of new skills we need to learn can be mind-boggling. But this? A solar shed in two days? With the help of the sweetest neighbor ever, who happens to be a retired builder? It was too good to be true.

After our experience with the grindbyyg, with its arduous and unexpected rafter project, and our futile, never-ending fight to keep the gargantuan thing tarped and dry through a winter of wind storms and rain storms and snowstorms, I've grown to be wary of any project that "should" be quick and easy.

And so, even as I ordered all of the materials, and even as they arrived without issue, delivered straight to our land, I had a hard time believing this shed would actually be built. It was only when Charlie came over yesterday, and he and Tyler immediately began framing up the walls during the unseasonably warm day, that I realized this thing was actually going to happen.