Wood Shed Rafters Harvested

On February 14 we headed over to our other lot which has a couple hundred young pine trees growing on it to select and cut down a few for making our wood shed rafters.  We located seven Virgina pine that were minimally 12 feet and about 3-4" diameter.

Peeled and ready to for the roof installation

Farmi

Camp Out

We camped out for the first time since we bought the property this past weekend.  It was quite cool overnight dropping to about 32 F.  Lots of fleece and warm dogs to keep us warm.

We added a thick layer of chips for the tent site

Camp set-up

Can you espy the American Woodcock?

Night was cold but we hit 68F on Sunday...

5 W solar panel in foreground charges a small battery to run 2 x 2W lights for the camp site for about 6 hrs.

Can you tell what was added to the pole barn since last blog post? (hint: white)

Really coming together !

We headed up to Pelham for a 'short' day of work today.  Elizabeth was tied up in the morning at the "Y" doing a group fitness spin class so when she finished up we decided to pack "light" and take only the chainsaws and drill gear with us (no dogs to distract with walks and such) and aim to install the wood shed roof supports.  Last week we picked a nice straight 25 foot tall, ~16 year old Virginia pine tree with a diameter of about 5" from our nearby woodlot and dragged it with the MF 240 to our homestead to use as the rear roof header on the wood shed.  For the front we had a nice straight log from last year's road clearing already peeled and ready to go.

Even more exciting for us was that Moon Creek Construction Co got the metal roofing on the barn and the south attic window installed during the week.  

Here is some of the handiwork completed on the wood shed.  It has character to say the least.  Our plan is to tie the red barn/shop theme somehow into the wood shed...ideas ?

2-Bottom Plow for Swale Making

We've been looking for a used one or two bottom plow now for awhile so we can build swales on contour for slowing water down on slopes.  Of course the plow can and will likely be used for making a good sized garden too.  A local fellow in Reidsville, NC posted a nice old used 16" Ford 101-61 bottom plow on Craigslist and worked out a good deal.  He restored the original look fairly well with a fresh coat of paint.  The plow shares were in good shape but it was missing the coulters.  Not sure if this is critical for us yet but we can always buy a pair later if we find we will need them.

Plow being unloaded from the trailer:

Lean-To Framing

Since we have a fairly significant elevation change from one side of the shop to the other we will have to build a ramp up to the doorway level (bottom of siding).  Nothing a few more tons of rock can't take care of.

Pole Barn Windows Installed

After me being back to work the week of January 5th the Moon Creek Construction team was also hard at work again to add the siding and start the construction of the lean-to sheds on the gable ends.  You can see from the first photo below the posts are in and header up for the north side lean-to.  We have three big windows in place and the walk-in door goes on the south wall where the sun is shining on it.

Bright, sunny but cold morning (~10:00) January 10, 2015.

8' wide lean-to will be installed on this wall shortly

12' lean-to in progress on north side of shop - a cool 23 F morning.

Metal roof, 10x10 split siding door, walk-in door and attic storage floor boards are next installs...

Installing Pole Barn Floor

Over the last week more progress on the pole barn was made.  The roof sheeting and membrane was completed and the wall framing was started.  A few truck loads of crusher run gravel was added for the floor base.  Eventually we will pour a concrete floor but for now we'll live with a gravel floor.