It must be great to put together your own cabin.

There are at least a score of companies in Maine that provide "kits" or "packages" that can be delivered to the property owner and his waiting crew.

I consider the ability to build your own cabin to be a noble and great skill.

But I wouldn't even want to try.

A recent ad in an outdoors magazine, to this point, suggested "Build it yourself. Follow our detailed, fully-illustrated construction manual and construction drawings... FREE training and guidance as you go!"

I would rather attempt to swim across the Bay of Fundy than try to construct my own cabin with the logs, roofing, flooring and "exposed beam ceiling" that the log-home company drops on your land.

Your Scribe mentions this because he looked into it three years ago.

The price sounded good (perhaps $15,000) for 600-square foot cabin (not counting the farmer's porch).

But when it finally hit me that the price was for materials only, I laughed so hard I thought the sales manager was going to hit me with a step ladder.

Certainly he couldn't expect me to build it!

I was so inept as a kid that I had to take remedial blocks.

And it didn't get better as I aged. My last home project was trying to remove a rusted toilet seat from the bowl.

The bad (but predictable) news was that I broke the bowl with my injudicious hammering; the good news was that the break was above the water line.

My shortcomings aside, I still wanted a cabin.

So I did what any local would do: I went to the farm store, and looked at business cards tacked on the outdoor bulletin board.

I saw a message I liked, and ended up calling the number printed on the weathered scrap.

The builder's name was Burt. At our first meeting, he showed photos of other projects he had done, and gave me phone numbers of people for whom he had worked.

With this modest excursion into due dilgence behind me, I contracted with him to build the cabin.

Except for the fact he forgot to put on the back porch - which was in the plans - the cabin has worked out well.

He cleared the land, built the structure and even put in a skylight in the middle of the roof. It is a fine cabin.

I admire those who do order a "package," and build it with their friends or perhaps a contractor.

There are many success stories with this mode of construction.

But I doubt if I could even assemble the steps correctly - and surely they would not lead anywhere.

For me, developing the cabin was a case of knowing your limits.

And having the wisdom to say, "Let Burt do it!"

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