Well, since my now consistent non chronological events are getting pretty regular
Why mess that up
The shop
A labor of love/angst
After storing a portion of needful tools in my haphazardly designed and put together in the snow with scrap wood engineering marvel tool crib for pushing two years,
it got quite cramped
I made time (most the summer) for building a shop
The size for the shop needed to be large enough to swing 4x8 sheets of this and that over and thru a table saw, and contain my 12” sliding miter saw…and a shop bench….and a place to store materials of various sizes…and double doors (since there never really is enough room no matter the shop size)
Oh, and to house two gennys, one for lights, small tools, and one humongous gas guzzling one for running the saws
The floor, as mentioned back a ways, is nothing more than thick boards on treated 4x4s on cement pads
With Tyvek sandwiched in between
My ‘foundation’ designs have proven worthy thru a few decades now, no matter the jovial banter and deriding of actual builders/engineers
Anyway, needed a roof pitch steep enough to slough off snow, so went with 45°
Aaaand 45°is a wonderful angle due to its reversibility in yielding a complete right angle
The side walls became 6’
Doable for two old people to erect roof joists on, yet enough to hang tools, and not the ridiculous height of 4’ like the first cabin
My lovely lady proved a worthy helper and demonstrated wood butcher’s expletives I’ve never heard before
Thought I’d have to put ‘er down a couple times due to writhing and flopping around, but those were rare, and never bonked to the point of complete unconsciousness
Once the joists were secure and enough siding to keep the walls from going out of plumb, the roof became the next adventure
My roofs, much like my floors (actually just like my floors) are very simple
4x4 joists/rafters with 2x6 planks nailed tightly on top
Thin plywood veneer
30 lb felt
Metal roofing
I fell outa getting used to heights awhile back and never have regained trust in my balance since
Still
Had to
Having wrapped ratcheted straps to the exposed joists, scaffold and fully extended ladder, up I went
t’wards the end of screwing on the metal roofing, installing on the crown at the top, I developed the sensation of my ladder creeping, inching down
only it wasn’t a sensation
I found that clinging tightly to a sliding ladder with arms and legs while whisper whimpering the word ‘help’ is virtually no help
but beats helplessly clawing at slick metal roofing
Screaming for my garden tending woman proved somewhat life and limb saving
Her screams, however, after seeing the ladder pushing the scaffold away from the wall, hanging by a now loose strap, didn’t help settle my composure much
But
Slithering down, step by step
And once safely back on terra firma
things calmed
Strolling thru the framed structure, sipping a cool one, seeing it all in plumb, one gets a feeling of satisfaction on a late summer afternoon
Building the work bench was a sheer delight
Last sight of a clean work bench
Learned, midstream, a new window design that readily accommodates the changing of a broken pane
Broken panes happen
A dull spear of wood can zip thru a shop from the whirling blade of a table saw
Next, the doors
it's now my happy place
Well meaning folks have mentioned they want me to build their doors
I don’t build anything for anyone
Ever
I can only receive joy from building for me
Never would anything prove worthy for others
Sounds selfish
may be
But
It’s self preservation
After many years of personal neglect, I’ve come to know me
A young acquaintance I’ve come to admire, has a large leather tool satchel
Handed down from his father
Handed down from his father’s father
In it is various handsaws, hammers and chisels
Many quite uncommon, of which I’d never seen
Handed down from his father
Handed down from his father’s father
The lad can yield a wooden porch from those aged tools
They are well fitted joinery
Works of art
I don’t do that
Never will
My toil yields form fit function
With enough esthetic quality to keep me from vomiting, because, heh, I'm the one that has to look at it...for a very long time