Woodshed Update

Stanley Flat Max 51-944 20-Ounce AntiVibe Rip Claw Nailing HammerI know you’re all wondering just how my woodshed is going. Well wonder no more. I managed to get quite a bit done on it over the weekend, and I now have the five rafters up, three pillars, both headers, support braces . . . it’s coming along very well. Is it perfect? Unfortunately, no. I’ve decided that no matter how smart you are or how much education you have, all you need to do is try to do something well outside your skill set to discover just how incompetent you really can be. While this does wonders for one’s confidence at one’s day job, it doesn’t make the woodshed any better. 🙂

Case in point: I keep on forgetting to keep the boards pressed tightly together before I nail them in place. (Or maybe it’s just that they keep coming separated while I nail–a second set of hands at all times would really be helpful.) Yesterday it took me a good twenty minutes to redo a simple nailing job, just because I’d screwed it up so badly the first time. Denisa comes out and she can’t see anything wrong, so I suppose there’s a chance I’m just being overly critical of my own work, but still . . .

That said, I’m really enjoying this process, and I’m still very glad I didn’t hire it out for someone else to do. Yes, my forearms are killing me from nailing 20 penny nails into support beams all day yesterday, and yes, there have been times of great frustration, but it’s immensely satisfying to take a step back now and then and look at what progress I’ve made. Where a few days ago there was nothing, now there is something clearly identifiable as a lean to. Plus, the work is so different from everything else I do, that it makes everything else I do new again for some reason. It’s refreshing.

Unfortunately, I’m looking ahead at my schedule, and I won’t have as many days to work on it this week as I’d like. Campus dinners, writing group, presidency meeting, masters classes–I’m a busy boy. Still, it’s looking likely that I’ll get it done before snow, and that was something I’d been really worried about just last week.

Wish me luck!

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