There's nothing like a good shed. A shed doesn't take up much room yet it can hold all the stuff that would otherwise be cluttering up your yard or house or the dump. I used to have two sheds. In fact I was known back then as Joe Two-Sheds McDonnell. But then my sheds fell upon hard times. Even so humble a building as a shed requires occasional maintenance.
Shed One had been a chicken coop when the kids were little. Ten hens lived there and we got several dozen eggs a week. We were able to give eggs away freely. When the kids grew up and we wanted to travel, the hens had to go. We gave them to a friend who ate them. The coop became a repository for garden tools and the kids' old Tonka Toys.
Shed Two was always a place to store furniture we thought we might use someday. Shedless people have to get rid of such items, poor sods. As time passed the roof of the chicken shed began to leak and the siding fell to rot. A tarp over the contents allowed me to procrastinate a few more years.
It eventually became necessary to either tear down the coop or fix it up. I decided to nurture my infant carpentry skills. Teresa and I tore off the remaining shingles and sides and I bought a pile of tongue and groove siding. A pair of carpenters could have done the job in two or three days. I spent the rest of the summer on it.
As the old coop came together, Teresa began to get ideas about the other shed. Couldn't it be made into a cute potting shed? And couldn't the coop be attached to the potting shed? I dug in my heels on that proposal. You can still see the grooves they made when Steve Reynolds and his tractor pulled the coop next to the future potting shed
Our son Matt and his wife Heather have traveled here twice from Mass. to help with the cutification process. Shed Two now has skylights, its own lean-to, a light blue sliding door, and two windows with bright red frames. Matt's brother Joe said he wanted in on the glory so I said he could help put up a woodshed behind the Shêdeau, our guesthouse by the river.
For two days last month Joe and I wrestled with old REA utility poles and got the framing in place. It's tricky making a square building using round corner posts, but we did it, purt near. After Joe left I installed the roof and sides. We now have a place to keep the snow off the firewood and, even better, I have regained my title as Joe Two-Sheds McDonnell.
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| Square Deal |
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