Girder pier location for cabin

I have 40 acres of woods in NW Wisconsin. I plan to build my own cabin. I'm
not a carpenter and have never built anything bigger than a 1 car garage, a
couple of storage sheds, a dog house and a tree fort for the kids. But I
have done alot of reading in preperation to taking on a cabin. The footings
for the cabin will be in a trench 4 feet below grade. I plan to use cinder
block for the foundation with the mud sill a minimum of 18 inches above grade.
I will install girder piers and 2 X 10 built up girders.
I was wondering if the girder footings need to be below frost level and built
up with cinder blocks like the foundation or if its ok to use something like
pier blocks on a pad of gravel above frost level? I guess I'm asking if I
need to excavate for the pier locations too.

Thanks...

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