The final timberframe workshop of the year at Midcoast Conservancy’s Hidden Valley Nature Center was one of the most successful yet. Nine participants spent four days with a project that began with logs and ended with the erection of a 12-foot x 20-foot cabin with a 12-foot x 10-foot loft.

Doug Carpenter, one of the nine participants called the workshop “life changing.” Another participant, Geoff Smith, has already signed up to take the workshop again next April when the class will build his 16-foot x 20-foot dream cabin.

The cabin was a modified version of Hidden Valley Nature Center’s HI Hut Cabin. Michael Donihue and Susan Mackenzie of Waterville had seen HI Hut during a winter outing at Hidden Valley Nature Center with The Natural Resources Council of Maine. They quickly became supporters of Hidden Valley Nature Center and asked for a version of HI Hut for their farm.

On day four of the workshop the build was erected under “The Barn “at Hidden Valley Nature Center. After an award celebration the building was taken down and loaded on a truck. This Monday it was erected again at its new home in Waterville. Michael Donihue said, “Susan and I are so excited to have this beautiful cabin. Knowing it was built by one of our favorite organizations with wood grown, harvested and milled on-site was icing on the cake.”

The Timberframe Workshops continue to be popular and have been sponsored for several years by Woodmizer, Hancock Lumber and MOFGA. The first of three 2017 workshops will be next April. Check www.midcoastconservancy.org for details.