Luckily we have a few elders

But, the weather did not co-operate. Wind gusts well over 70mph and 20 inches of rain pulled out framing nails and leaned walls in the incomplete shelter. ( this photo is before the storm hit)

SO, 2 people and 5 hours later, back to where it was and mostly plumb. That's alot of rain, better have more slope on this roof. A cripple wall, like a realy short second story wall, is added. Now, instead of a 14 inch rise over the 12 foot width, we have a bit more than 36 inches, or a " 3 over 12 " . Have to rush more before the next storms and batten it down.

You can see the improvised foundation under this wall, rot resistant wood in the brackets

Pulling back together after the storm on the burnt foundation is good, but not perfect. Each roof rafter has to be measured individually to notch the bottom "birds mouth" in the right spot. Still something is not right just placing them at 24" somehow. SO, the top ends are attached, and some plywood hoisted up and the rafters nudged over to make it so they are "trued" to where the sheets of plywood would want them to be. It worked.

Like one of the books in the little house on the prairie series, this quick shack is only half a house ( barn in this case). No time and money this season for more. We'll get the other half next year, God willing and the creek dont rise.

cant waste time and money on an area to get ripped out when the second half is done. That old, half rotted grungy half sheets of plywood have found a last use. I painted them over today and they are screwed in to facilitate removal.

The whole thing needs to be protected from the elements. Tar paper used to be made out of recycled cotton cloth soaked in tar. Lindseed oil and Iron Oxide is the original barn red paint. If the surrounding forest wasnt a state park, redwood bark or bark on slabs are fire resistant and shed rain. The Ohlone foraged for Tule reeds in the now much reduced and protected wetlands by the coast, bundles of them shed rain well.

I am left to forage at the Big Box store and freecycle. Freecycle sources yielded no paint. But, it turns out that you can sometimes find paint color mix up paints at all the locally owned and big box hardware stores. The big box had 5 gallons of premium all in one behr paint and primer for $30 for 5 gallons ( normally over $200). I found a brown with purplish undertones last month, and this month a greyish off white. I used the greyish off white as the first primer coat. With an aartistic eye and carful choices, mix different paint buckets together for a new color and lots of it.

So, in all seriousness, this area had a major wildfire last year, and this area is slowly rebuilding. This half-house is 12 feet wide and 22 feet long, divided into 2 rooms with a connecting door, dirt floor. My pioneer foremothers would have been thrilled with the space and would be saving her egg money to buy some window glass next year..... I am hoping to be able to bring my diary goats home again sometime soon.

here is one way to use up shingles when you dont have enough, I took this photo today when I was out gathering materials.

( That there is a California million dollar home )

It is still possible to scavange roofing shingles, but not as much as you would think as they are sold in bundles off 33 sq ft, so savvy buyers try not to overbuy. Eyeballing the piles of roofing, it seemed like there should be enough bundles, but then how to lay them out ? All the red are the same brand and color, most old, 2 bundles fairly new. The grey didn't seem to be enough, so someone gave me some more, but they are mostly actually a very green grey with half a bundle of grey, so they lighter color I am using comprises 3 brands/ slightly different colors. half the green/grey have one end damaged, a tree came down on someones stack. Those are used for the light shingle cut pieces on the rake ends, then a green-grey subbed in now and then in the middle so it ties together. I decided to use one light colored for every 2 red shingles, I sketched out a couple possible layouts on paper first and decided on layout. I am extremely slow. Here it is so far

Just in time for the latest storms. Rain is blowing in further than one would think thru the open doorways which will harm nothing except the tool box was open in there at first, but the roof is now water proof