Interior Framing Started
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Another Shed Day
Had another glorious shed work day. Some friends stopped by to help with roof sheathing, and fascia. It was a lovely 25 degrees, low wind and a bit sunny. After they left I cut some more siding pieces for the gable ends and put up the nailers in prep for the soffit. I am hoping to get over there tomorrow and get some more trim cut for the corners and gable ends.
This shed is coming together nicely. Is is really solid now with all the siding and sheathing on.
Shed Work Day
Thanks to help from our building adviser, we got the walls all laid out and plumb. We then put up the sidewall and gable end siding. Got to try out me own, new, set of Makita tools. Lithium ion makes for very powerful and long lasting battery powered tools. The circular saw is no joke. I am super impressed.
Very tired from a hard day working but satisfied.
More Shed Progress
We got the front and back siding up and the floor in.
Started building the shed.
Weather Station Install
I have been lusting after a home weather station for many years. I finally worked up the courage to drop some, pretty serious, money on one. I picked it up from weathershack.com. They had the best price at the time. I bought a Davis Vantage Pro2 wireless model. I am saving up for the data logger so I can interface with the computer. It will be a few months to save up for that.
We just mounted it on a fence post until we move to the new place.
New House Redesign Layout.
This is what the building we bought looks like right
So most of you know we bought a property. If not, here is your notice. It is outside Iron River, WI. It is really nice. Building built in 2005, 800 sq feet, metal siding, metal roof, 2x 6 construction on a slab. It will do nicely for us to live in for a few years until we are ready to build a new house next to it and convert it to a pool hall, dance hall.
The image above is from a really neat online tool I have been using to plan out the construction. It is floorplanner.com. It is perfect to design and test ideas. Here is the link to the existing building. Check out the 3D view it is really neat.
After 14 revisions this is the build design plans we will be working from.
The above image is the final design that we are shooting for. I think that some things will probably change a bit as I get to actual construction but I cannot find anything else that requires changing in this design. Here is the link to the Final Design.
Straight to the Source
For my birthday, I had a log truck deliver 12 loggers cords of wood. A loggers cord is 128 square feet of wood. A face cord, is what most people purchase already split. A loggers cord is 3 face cords. A face cord pretty much fills up the box on my pickup, so this works out to about 36 pickup trucks full of wood. The cost for this was $1000 delivered. $83 per loggers cord. We had paid $60 per face cord, split at the beginning of the year, for the same volume of wood that would have cost $180. I can say that each loggers cord easily has $120 worth of hard work in cutting and splitting it.
Since we are now heating with wood, and our consumption is still up in the air, this wood will last us at least 2 years. That allows us to get it nice and dry, and then order another truck next year to stay ahead of the use, allowing a minimum of one year to dry before burning. We also needed a chainsaw, never had a need for one in the city. After a bunch of looking around the Stihl Farmboss MS290 seemed like a good fit. It ran great when I used it to cut and split a face cord last weekend.
Building my tool portfolio
After my previous post about the axe heads and shaving horse. I wanted to share the draw knife I purchased off of eBay. It took a while to find one that was going to be useful as a functional tool, not just a display piece.
I sharpened it using 800 grit and 6000 grit stones then cleaned up the rust with some oil and steel wool. I think I might give the handles some tung oil to protect them a bit, but we shall see.
Now I have all the stuff I need to make my axe handles. That should happen in the next couple days.
They’ll kill the old red rooster when she comes: Learning to butcher a chicken.
Squeamish Beware: This post consists of where food comes from. Animals and they have to be killed in order for you to eat them. In reverence for the animals, they are humanly raised, and killed in as humane a manner as possible.
This afternoon, the wife and I, went over to our friends place to help and learn about butchering chickens. He had some older birds that needed to be culled, and I was eager to help so I could learn the process for the future when we are managing our own flock.
The process is really rather easy. The bird is placed in an upside down cone to keep them calm and from flapping around. Their throat is slit. Once they are dead, they are placed in a scalding bath of 140 degrees for 40 seconds or so to loosen the feathers.
The bird is then plucked. Then we start by taking off the feet and head. Next a cut on the backside and around the butt opens the body cavity. Gizzard, liver and heart are separated for later processing. The rest of the insides, esophagus and crop are removed and the bird is ready for a rinse before being put in an ice bath. Even as a novice, I was able to process a chicken in 10 – 15 minutes. My friend does in less than half of that.
All said, it took 3 hours to do 5 birds from start to finish, with him teaching and talking through the whole process. We came home with some organs, and 2 birds for the stew pot. It was a great day.
Know where it comes from. Be in touch with it, learn to prepare it yourself if you like. Do not let other people do the dirty work for you.
-TM