We Built a Woodshed!

What a week it’s been. The weather has been wholly unpredictable and strange. And I get that it’s Autumn, and that the weather is transitioning to Winter. But there have been drastic changes that happen overnight. From a cold wet weekend last weekend, Wednesday saw us peak at 27c, with a lot of humidity. Thursday saw a high temp or just 13c. And today (Friday) the high is 13c again, and an expected overnight low of 3c. It seems more erratic than normal.

This hasn’t stopped us making huge progress this week. Despite working between rain showers, and dealing with low power at times to charge the drill battery (which always seems to run out mid task), we have completed our pallet built wood storage shelter!

This is cause for some celebration, as this is the first full structure we have built by ourselves on our own land. And the bonus is that it cost us less than $50 to build! We got a tarp on sale for $30, and used screws and nails to put the whole thing together. It’s solid and secure and we’re honestly quite proud of it

Of course, in typical fashion for this year, moments after we completed it and were discussing sitting outside to enjoy an early dinner and admire our work, an enormous thunderstorm rolled in and we ended up admiring what we could through the windows of the camper instead.

Another, seemingly lesser accomplishment has been our daily load of laundry. Using a 5 gallon bucket and a plunger, we have been doing small loads of laundry almost every day to try and get ourselves into the routine of doing so, but also to avoid spending $5 per load for a wash in town, and 25c for 8 minutes of drier time. Instead, a bit of elbow grease and we have some clothes hung up to  dry using the latest in solar and wind technology. It’s a good feeling!

And now that the woodshed is completed, we can move on to the laundry list of other tasks we have to complete before winter. Filling the woodshed with our firewood, securing and closing off the area under the camper (a project which will probably get its own video next week), and the build out room against the side of the camper too. These and a dozen smaller projects are upcoming.

It’s going to be a busy few weeks and feels a bit pressured as the weather continues to get colder as winter approaches. But we are reminded of how beautiful and peaceful this little patch of earth is. The Sandhill Cranes have been around a lot the last few days, and we even saw a large flock of them in a field on our way to town.

We also appear to have a weasel living near the camper, which we may end up having to shoo away so he doesn’t cause problems with our buildings or equipment. It’s a pity too, because, while we have yet to capture him on camera, he is a beautiful, cute animal, although quite large! We’ll keep trying to get a picture or video.

We, once again wanted to give a  shout out to Krivda Creek Homesteads’ Dexter to say thank you for the loan of his generator. When the clouds are over and we don’t get any charge, it’s been awesome to just run the quiet generator and power up all the batteries and stay connected!