HOWLE’S HINTS B Y J O H N H OW L E
He Shed, She Shed,
THEHay HERB Shed FARMER “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men.”
HOW’S YOUR GARDEN Colossians 3:23
In last month’s edition, I showed how we saw milled timber into lumber and the proper way to store the wood long term. We didn’t store the lumber for long, because we needed to build an extension on our hay barn with the freshly milled pine. Follow this article step by step for a do-it-yourself hay barn or shed extension. First, make sure the ground is level where you plan to build the extension. You may have to grade out the area with a scrape blade or front-end loader. Once it’s graded level, it is a great time to lay down gravel for a mud-free working environment. Creek gravel spread along the shed floor packs well and keeps the mud out. The first part of construction involves determining the width and length of your shed. Ours was 15 feet wide and ran the length of the barn, which was 60 feet. We measured off the distance from the barn to set our barn poles in place to serve as the opposite wall. Using batter boards and stakes, you can set the two corner posts, and the posts along the wall can be set against a string. To make sure the structure will be square, use the “3,4,5” rule. Once your strings are in place in the batter boards, measure from one string corner down 3 feet and mark the place on the string with a permanent marker. Next,
SIMPLE TIMES STEP #1
THE CO-OP PANTRY
A carpenter’s level, string level and string will allow you to make sure the posts are level and square as you tamp or cement them into place.
measure down the string that sits 90 degrees from the first string 4 feet, and mark the spot on the string. Use your tape measure to measure from the first mark August 2020
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