The rain has set in now. The forecast is for lots of rain for the next week, possibly longer. Rain is usually good for us. We look on rain as a blessing. We exist here out in our little hamlet, relying on rain water for all our household needs, catching the rain on the roof and directing it into lots of rain water storage tanks for use later on in the dry times. There is no government supply of reticulated water here. That suits us fine, as we are well practiced in our self-imposed responsibility to be self reliant. managing water is a bit like managing money, We save our resources in times of excess and store it away safely ], then dole it out sparingly when there are lean times.

So although rain is good, very good in fact. On this occasion, we could do without it for the next week, but as this doesn’t look like it is going to happen, the next best thing is to change plans and take up the option of working under the verandah for the next couple of days.

We made steady progress under the verandah and next week we should be able to lay the arches over the front door and the 5 front windows. Building an arch is a slow process if you want to get it right. We have 6 of them to build next week when our bricklayers start back. The forecast for the end of next week is to be a lot dryer. Maybe then we can start back on the high south facade and complete the gable?

While the brickies have time off, Janine and I are working inside the building doing the lining. Janine is cutting and fitting the insulation wool into the wall cavity, while I come behind cutting-in and fixing the old re-cycled corrugated iron sheeting. It’s really nice looking material, old and well weathered, slightly rusty and matt grey. It’s the perfect lining for a hard working workshop. This part of the building will be for repairs and maintenance, so there will be angle grinders and welders being used in here. The great thing about an old weathered lining is that you can’t damage it or scratch it. Or at least if you do, no-one will notice. It doesn’t need painting or maintenance either.

While it rains hard, the best place to be is inside a new dry shed doing the lining. If we get a good couple of days in over the weekend we might get one of the long walls finished. We will really appreciate the value of the insulation when the weather gets hotter and or cooler with the changing of the seasons in the coming years. 

Cutting in around power points and windows is time consuming and the ladder work to get up to 4 metres to reach the top row of screws is taxing. The reward of seeing the progress keeps us going. However, when 5.30 rolls around, I’m happy to stop.

Modern steel framed kit-form farm sheds are pretty boring. I’ve tried here to use all the off-the-shelf components that are available, in a creative way to create a combination of varying shapes, sizes and differing heights, all bolted together to give a more organic composition. I think that it works. I’ve certainly never seen another ‘modern sheet metal shed’ like it.