Still building

Framing It seems endless, all this building that we are doing. All week, we’ve been outside working, from before breakfast, right after the morning chores, until the sun goes down and we can’t see the marks on the wood anymore. We’ve either been doing the actual building construction, or running the sawmill to get the wood for the construction. There was a day we worked through freezing rain and snow, and today was in biting, strong wind and temps in the teens. It gets dark so early, though, that by 4:30, we have to come in. To be honest, we are very ready to come in then, exhausted and sore.

DSC06522 But Sheep Shed Three is very nearly done — it just needs a roof at this point. We are going into town tonight for dinner to celebrate our 17th wedding anniversary, and are going to go to Home Depot to buy the roof, fancy clothes or not. I never really wondered whether or not we would go out, because it’s a tradition at this point — we eat Peking duck at the nice Chinese restaurant in town, just like we did the night we got married. So even though we are back to the wall with all this building, we are still going to go have a nice dinner!

DSC06525 We have a good start on the Pig Palace as well, which is good because the pigs are ready to come home and we have no home for them to come home to, which is a big problem! But we put down a double layer of oak for a floor today, framed it, and have two and a half wall siding done, which isn’t bad for one day’s work. It too needs the roof, but it’s supposed to be less windy tomorrow, which will make putting that up much better. The last few days have been really, really windy, and each day, I woke up and rushed to see if the sheds we’d already built still had their roofs on them. (They did. Yay.) So, we might be able to get the pigs tomorrow night, which would be good because it’s supposed to snow on Monday.

Then we still need one more shed for the sheep, which we are calling the Honeymoon Suite, since it’s only going to have George and Gracie in it. It is starting to look like a small village out there, but I like the way they look, all that pretty pine, that we cut down ourselves and ran through the sawmill. It feels very homesteady, self-sufficient, to do that instead of buying the lumber. Last winter, we were just back, and only did really ugly lean-tos and tarp structures for all of the critters, and I hated the way it looked almost every day. It sure is hard work, though. The critters seem to appreciate the sheds, though. With the heavy wind and cold, even the sheep are staying in, nevermind the horses, so it’s worth it.

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