I wanted to have a productive morning, but I didn’t end up doing that. I was upset about the shed flying away. When the sun came up, I went outside to look for it and I didn’t see it anywhere. So, I kind of sulked most of the morning, and tried to figure out next steps.
I just barely started a story, and I did the next days workout for Back & Core level 3. I skipped breakfast, and I was just about to text my dad to ask for advice on what to do about the shed situation when I got a text from my neighbor up the hill. My shed was in their yard.
I should have gone outside to look a little later in the morning. My shed is dark gray, and I must not have seen it with the sun coming from behind. After the text, I could see where it had landed, upside down and wedged against one of their fences.
I ate lunch before going out to get it. My neighbor offered to help if I needed it, but I wanted to assess before asking for assistance. I walked over, using the break in the fence to get into their property and found that the shed ŵas mostly intact. The cover had a few holes, but all the metal parts were still attached.
Over the uneven ground, I ended up rolling it. Up and over sage and rocks and grasses. I tried dragging it, but it really wanted to roll so I went with it. Once I got to the road, I figured I could drag it or dogleg it.
But when I got to the road it was a bit simpler than that. Set up properly the shed is too big for me to reach both sides. But if I lifted the front poles and moved them closer, then I could use their connection to the back poles to walk the whole thing forward, one step at a time.
I imagine it must have looked pretty funny from my neighbor’s house if anyone was watching, because I was on the other side of the shed from them and hidden. It would have looked like the structure was along itself home. I moved it past the end of my driveway so I could make a turn. I wanted to back it in so I could line it up with everything that I was storing in it.
It was kind of amazing that nothing inside flew away when the outside went. The snow shovels fell down, but everything else was in place.
I definitely got a good workout from moving the shed. It was at least a quarter mile away, maybe a bit more. And once I got it repositioned, I needed to resecure it. Clearly the stakes it had come with were insufficient to standing up to the kind of wind that I get.
And I had been kicking myself all morning got not securing it better in the first place. I have better stakes, and I just didn’t use them. The instructions online suggested burying the sides to keep the wind from flipping it up, and I hadn’t done that either.
First, I went though with duck tape on all the holes and weak spots I could find. There were quite a few. I might need to tape those again as the season continues, possibly with better tape. I should have cleaned the surfaces before applying the tape, but I was in a hurry beside I wanted to get to my friend’s place in Nampa at a reasonable time.
After the tape, I got the heavy duty stakes that Ambrose had bought for our garage – which, to be fair, never blew away. It just got so warped by the wind that we took it down. I used the sledgehammer to drive in the heavy duty stakes, making sure to close the door first so it would be able to close.
I almost stopped there, but I decided to do a bit more for security. I dug around the walls and buried the edges in dirt, using some rocks to help weigh them down. The idea is if the wind can’t get under the sides then it won’t pull on the stakes as much.
We did try this with the garage, sort of. We weighted the edges of the walls down with rocks, but because it was so difficult to dig on that area, we weren’t able to bury them. And no matter how many rocks I piled up, the wind was able to pull those edges up. I’m hopeful the burial will help, but if it doesn’t, then I will figure out another tactic. Maybe more dirt piled on the side…
After the burial, I went inside and took a shower. Then I got packed and ready to go for my overnight trip to Nampa. As I drove south from Cambridge, there were some beautiful cloud formations in the sky. I wanted to stop and take pictures, but there really wasn’t a good way to do that.
I had an easy drive to Nampa and then a nice evening with my friends. My honorary nephew was a bit shy of me at first, but he warmed up. I haven’t seen him since June, so that was to be expected. My offering of fresh pressed apple cider went well with dinner.
I didn’t really get any story writing done, but I have until Friday to get something submitted. I just need to spend some discipline and get it done. Next Sunday, I’m going to try and work on my nonfiction writing. I still have two trips to write about. And I want to finish the 2023 ICT attempt and my writings on Ambrose’s death. That one is hard to write, but I feel the need to do it. To explain, even if only to myself, the double life.
