can't cd to /usr/ports

[FreeBSD WickerBill]

"can't cd to /usr/ports"

I'm getting this in every port I try to make...it begins the make and then
errors out with 'Error  code 2' telling me it can't cd into the ports
work/portname directory. This has been happening for about a week. It's
probably some global make environment setting but I can't figure out what it
is. I've portsnap fetch extract to rebuild the tree but that didn't help. I
would appreciate any clues and thank anyone with one.