Chugging Along

It’s been a busy week, but I did manage to get outside and do a little work this weekend. I drilled through the posts and roof trusses and added bolts to the shelter.

It’s 4 standard boards wide, which made for a challenge. I had a 1/2” spade bit designed to dig through, and used that, but it was only about 3/4 of the width long. I guessed right on the first one (fortunately) and got the holes to line up, drilling from each side, but on the rest I decided to try something different.

I had a long bit, about 16-18” designed for going through walls. I used that to pilot the holes, drilling slow, and then used the spade bit from each side to follow the pilot hole. For the most part it worked well, but I ended up having to nail through a few of the bolts with a hammer as the holes weren’t quite in line.

I was hoping to use 7” bolts, but Home Depot only had 8”, so there’s lots of extra. Shouldn’t be an issue, at least I hope not.

I was distracted, and forget to add the last roof truss on before doing the bolt, so I’ll have to remove those and add it on, drilling out the hole on the ground.

I even had a little help, which was nice.

Slowing Down

I’m trying not to push too hard on projects as I get older. I try to be safe and not get hurt. I was doing good today, putting up roof braces and cutting the shed poles to size when I went to start the generator for the last brace. I ended up banging my knuckle on the frame and slicing it nicely open.

I managed to hold it while getting the generated started and put in two screws into a brace before I decided it wasn’t worth getting blood all over or making something slippery and hurting myself.

Stopping for the afternoon at that, and planning on a trip to grab a few things from the store later today.

Finally

I got all six holes done.

This was a nightmare, with lots of water yesterday and today until I finally had them all about 2 1/2 ft down.

And then, when I tried to use the post hole digger to pull out the loose soil, it’s so crumbly, the shovel won’t get a scoop of it. It leaks back into the hole. So it was down on hands and knees scooping it out with my hands. Ugh.

I did go shopping as well, loading up on lumber and misc supplies. While water was soaking in at one point, I set up my sawhorses and glued up the treated wood. I had 12’ and 10’ 2x6s that I wanted to laminate together into bundles of 2 for the support posts. The 4x4s felt small last time, so I decided to use 4x6, laminated from two pieces.

I first spread the glue on one piece, and placed the other on top before nailing them together to hold and dry. I used clamps a little to get things going, but ran out, so I’m hoping the nails hold.

More drilling

Today was more augering into the shed holes. I was out there standing on the auger at times, and alternately pouring water in the holes and taking a break while it soaked in. In two sessions I managed to get 3 holes dug enough and another close. Two are still just a touch over halfway.

Ugh.

A New Loafing Shed

My wife wanted a new loafing shed in the other pasture as we’re starting to have lots of horses here, 10 now and 2 more coming. So I decided to get started on it by marking the corner poles. I had my wife give me a rough idea and then I went to work.

First I pounded in one corner pole, and then measured from the fence. I put down string in the direction I wanted and then measured 10 ft off. Getting the distance to the fence allowed me to fix the string in the right position and pound in another stake. I had the back of my shed now marked.

From there I added the other 4 poles. Three in back and three in front and when they were all roughly 10 ft apart (a 2x3 rectangle), I measured the diagonals. Those weren’t square, so I had to move things slightly to make the measurements work and soon enough I had six stakes in the ground.

Those were replaced by paint markers before I went to get the auger and tractor.

I started drilling, but that didn’t go well. Lots of clay in that part of the property, so I ended up getting a bucket and dumping water into 6 half drilled holes before calling it a day.