Sun, Mar 06, 2011 · Filed under Building & Fixing, Homesteading, Planning
A great chance find at the library, lying there on top of a returned-book cart. This isn’t a book review or recommendation, although Barns, Sheds & Outbuildings is a cool browsing volume, full of clear explanations, instructions, and photos. What it did was remind me, as my year of living mainly in town has its effect, how little most of us (I’m talking about the majority of North Americans, at least, living in cities and towns) have to do with actually building things. And how kinda HELPLESS we are, not knowing how to put together and repair the structures we need. I read somewhere that in the 1950′s, around half of the houses in Toronto (so, I assume, in other big cities as well) were built by the owners. Who’d think of doing that now?
The interesting thing is, like growing food, building basic structures IS NOT HARD. For me, working alongside Bob to put up a wood-framed, winterized, 450 sq. ft. barn extension clued me in to that a few years back. Not a huge project, but it was basically a tiny house constructed to withstand cold Canadian winters. We leveled land and poured a concrete pad, built a concrete block retaining wall, framed, installed a metal roof, windows and doors, insulated and wired…everything. Being warm and dry in the middle of winter inside a structure I knew literally down to the nuts and bolts was satisfying and fundamental. Working alongside someone with old-school farmer skills, following his lead, doing whatever he did, made it…simple.
There aren’t that many old-school farmers left to learn from, but we do have books! :)
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Sun, Jun 21, 2009 
Filed under Animals, Building & Fixing, Summer, Tools, Winter
First day of summer, and the day before the arrival of 25 20-week-old, ready-to-lay Shaver Red Sex Link CHICKENS. Clearly, time to begin building out their new home. It shouldn’t take too long! :) Working on and off through the day, the frame went up, and by early evening, the plywood flooring is down, the door is built (on the right) and even a first plywood panel is up. A little more work tomorrow, and we should be good to go. No problem!
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Tue, Feb 03, 2009 · Filed under Building & Fixing, Tools, Winter
More building the seedling room at the new farm. Bob came by on Sunday, and I stayed on to work solo for a couple of days. This is where we get down to details. What gets me here is the number of PARTS that suddenly come into play near the end. Where initial demolition and framing are really simple, with few tools and materials, now, there’s tons of stuff. Door handle kits, latch kits, electrical receptacles, switches, receptacles covers, electrical boxes for receptacles and switches, door kits, window kits, shims, low expansion foam, screws of different types and lengths, and then there’s quick-set concrete for patching the floor, drywall mud, caulking, paint, and more still to come. It’s interesting how the convenience of buying endless products eventually takes over, even when it’s rough carpentry, in a barn! OK, I’m going on a bit, it’s not all that complicated. Guess I’ve got FINISHING THE SEEDLING ROOM on the brain as the calendar flips…
Anyhow, the insualtion is now going in—that’s quick—and as soon as plywood is on the walls, I’ll be able to start setting up! You can see on the left of the photo the handy twin 250w indoor/outdoor halogen lights-on-a-stand, lighting the scene—last gig, they were lighting the barnyard for rinsing beets and carrots after dark… :)
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Sun, Jan 25, 2009 · Filed under Building & Fixing, Winter
It’s slow and steady with the new seedling room. I’ve only managed to commute to the new farm for one or two days a week this month. It’s a little frustrating, watching the time go by, but I guess it’s good for building up energy for all the stuff to come in the next three months—meanwhile, I’m working on the garden map and other plans at the old farm end! Today, it was more building, with Bob lending his old school, all-purpose expertise, and we got a lot done. A good day! The last wall, the open one (the other three are against concrete block), is in and covered with Typar weather wrap (above). This finally makes four walls to keep a little HEAT in. Now, instead of working in subzero temperatures, we can work in the comfort of a few degrees above. It really makes a difference! So, the wall framing is done, with only the ceiling to go.
Doors and windows? One of the two doors is hung. The other one was a bit of a concern. A standard door was still a couple of inches (5cm) too high. Choices: either build a door, pay hundreds of dollars for a custom built one, OR, bash the concrete sill, made of concrete blocks filled with concrete and stones, to make the extra height. We chose option #3. It actually didn’t take too long to sledgehammer and clean with a masonry chisel, maybe half an hour, and now we have a good 6 inches (15cm) to play with. The openings for the two windows are fine, they’re framed, the windows have to be shimmed and screwed in place. Two or three more good work days, and the new seedling room will be snug enough to set up the light racks and start some onions! And leek!
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Sun, Jan 18, 2009 · Filed under Building & Fixing, Tools, Winter
If I happened to be looking for monthly tiny farming themes, this particular January is clearly all about chickens and tools (and thinking about stuff!). It’s not the usual January routine around here. Normally, I’d be hanging the lights back on the light racks, checking out my seed starting gear—plug sheets, trays and the like get hit by a certain amount of damage and destruction each year—and generally cleaning up and rearranging the Milkhouse for seedling production. This year, with the move to the new farm, there’s nothing much to do on this end, until the new seedling room is built. So, it’s been back and forth—this weekend was there. The tools in the photo, a fairly small part of my ever-expanding collection of essential farm maintenance gear, aren’t what’s mostly being used, it’s mainly the chop saw, sawzall, cordless drill, and a lot of measuring and marking as we frame and insulate the lower barn space. But I’ve been lugging this chest each way, just in case I need tools at either end… As for the chickens, well, it’s water, feed and eggs every day!
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Sat, Jan 10, 2009 · Filed under Building & Fixing, Winter
A fairly productive Saturday of building out the new seedling room in the freezing cold (-15°C/5°F), with Michael and Bob (he dropped by to help for the day). By sundown, we had about half of the framing done, slow going with the cold, and the joists in the ceiling to work around. The propane space heater I used to use for emergency greenhouse heat barely made a difference with all of the drafts around the old barn doors and windows. This winter work is nowhere near as fun as rough carpentry in warm weather, but it felt good to get stuff done. And we’re still on schedule—seedlings soon have to start!
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