Calf Shed Finis...Pretty Much

The last two weekends I was able to work on the calf shed some more. The weekend of the 22^nd and 23^rd of November it pretty much dumped rain.

On the 22^nd, I had volunteered to help set up for the Thanksgiving Dinner at the Marblemount Community Hall. I was supposed to be there at 12:00 noon. So, after taking care of the usual chores, feeding the cows and walking the dog, I did as much as I could on the calf shed which wasn’t a lot, I cut and attached a few pieces of trim. I showed up at the Community Hall at the appointed time to find out that everything had been set up the day before and my services weren’t needed.

Quite frankly, I was a bit disappointed. I had been looking forward to getting out of the rain for a while. So, reluctantly, I headed back and worked on the shed some more. I was able to get the plywood doors for the front of the shed cut and mounted before I had to make a trip to Concrete and the hardware store to get some supplies.

The last major part of the shed that remained to be built was an awning over the front of the shed to keep the drips off the front door area. This part probably has a more technical term but, at this point, I am too lazy to look it up. I worked on that on Sunday the 23^rd and got the rafters for the awning cut and attached before it got dark. There is quite a bit less daylight this time of year which cuts into my work time. I could set up some lights but that would be a lot of trouble.

I was hoping to get the shed finished over coming Thanksgiving weekend. I had Friday off so I figured to have an extra day in the weekend. Unfortunately my car broke down Wednesday night on the way home from work. It was something serious. The whole front end suddenly started shaking uncontrollably. Fortunately, this subsided quickly and I was close to home so was able to nurse it back.

Thanksgiving Day was great. We went to Sacha’s mom’s house and got some good visiting in and ate some great food. Sacha stayed there overnight with the kids while I brought my mom home. I started pouring rain around dark.

The next day, Friday the 28^th, it was still pouring rain and the river was on it’s way up. It looked like we were going to have a minor flood. I thought about waiting until Saturday when it was supposed to cool off dramatically and clear up. This would bring the streams down and lessen the chance of running into problems caused by the flood. Finally I decided to chance it.

I was able to nurse my car into the nearest open car repair shop in Sedro-Woolley, over 40 miles away. This was something that I might have been able to fix myself but without a shop, it would have been miserable and would have taken several weekends to accomplish. Fortunately I can afford to have someone else work on it.

My mom followed me down and gave me a ride back. This saved a towing bill of several hundred dollars. Luckily my mom was happy to help out. Sacha could have done the same thing but it would have been a nightmare with the kids in tow. By the time we started back upriver, it had begun to cool down and it was sleeting.

I headed up to mom’s and cut some more pieces for the calf shed before it got dark.

Saturday the 29^th it was cold and the skies were clearing with a strong wind swirling in the valley. The river was on it’s way down. I headed back Down Below in the morning to finish a few errands.

I got back to mom’s at about 1:00 p.m. to find that the power was out. At mom’s it was even colder, there was a north wind howling through the valley.

I had cut and attached the rafters for the awning the week before and I had cut the pieces for the purlins to attach the roofing to the day before. I didn’t need power to continue working on the shed. I had a few small cuts to make on the purlins and I could have done this with a handsaw. I also could have attached them and the roofing without power.

However, I didn’t really feel like standing in an awkward position on a ladder in the howling, freezing wind fighting roofing that would be trying to constantly fly away. I’m sure it’s all a matter of what you are used to. In the Dakotas this would probably be considered a relatively calm day.

That being said, I had other options. We had also planned on making some venison sausage from the deer I got the last two years. The power was still on at our place in Rockport (we have a hand meat grinder too, but an electric one is so much easier) so I headed back there and started grinding about 40 pounds of meat.

There is a famous saying by a German (I think he was German, though maybe he was Austrian) politician/aristocrat that refers to making legislation being like making sausage, you really don’t want to see the process because it is not pretty. So I won’t go into detail on that except that Sacha and I were up until almost midnight working on it, after the nighttime routine with the kids of course and still didn’t get finished.

Sunday the 30^th, I was finally able to finish putting the awning on the shed. While doing so I got a nice wind burn on my bald head and some painful cracks in my fingers. I don’t care about that. Dry weather was much preferable to pouring rain which would have soaked me as I put the roofing on. The power was back on, which was quite helpful, but I could have gotten that part done without it. I also mounted the shed doors in place.

All that remains is to attach hinges and latches to all the doors and windows on the shed. Pretty minor, though with all the tinkering that will be required, I figure it will take another weekend, maybe a little more to be completely finished. Still I think it is far enough along to declare victory and call it finis….pretty much.

The starting point on Saturday the 22nd. 

Saturday the 22nd. I have cut doors for the upper part of the shed and temporarily screwed them on where I want them until I can attach hinges and latches. Later I will build a storage platform inside above cow height that will be accessed through these doors. 

Rafters for the awning. These are 2x4's. The piece at the top is a 1x4 that I used to figure out what angles to use for the rafters. The angles were guesstimated using an angle gauge. I used the 1x4 as a template to lay out the other rafters. 

Awning rafters installed. I managed to dodge the heaviest rain while installing these but I still managed to get pretty wet. These rafters are cantilevered out quite a bit so I used screws to attach them more securely. 

Purlins to attach the roofing to. I mostly used plywood scraps for the purlins, with a small piece of 1x4. 

Awning roofing halfway complete. 

Awning roofing complete. 

Doors attached temporarily until I can mount them on hinges. Definitely not the work of a master builder but hopefully good enough to render service for many years to come. Time will tell. Maybe this shed will take on an interesting character in time... or maybe not. Maybe it will always be a clunky, funky little shed. It is certainly quirky enough to go either way.