CRAZY TIMES

Homesteading requires constant attention and diligence. Let something slide just a little and then things begin to pile up to create a big wall of overwhelm.

We put our house in town on the market and found a buyer. Therefore we had to get busy moving things out and into storage. That is what we've been doing the past four weeks.

In the meantime, Mother Nature decided we needed an unexpected early freeze. I wasn't ready for a freeze. I did everything I could to keep the water flowing, but I failed. Lines froze.

Thankfully, nothing broke.

I've now been busy trying to protect our water source of the two IBC's.

I'm sort of guessing as I go as to how to make everything fit together.
I've done enough construction in my time to be able to fumble my way through it and create a decent space. 

The only plans I have are in my head. That seems to work, but I always come up against something for which I hadn't planned.

For instance, I wanted to keep the space inside the shed as small as possible for heating. In order to get the two 4x4's attached to the house securely, I wanted to use a wall stud. That ended up bringing the sides in a little more closely than I wanted. As a result, getting the foamboard insulation in was quite a challenge. I ended up having to piece the boards together rather than use the full 4x8 sheets I had.

I went with the foam board, because I had some left from the greenhouse I never finished at the house in town. The roof and three sides are now insulated. 

Today was somewhat cool with a slight breeze. Inside the space of this three-sided shed the tempereature was noticeably warmer. May have been just the absence of the breeze, but it felt good to know that what I'm dong will pay off when I complete the shed add a heat source.

Obviously, I still have work to do on the shed. I need to frame in the front and provide an access to everything. I am toying with the idea of a sliding barn door, but I'm not sure I can make that work to provide enough room for this big fella to gain access to the interior. We'll see.

Supposedly, we are in for a hard freeze: more than three days below 20 in the night. That is predicted for the second week in December. If nothing interferes, I should be able to have this ready for the event. Of course, this IS Missouri, and we have learned to not anticipate weather more than 30 minutes in advance.

I'll let you know how it all works out.

Until then, do your work, play hard and love the one you're with.