Rustic Shed

There is a reason the word "creating" is in my blog title.  Because I like to show the creative things my family has done besides just my quilting.  Today's post is featuring my talented husband!

We recently planted pasture grass and then put up a fence around it to keep the goats in.  A pasture is nice and all, but there are no trees and no buildings so those poor goats have no shade when its hot and no shelter when the weather is nasty.  Until now . . .

My hubby and I both love historical buildings and vintage things so we decided we wanted to build the goat shed to look old!  So here is the progress so far!  The wood is still brown, but when it gets weathered, it will all turn gray and look like every other old building around here.  Actually, some of the wood IS old as we recycled it from some of the old buildings and corrals that were originally on our property.

Here is the view before the Dutch doors with giant hinges were installed.

These HUGE hinges we salvaged from some of the corral gates and reused them on the Dutch doors for this shed.  We had to paint the shiny new bolts a rust color so they wouldn't look out of place with the old hinges.  This land has been farmed since the 1920's, maybe earlier.

The reason we know that is because the original house (really it's a 16 x 16 foot shack with a wood stove in one corner) is still standing.  I love that old building.  (see below) We moved it to another part of the property and are using it for storage.  Anyway, some of the insulation for that building was newspaper from the 1920's.  My son who works for our construction company built shelves inside it to make better use of the space for storing stuff.  Can you imagine someone actually living in this with no plumbing or running water?  We are so blessed and spoiled.

In other news, my hubby also recently developed an interest in bee keeping.  We harvested our first batch of honey today!  Over 2 gallons worth!  This wasn't even all of the boards from one hive and we have three hives.  Boy howdee!  Talk about a messy job!  This was our first time doing it and we didn't really know what to expect so next time we'll be better prepared.  

Well, it's been a long weekend and between getting the auction going and helping put up the honey, I didn't get any sewing done but it will keep!  

Don't forget to check out the auction and please, please let me know if you have any quilts you would be willing to donate and contact me for details.  We have committed to sending $6000 to this feeding program and right now we've raised a little over $2000.  We will get there!

Tomorrow it's back to the real world of stressed out college students trying to get their financial aid squared away!  Wish me luck!