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The thrill of victory, the agony of defeat

November 30, 2011

Well, the shed was great while it lasted. We had the satisfaction of successfully getting the greenhouse film up and over the whole structure, thanks to the help of Leita and John (both here for the Thanksgiving weekend). We then spent 2 more days getting everything even, and fastened down, so there weren’t any pockets of film to collect snow or water. The snow from the storm the day before Thanksgiving, which was about 6 inches worth, all melted, and temps were in the 50’s and 60’s the rest of the weekend, so it was fabulous weather to be out building, and we got a lot done, including creating a workspace at the east end of the shed with a vapor barrier down on the ground covered with pallets, and then pallets topped with plywood. It was a really nice space, and we had some shop lights set up so that we could even work done after sunset (which is happening pretty early these days.

However, it was (apparently) not meant to be. The day we were done with fixing the film to the structure ended with the arrival of the same storm that hit Nashville with snow. We had inches of rain, on top of ground which was already mud because of the two previous snowstorms that had melted, combined with warm temps. Later in the evening we had serious wind – some gusts were up to 60 mph! By about 4:30 am the shed was down. The ground was just too muddy to hold the stakes, and so when the wind lifted and pushed the shed, the stakes just pulled right out of the ground, lifted the shed into the air, and like the Wizard of Oz, set the shed off it’s foundation. Fortunately, it didn’t blow into the tree line, and also fortunately, we did not attache the greenhouse film in the middle, so except for a few puncture wounds, we can reclaim the film.

I’m not looking forward to disassembling this building, because I know how tightly it was built, but I think we can salvage a small greenhouse out of the remainder of the bows. We’ll see. Our top priority right now is getting the boat covered where she is, and fortunately, Harold’s boat that he’s building is 113’ long, so the awning he has to cover his deck has a frame which will actually cover our entire boat. Just a different plan – not quite what we’d hoped for, but we’re thinking it will all work out in the end. All that really matters is that we have a way to get to the hull, open planks up, without them being exposed to the weather, so we’re hoping to get that framework up and covered this weekend.

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