The Lean-to

This lean-to is to enable me to work outside whatever the weather, whether it be basket making, carpentry, etc - the basket willow needs to be soaked for days before it is woven - sheep's fleeces needs to be soaked over night the left out to dry before it is carded ready to be spun, and I'm sure I can find many other uses for it.

It is a big task, but I've done one for Fran and it's still standing - so I took a trip to Travis Perkins after getting prices from several merchants.  It took ages for them to deliver the bits, but I've now got the main frame up.

 I've tried to construct this 'properly' - the way my Dad would have done (and I've probably used as many screws as he did!) so the joints are cut out and the woodwork is flush on the upperside so the corrugated sheeting will be attached to all the lengths.  I think it was possibly a very time consuming method, especially as I've seen a couple of these types of roofs since I started, that have been made the quick way.  Anyway, by the end of the Monday it looked like this

by the end of Tuesday I'd finished the other side - look at the blue sky!

Wednesday I started putting the sheeting on - from experience I know this bit can't be rushed - The sheet has to be put in place, and marked where the holes have to go - you have to drill quite big holes for the screws to go through - this allows for a bit of movement - and is a bit forgiving if things aren't quite precise enough.  Each sheet needs to be drilled 16 times!  This then needs to be put back on the roof and 16 supports have to go under the hole, 16 screws have to be put in 16 caps before screwing down, and then the cap has to be clicked over to seal everything!  Anyway, the 1st 10 sheets were put on ok, it was pretty windy and I did have to catch a couple of them the other side of the garden.  Well, that was about it for the rest of the week, no chance of putting the top row on - at least the first ones stayed put - and I think it'll be able to survive most things now.

By the next Monday afternoon the weather, and especially the wind, started to calm down and I got the next 3 sheets on - Tuesday saw the rest put on - yippee!!  Most of the guttering has been put on too, and now I've just got to exchange a piece and fit the down pipe.  I wan to collect the rainwater to use in the garden and for the birds, and I'm trying to get a really big container!  I managed to tidy up the concrete slab too before it got too dark - it  looks really smart already.

Oh yes, I didn't sit around doing nothing while it was windy - I demolished the compost heap - there's still the slabs to move - to around the chicken coop - and then to level the area.

In under the roof, in the grass, a few snowdrops have survived!