A massive milestone in the Megashed 2.0 build was reached this week, with a few days of mudflinging required to finish the walls. With only a few weeks left until Christmas, I’ve certainly got my work cut out to get things finished before the big man arrives.
Things not covered in this week’s report;
- The Christmas tree has been bought.
- The wedding tree has finally gone back into the ground.
- Some of the apple trees have been ‘pruned’
Husbandry
Felis Catus
The cats continue to amuse us. They still have their mad half hour every night, and now have a mad half hour around five am, which is nice.
They seem to have discovered how to get into the eldest’s bedroom. Or at least that’s what she tells me. I haven’t seen them master the door handles yet, so I’m a little suspicious.
The hunter-gatherers have stepped up their game a little, at least in terms of quantity if not quality. We’ve had many worms delivered, a caterpillar, and a rather large, fat mouse that wasn’t even dead! Que much screaming from the kids while we captured and released the poor little thing.
Porcine
The pigs are practically hibernating at the moment. Other than feeding, they’re tending to hide out of the rain.
However, we have seen some new behaviour in the past week. In a rare sunny moment in between the showers, they were out sunbathing!
Well, half of the herd were out sunbathing anyway. The other half continued their ‘bed day’ unhindered by the weather in the Pigwam.
Megashed 2.0
Last week ended on a bit of an emotional roller coaster. The plasterboard was all installed, but I was broken. Physically, rather than mentally, but I certainly felt those boards through most of the week.
Plastering Day 1
The considerable efforts to get the plasterboarding finished were worthwhile, though. On Tuesday morning, the plasterer arrived and got started on the walls.
Despite the scoffing of some, the plasterer also approved of the farm scaffold. Once we had a few more pallets in place, the apex of the gable was easily reached with the trowel.
Day one was something like a ten-hour day for the one-man team. I’m super impressed with the work ethic. And the finish is excellent.
Plastering Day 2
A few days later, the plasterer returned to finish the other gable wall and the ceiling. This was no mean task, as that ceiling apex is much higher than it looks in the pictures.
My patchwork quilt of boarding didn’t make the job any easier, with a lot of joining tape to bury in the scrim. Another late night, and some last-minute fixes to the guy’s transit van, and the plastering was finished.
A few days later, a mammoth cleanup was undertaken, recovering snots and taking plaster lumps off the subfloor. Then there was a waiting game to give the plaster plenty of time to dry before paint could be applied.
Windows
By the end of the week, the back wall was sufficiently dry that I was happy to start installing the remaining windows. I wasn’t happy to start the work until the plaster was reasonably firm.
The vapour barrier and breather membrane were trimmed back to expose the outer cladding. Then an angle grinder was applied from the inside edges in a few places so that the outline could be found on the outside.
These short cuts were then joined up from the outside and the ‘excess trim’ removed. I already have a plan for reusing these removed sections!
With window ‘reveals’ where finished with some 2×6″ timbers that extend past the metal sheets to give something of a sealed edge. In time, the outside will be trimmed with angle sections.
For now, the last well to be plastered was too wet to risk installing the final windows. However, with windows on both sides of the shed, a continuous stream of air through the building should see the plaster dry super quickly.
Vehicles
The new battery and tyres on the Freelander have come in rather useful, given the potholed and flooded roads locally. I certainly appreciate being able to walk outside and know the car will start.
And a fully working Land Rover came in handy for repatriating the minidigger, which is about to become rather busy! Although the ground is currently rather damp, there are a lot of digging tasks for the little 8015 over Christmas.
That assumes I can actually get some time on it. Within minutes of unloading the trailer, some heated-hoodied thief had jumped on and shot off into the garden. God only knows what chaos will follow.
Next week is set to be a rather frantic one. Hopefully, I can get plenty of the Megashed painted, and the garden tidied up with the digger. Who needs a spade!
That’s all for now
Nothing to Farm.