Good morning all.
I was down and out for several days with a cold, starting with Christmas. We got a snow/ice storm with some freezing rain as a follow on and it got sufficiently heavy that when I felt better and was able to go to work on 12/30, I couldn’t break through the ice on my car to leave for work (it had solidified into 4″ deep in some places)! All is well now however
This however generated a nice opportunity to judge how our planning was working out for the shedding of snow and ice at my house. Seems to me like we are pretty on target. As far as shoveling/plowing goes, there will be some work at the front of the house as the carport roof sheds snow and ice out into the driveway, but it should be pretty easy to shovel and/or pull it out with the snow plow. The plow itself should be able to run up to the house and push right on past – near infinite room to move piles onward.
The extended eaves over the front walk way seem to be working perfectly as designed.
One thing that Paul and I have been discussing is where to put the propane tanks for the generator. Our current thought is that they would be downslope/behind the shop. However, we do have the concern about falling ice/snow sliding off onto them and this storm definitely confirmed that this is a valid concern – based on the pattern of fall. So we will either need to build a structure over them or relocate to the side of the house. This may be the better plan because I definitely found it very tricky to tip-toe around the back corner of the shop – the slope and the ice was challenging. This might be a serious problem for the propane truck man during the winter.
I have also been doing some thinking about how to lay out my shop. First up will be to build a work bench so I can use it to build some furniture. I am thinking about building a Roubo style French workbench (a bench designed for hand tools instead of power tools). One of the things you need, when using hand tools, is stability – either by bracing the bench or making the bench heavy (over 300#). The Roubo style bench does this through heavy timbers. I am thinking the same thing – except instead of using expensive and difficult to find monolithic timbers, I am thinking of gluing up 6×6 dimensional lumber or some other construction grade timber for the top. The plan is get some saw horses, build the top and then use the top to build the legs. I am thinking it will need to move around but mostly live on the side of the shop with the window. More thinking definitely needed and will flesh out once we put the 350 gallon water tank in (for the sprinkler system)
Finally, huge milestone, the cabinetry has arrived and has started to be placed. It looks fantastic!
