Judy:

Sorry to hear about your husband's passing. That's got to be incredibly rough.

Where in the "East Mountains?" I grew up in the area, so the good news is you'll have year round weather for building. Yes, there's a couple days of snow, wind, lightning, rain or wind--but for the most part you can work comfortably outside any time of year.

If you keep it simple, you can definitely do it, or an awful lot of the work yourself. Logs are a lot like adobe, in that they will never be perfectly straight, plus, level or smooth--nor do they need to be.

You'll understand a lot better the concept of keeping the house plan simple if you take the class/workshop. It's not about building techniques, it's about a way to approach a house. If that makes any sense.

Dan