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Quick Shed

I despise tarps, they’re worthless and then they break. I’ve been toying for a while with the idea of the quickest/cheapest shed I could put together. The model having stagnated for a while in sketchup, I figured it meant I would find no more optimization in the virtual world. It was time to try in in the real world.

This is optimized to get standard sized lumber and make a minimal amount of cuts. Framing went really well and I haven’t learned anything I would do different, I still need to put the tin on.

I made all the cuts in 40 minutes.

Cut up in a kit for assembly beyond the orchard

And it took about 2 hours to assemble, not bad at all.

What’s left to do? Tin for the roof which should be pretty quick, I’d like to level it a bit and set it on something to keep it off the ground. I could side it, but that isn’t a requirement for now, covered is already a huge improvement. Lastly if it works like I think it will, I would like it to be my standard shed I can build here and there for all sorts of needs. And when I have a few, I’d like to build a rig to move them around.

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Wetter, Hotter, Doucher

Megadouche is back in business, it has been since early April. We’ve learned that we can deploy it early and get some use regardless of small frosts. We have it for almost half the the year now and its deployment is cause for huge celebration. The kids are very excited about it.

It comes with several major improvements this year too, I’m not sure we’ll be able to top that.

Bigger tankless heater

This guy can heat double the amount of water the previous one could at 3.2 Gallons per minute.

Bigger pump, bigger shower head to go through all this water, and a better platform to step on

Output Switch

We now have a choice between the shower head and a longer hose that can reach places like the tub or laundry spot.

Continuous Propane Supply

It used to suck, when a tank became empty, to go get another one in the middle of a shower. This “auto change-over” contraption comes from the world of RVs and will alleviate that. I still need to make all this a little more stable.

Lights

We’ll often be out there after dusk, and so instead of playing with flashlights I found some outside 12V DC string lights I could hook up to the little solar system we have out there to move water. It’s extra magical.

The very fancy control board

Pest repellant

last year a mouse built a nest right in the water heater one night. I imagine it must have been traumatic how its house turned into a sudden inferno. I had to disassemble it and clean it, no thanks. Also one day the water switch was just pulled to the “on” position, and we’re just not sure what happened but we blame squirrels. In any case, this thing there emits ever changing ultra sounds and LED blinking to hopefully keep all this away.

What’s the same

The siphon & sediment tub are the same, the formula works great. I did add an old battery to the solar setup, but it wasn’t really necessary, I just had it laying around.

This very well may be the final incarnation of megadouche, it’s become a fixture we all love.

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Heavy Construction

I often joke that the siding I use for my house is more house. And well, this year will be no exception. The piers are in, more house will follow soon. The more experienced I am at all this, the more I procrastinate on the planning. I’m still figuring out the roof line but I did get the footprint in the nick of time for pier day.