Way Hay and Up She Rises!

Finally today, the weather cooperated which meant we could put up the shed! Between us we spent a while shifting around the different sides of the shed to work out the best way to orientate it. After some discussion, we decided on having the window facing the house and the door facing down the street. The first two sides were difficult to bolt together partly because the wind kept catching the panels at just the wrong moment. The judicial use of a hammer helped to keep the bolts in place as my husband tightened the nuts.

Getting the third side up was relatively straightforward until the wind picked up again. Watching the side of the shed rock backwards and forwards was rather worrying. I had visions of the glass coming flying out and smashing on the grass. Thankfully, nothing so dramatic happened!

Attaching the door panel was definitely the most difficult. This was in part due to the shed base being lower on one side and the lack of space to wrestle the panel into place. But finally, we wrestled it into place. Now to tackle the roof.

I admit to dreading dealing with the roof. Lots of the wood was rotting and damp and it fell apart when we dismantled the shed a few weeks ago. Utilising some of the wooden panels from the old shed, we patched up both parts of the roof. One side was particularly rotten so we used three different panels to reinforce it. All that is left to do is to replace some of the batons at the edge of the roof panels.

By now, we were both quite hungry so we adjourned for lunch, retreating into the house to warm up. Full of buttermilk pancakes, we decided to finish off the roof tomorrow. It occurred to me that it would take quite some effort to put the roof in place as well as felting it. Quite how we were going to manage any of this with only one average height human is a real question. I think we may have to bring the ladder back from the allotment to have any hope of the roof getting done!

The chickens in the garden were rather relieved when we finished – Cirrus is on the verge of being broody while Maude and Mavis went on an egg-strike to make their disapproval felt. At the allotment, all the girls (and boys!) were busy pottering around their coops. I can’t wait for the avian flu restrictions to be lifted so I can let the Little Weed Destroyers out on the plot. I caught up briefly with Derek who told me that the site water would be going on shortly which is really exciting. It makes coop cleaning and getting fresh water for the chickens so much easier! Weird as it sounds, it’s one of the signs of spring!

So assuming the weather is amenable tomorrow, we will finish off the shed roof and spend some time sorting out the plot ready for planting.