Hooray! The south wall essentially finished.

1) Connect all timbers.
2) Tighten joints with ratchet straps.
3) Check that frame is square.
4) Look for any wood that can be removed to make joinery tighter.
5) Release ratchet straps.
6) Disassemble timbers.
7) Shave 1/16" here.
8) Plane 1/32" there.
9) Reconnect timbers.

Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

But at about 11 p.m. we finally got the joinery on the South wall to be as tight as we could.

Here is Peter cleaning out a strut mortise on the curved American elm beam.



Here is Peter shaving a fraction of an inch off the strut shoulder using his chisel:





Here is the finished South wall frame, pulled very tightly together with 5 large ratchet straps. These timbers are tight!





The next step is to carefully drill all of the peg holes, which will finalize the joinery on this part of the Artist studio.