A busy weekend

A weekend of glorious weather, just perfect for a big effort out in the garden. The grass has been growing well, I had Bokashi to bury and the pile of firewood to cut up is only getting bigger as I drag more branches home.

Saturday was a slow start after a lovely sleep-in and a Skype session with my Mum; then it was outside with loppers and secateurs to attack the woodpile outside the woodshed. As with most jobs, I can't do one thing before I finish another and I need to move this pile of dry wood so that I can have a stab at the tyre retaining wall that's going in its place. Three hours of woodwork, by which time the grass had dried so I swapped the secateurs for the scrub-bar and managed to get 3 fuel-loads of cutting done before it got too dark.

Today I was off to an early start; another stunning morning at a cool 4°C which soon soared as the sun got up. I collected my tools with the intention of cutting more wood when I realised that it was silly to add more if the forecast rain arrived toward evening.

8am appointment at the woodshed

Now, to put the new wood under cover, I need to move the old wood first so I have dry wood to burn this winter. Hmm...

I've moved the big stuff that needs chopping round the corner, rigged up
a front on the middle bay so now need to move the kindling from
the left hand bay into the middle

All cleared by lunchtime - each bay is about 4 cubic metres and I jump on
the kindling to pack in as much as I can

A couple of hours later and I've picked up all the piles of kindling and rigged up a tarpaulin on the end of the woodshed. I was going to put a front on the left hand bay but put my brain into gear and have stacked the fresh wood that will need splitting there instead. It can weather over winter and hold the kindling in at the same time. Of course I forgot to take a photo after I finished - will fix that up this week :).

Another view of my Outpost kitset woodshed - sturdy and the only thing
better would be to have two of them!

I upset a few spiders by moving the old wood - they were grumpy but stood nice and still so I could take a few snaps.

Two large spiders - one living and one not

Close-up of dead spider

Huge abdomen with a beautiful pattern on this one

A yellow X on this one's abdomen

I think this is the same species as the top spider - can you see the wee
spider in the foreground?

I had planned on finishing the grass-cutting but didn't have enough petrol for a second load. Will take my scrub-bar down to the garage for a service and sharpen this week. I didn't get around to burying the Bokashi and my muscles feel like they've run a marathon; reckon it's early to bed so I wake up refreshed and energetic for a week of work!

Carpentry 101

The Outpost woodshed is full but I still have a pile of wood/kindling to get undercover. The dismantled hen house looks like it will do the job but I suffer from a lack of woodworking skills and confidence for starting something from scratch. There is space on the western side of the woodshed but that's also where the winds come from so it needs to be reasonably secure - and although I can bang nails in, I have no idea how to put a roof on that (a) will keep the rain out and (b) not become airborne in the first gust of wind!

Plan A: build a lean-to on the right hand side of the woodshed :)

My site prep consisted of levelling the ground and sorting out what parts of the hen house could be utilised. Not quite sure how I get the 'foundations' sorted but at least I have the side of the woodshed to nail into and an old pallet which can be the base for a while until it rots out.



These could be the sides

My initial plan for trying to follow the roof line of the woodshed came to grief with insufficient timber to brace the right hand side and an hour's hard work then took two hours to take down again. Plan B has a better feel and now I need to sort out the roof.

Plan B: better bracing for the entrance

I do have some roofing material but am worried that if it's not secured well enough then it will blow into the house so think I'll use a tarpaulin. I need to run some lengths of timber to support the tarp and then use some timber strips to sandwich the tarp and nail it in place. I'm only planning on putting kindling in the lean-to and not too concerned if it's not completely weather tight - maybe I'll leave it roof-less if I can't work out how to do it!!

We had a very successful Norsk Feiring last weekend and I took lots of photos on my boat trip up to Whalers Base - blogs to come shortly.

Outpost Woodshed modifications

My lovely 12 cubic metre Outpost Woodshed was the first project completed after I shifted to Stewart Island. The well-designed kitset is the best I've seen and I've had outstanding customer service from Jim, the Lifestyle Buildings Specialist. Outpost have an impressive range of relocatable designs with free freight within NZ to your nearest freight depot.

My woodshed has now seen three winters and each year I've tweaked the way I stack wood as I was putting wet wood in front of dry. In hindsight two woodsheds would have been the way to go - one for last year's wood, the other for newly-gathered wood.  In November 2012 I made hammocks out of salmon netting to hold all the small twigs and bark that I use for kindling, see my previous blog (opens in new window) and nailed up some planks to provide a partition. These mods worked better although I kept hitting my head on the hammocks. Earlier this month I removed the hammocks, cut the salmon netting in half and nailed it to make internal partitions going up to the roof.

Woodshed 10 March 2014 with new salmon netting partitions

These have worked well and I can now pile up the kindling, jump on it to squish it down and then pile it up some more. The left hand partition is filled with kindling and in the front I've stacked the logs that need splitting. The right hand partition is full of the bigger firewood and the middle is a mixture of big and small. My cunning plan is to start the fire with a load of kindling, chuck on a couple of bigger logs and then let the fire go out though this may need beefing up when there's no sunshine. My small 45sq m whare warms up quickly and the double-glazing keeps the warmth in - and I can always pop on another jersey to save on wood!

Woodshed 15 March 2014 - filling up

 

Woodshed 23 March 2014 - not much room left now

All clear around the woodshed (east end)

I haven't used my chainsaw for over a year now as I enjoy using the low-tech bow saw and loppers - I'm not so scared of those tools, they don't make a lot of noise or use fossil fuel. Breaking up dried tree-tops is time-consuming but satisfying work and I feel that I'm playing my part in reducing my overall footprint.

 

I haven't completely finished - there's still a woodpile to break up and I plan on adding a bit of a lean-to on the west-side of the woodshed using a couple of pallets and the timber from the hen house that Jen and I dismantled in December. Not quite sure how I go about it yet but it will need to be strong enough to stand up to the westerly gusts of wind.

 

It's great to have the woodshed full and I'll now be able to measure how much I use through this winter. In New Plymouth I'd get a large truckload of kiln-dried pine blocks and spend a day barrowing it to the woodshed. I spend a heap more time achieving the same thing here but at least I appreciate the effort when I'm sitting in a nice cosy house!