Day 2, mistakes and progress

So day two was supposed to be just setting up the strong back and putting the keel on. It started off with a mistake and an epiphany of sorts (not a major epiphany, though). I had cut out the first and last forms wrong. I then thought to myself, the success of this project will not be avoiding mistakes all together, it will be how I work with the mistakes I'm bound to make.
So with all the mind numbing, life changing discoveries over, I could get on with the build. Stems on, forms up and it kinda sorta started looking like a canoe. The afternoon quickly turned dark and my two window work shop started getting dark. I pulled out the camping lantern and paused to enjoy the moment. I could hear our brook/creek/ditch in the background. This canoe was going to be built two winters ago, but the wife finally came out of her grad school induced haze to stop me. She told me we would have to wait till we bought a house until this boat could be built. Of course I would not forget such an agreement and I have been waiting ever since. We have owned the house for about 5 months now and this canoe has a sense of pride with it. It means we finally are making it in this world. It was very peaceful. Back to work, the keel went in place and I had to keep going. So I pulled out the milled strips that the gunwales would become and started putting them in place. After a lot of strapping they were in place and it was looking slightly more boat like. The day ended with more progress than I expected.