A Bit More Progress On Woodworking Shop

How can over a month passed since I last posted?  I guess time goes by fast when you are having fun, huh?  I’ve been helping Darryl on his house several days a week and attempting to keep up with the other things needing to be done has kept my progress on my workshop at a pretty slow pace, but there is a bit more progress to report.

I installed a door to the storage loft, using weights in the wall to assist in opening and closing it.  I wanted a door to help keep dust from the shop from going up and getting on the stored items.


Here is a view of the door as you start up the stairs.








This view is from inside the loft looking at the door in the open position.  You can see the green rope that goes over a pulley and down into the wall of the first floor.  Old window weights are attached to the end of the rope.


Pictured here is a small closet that I built to hang winter clothing in the summer and summer clothing in the winter.





 
I built shelves along one wall and, as you can see, quite a number of items have already been placed on the shelves.



  
On the outside of the workshop I have put on some of the corner and window trim.  Unable to be seen here is the trim that is also around the double doors.  The other side has yet to be finished.




I have most of the outlets wired and the boxes up for the lights.  I still have to run wire from the main breaker box in the house to a small box in the shop.


You can keep up with the progress being made on Darryl’s house and some of the work I’ve been helping with by clicking here.

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The Siding Is On!

I’ve only worked on my workshop a couple of days in the last two weeks or so.  I’ve been helping Darryl on his house plus doing some of the other things that need done.  We have been hot, humid and mostly dry here in South-Central Kentucky.  Although there has been a brief shower every few days they have not amounted to much.  Our little garden up here on the ridge is just burned up.  Thankfully, we didn’t have a need to preserve a great lot this summer.  And, we have had quite a number of things to eat fresh from the garden.

Here are a few photos of the workshop taken since the last post.


This side finished.

The metal on the backside of the shop.


Weatherboard, that I had left after the other 3 sides, installed at the very top.  Now, I have yet to put on some trim and work on the interior, as time permits.  I’m sure that much of my time will be spent helping Darryl.  It you would like to see the progress that is being made on his house check out his blog, http://cedar-ridge-farm.blogspot.com/

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This, That and The Other

I’ve not been posting much the last several weeks.  It seems I just have not been able to focus on any one thing that I felt motivated to post about.  I thought perhaps what I needed to do was just cover numerous things that I have been doing, that have been happening here, all in one post.  So here goes.

I did cover our trip to Texas in October.  I covered beginning to tear down an old house for the building materials to use to build a woodworking shop and I posted about obtaining a Craftsman Router Crafter.

I continue to work at salvaging lumber from the old house.  I try to get up one or two days a week, weather permitting, and do a bit more.  Hopefully, by Spring I’ll have that done and can begin the actual construction.  I mentioned that the old house had no windows or doors.  I have a door and Darryl has a couple that he won’t be using in his new house that he said I could use.  Doors do not present a problem but I do want several windows.  Watching Craig’s List I found an ad for used windows from a mobile home.  As it turned out the fellow was tearing down an old mobile home and didn’t even have the windows all removed when I went to look at them.  He got them all removed while I waited and I purchased all of them—11 in all.  Six of them are 40” wide and 60” tall.  I most likely will turn them sideways when I install them.  The other five are 30” wide and 27” tall.  I was able to buy them for less than $4.00 a window.

Shortly after returning home from our Texas visit the “modern firearm” deer hunting season opened.  Darryl, Danny and I were out almost every day.  I was the only one to see any deer but I did not manage to shoot any.  We were given two that we dressed out and shared.  Darryl has a steer that we plan to butcher soon and he plans to share the meat so we won’t be suffering from not having meat.

I usually try to get my goats bred fairly early in the season but this year I didn’t get that done.  The lady whose buck I normally borrow had reduced her herd, including her buck, and did not plan to breed any of her goats this year.  I kept looking elsewhere for a buck.  She had told me that she had a young buck she was raising for a replacement for the buck she sold.  I finally asked her if she thought he was big enough to service my goats and she thought he was.  I brought him over and kept him for about six weeks.  It appears he was able to take care of things, so we should have kids about April.

We are down to about 12 hens and 1 rooster.  All of the hens but 2 are older.  At least one is about five years old.  As the Summer was coming to an end the hens slowed way down on their production.  By October and November I was only getting about 2 eggs a day.  By the end of November that went down to zero.  Finally late in December I started getting an egg every day, then two eggs and even three eggs one day.  Today I found five eggs when I did the evening chores.  So, we can have eggs more often that once a week if we care to.

Early last week our daughter, son-in-law and grandson from Wisconsin spent a couple of days visiting.  They had been in Northern Kentucky for a family activity and came on down.  We enjoyed having them, only wished it could have been a bit longer visit.

Early last year Darryl, Danny and I cut and hauled in several loads of firewood from a neighbor’s property.  We threw it all onto a large pile down below where Darryl is building his house.  As we have emptied out part of our wood storage areas we have been hauling some of this wood up and restocking.  The wood has been uncovered and has been wet and doesn’t burn well until it has dried.  Darryl was running out of dry wood so this week we all went back and cut more wood.  It is from tree tops that have been down for some period of time and are pretty dry.  Danny and I each got a truckload and Darryl got two.  All of this has been stored under roof so will be available as it is needed.  And, with the weather we have been having and is forecast for this weekend it is needed!

Pictured below is my little truck loaded up with wood from the big pile down “the hill.”  Over the truck you can see the roof of Darryl’s house that is being built.  In the second photo you can see the wood being stacked in my woodshed.

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Getting My Exercise

With Darryl away this weekend I have been doing his chores “down the hill.”  The barn is at the bottom of the hill and near where Darryl is building his new house.  However, for the present he walks down the hill at least twice everyday to take care of his livestock, etc.  So, even though I go down fairly often it generally isn’t on a regular twice a day basis.  The following photos show the trip back up the hill. 

The first picture was taken near the bottom of the drive.  The second from near the top of what is seen in photo number one.  Likewise #3 from near the top of #2 and so on.  It is hard to show the amount of climb one makes but the turns in the drive are quite obvious.

As one can see in the last two photos our house is at or near the top of the hill.  In the photo on the left you can see Danny’s doublewide at the top.  Darryl’s present home is to the left, out of the picture.  At the point where the photo was taken in #4 Connie generally feels the need to take a breather.

Darryl’s two youngest children were born after their move here to Cedar Ridge Farm and very shortly after each one began to walk they began climbing the hill.  If nothing else they are in good physical shape.

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An Old Kentucky Home

In addition to an older mobile home and the unfinished cabin (that became our house) that was on Cedar Ridge Farm when Darryl and Anne purchased it there was “an old Kentucky home.” Just down the hill from where our house stands was an old, dilapidated log cabin. Apparently it was still being occupied as of 25-30 years ago. The picture below was given to Darryl by the tax assessor. At the time it was taken the cabin was still being lived in. However, there was no date on the photo.


It was becoming quite unsafe to have with small children around and since it is near where Darryl is building his new home it needed to come down. On March 18, 2007 Darryl and I spent the morning cleaning out a lot of junk that had been stored in this old cabin. Most went directly onto a burn pile. The picture above was taken after we had gotten it cleaned out. If you look close you will see a chain that is hooked around the logs just above the doorway.

In this shot you can see Darryl’s Chevy Suburban hooked up to the chain and about ready to pull. It didn’t take much of a pull.

This shot shows the building beginning to fall.

And, it was down. All that was left was the clean-up. Several of the big hewn logs are still quite solid and Darryl hopes to be able to use them somewhere in some of the future building that will be done.

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