which doesn’t always look the way one might think.
This is part of the abandoned house down the hill from me. I’ve been taking the really thick, sturdy boards from the outside for a variety of purposes — eventually some of them are gonna start turning into benches — but the immediate use is shelf braces for the tinker’s wagon.
It turned out that I was gonna need twelve instead of the ten I’d planned for, so I wandered back down with my back basket & some prying tools to see what I could do.
… I think I’d be more cautious about taking things, but so far every time I’ve gone down there to pry loose boards, the house has given me gifts. This time it was a spirally shell.
I also have four cowrie shells I found on the last two trips. The … interesting … part is that I keep finding them in the same place. One would think that I would have found them all on the first trip, but I keep finding new shells in the same spot.
Probably it’s crows.
ANYWAY here’s the two boards I decided to take home.
I didn’t take any pictures of the prying process because operating a crowbar one handed tends to result in a crowbar to the face, but here they are in my back basket.
The drawing & cutting & painting process went MUCH more quickly with the practice I’ve had, which leaves only attaching the things. Here’s one of them lined up & ready to go. DAMN, they look nice.
Once I’ve got one lined up & marked, I move it out of the way & drill pilot holes through the box board. Then I hold the brace in place with one hand while I use the pilot holes to line up to drill into the brace from inside, & then I screw the top screw in. After that I can let go of the brace, which is nice, cos it gets kind’ve ow.
Usually putting in the first screw knocks the brace out of alignment a bit so I shove it back & then pin it into place with two more screws. Once that’s done I could probably stand on the thing.
Next up is Vigorous Application of Construction Adhesive hopefully mostly to the trailer & not so much my fingers
… I’m getting BETTER
It’s easier to lift the shelf board into place with help but there wasn’t any around so I did it myself.
(I DID ask one of the neighbors for help with the first one SEE I’M LEARNING)
& then it’s just drillin pilot holes & puttin in screws & that’s EASY.
After all that I can definitely stand on the thing, & I know this because I have. It’d better be able to hold me; it’s got to hold the entire side wall & a portion of the roof.
Which is the next part! The walls, that is. Not the roof quite yet.
This was posted originally to my Patreon, a little over a week ago.
If you want to see these posts sooner, & not incidentally help support me & my cats in our travels & such, the way to do that is to sign up as one of my Patrons for as little as a buck a month.
I’d REALLY like that.
