My Side of The Mountain, by Jean Craighead George. This book, published in 1959, is a tale focusing on 15-year-old Sam Gribley, who decided to run away from home to go and live in the wilderness on his great-grandfather Gribley’s farm.
“Five notches into June, my house was done. I could stand in it, lie down in it, and there was room left over for a stump to sit on. On warm evenings I would lie on my stomach and look out the door, listen to the frogs and nighthawks, and hope it would storm so that I could climb into my tree and be dry.” (p. 35)
In this quote, Sam Gribley is reflecting on his achievement of completing his house in the wilderness, which was a tree that he hollowed out with the usage of fire. He had completed this house just in time for winter, and he installed a fireplace in the front of the house to keep him, as well as his pet falcon Frightful, warm during the cold winter months. The beginning of this quote where Sam is talking about ‘five notches into June’ is simply referring to days into the month.