Changes around the ol’ homestead.

In addition to the weeks news, which i posted earlier, i want to go over some of the changes that have taken place around here.

I ended up with quite a stack of old metal roofing from a guy in town that had had his shop roof replaced. I wasn’t sure just what i was going to do with it at the time, but i have never turned down free materials, and figured i would come up with something before long.

As it turned out, i had wanted to build a woodshed to store my firewood, keeping it dry during the winter with a tarp was proving to be a pain.

I had the roofing, now what to use for the frame? When you life on a tight budget, as we do, you learn to hunt the free sites online looking for any building supplies that will work for any given project. This helped, but i could not find enough, so i decided to find enough downed trees to use as the frame, combined with the lumber i was finding, and also use logs for the rafters.

Time is of the essence when you live at 42,00 ft above sea level, one cannot wait, summer is over all too quickly and fall rains hit. working outside after that is close to impossible for me.

I framed the woodshed and decided to move the old truck body further away and turn it 90 degrees, so the door was now facing south and we would have easier access to it during the winter.

I ended up with 17 feet between my new woodshed and the truck body. What a great time to add a shop. We stored everything in the truck body, from winter clothes off season, to my wife’s  extra yarn and fabric, to all of my tools, which were crammed into the rear and just kind of thrown together in a pile so that every time i needed something, I would have to dig to find what i needed.

More logs and used lumber later, I had framed a workshop between the woodshed and the truck body. it is big enough to store the UTV during the summer, and store the water trailer, wheelbarrow, and two other small trailers in the winter.

I lucked out and found someone giving away a couple of nice workbenches and an old beat up dresser. One of the workbenches went into my shop, as did the dresser, the other workbench will be in the greenhouse that is planned for next spring. it will be added to the west end of the woodshed, I already have the windows for it, found free online, so it won’t take long to put that up once the snow melts next spring.

We tore down the front wall and installed all glass there, again, most everything was salvaged from somewhere else. even the glass door we found. now we have a better view north without having to walk to the window to look out. this makes thunderstorms mush more exciting to watch!

last summer, we picked up some old hardwood flooring from a 1930’s house that was being remodeled. Out of some 300 sq ft, about half turned out to be usable, enough for the living room. Almost all of it had glue from linoleum or carpet tacks in it. We planed it last summer, then stored it for the winter. This summer we stained and sealed it and put it down in the living-room. Some newspaper wall paper (If you haven’t seen this, i recommend checking it out) old cedar fencing, nicely weathered, makes great wainscoting, and the living room is pretty much finished.

I also found a small chicken coop, it will be added to the end of the shed/ truck body combination next spring as well and a secure pen for the chickens to scratch in, safe from the predators that roam our mountain home. Chickens will be a nice addition, fresh eggs every day, and meat when they stop laying.

I have become a haunter of the free sites, jumping on anything that looks like it could be used or re-purposed in any way.