A Showery Tuesday

(post by Jason) After a very dry November it seems December has started off unseasonably warm and today it’s warm and showery. As we move from fall toward winter, showery days will get more common and as the ground gets wet and the days continue to shorten our outdoor projects will slow down. I wouldn’t exactly call winter a season of rest…just doing chores takes many hours every day…. but it is usually a season of ordered work minus all the things that have to be done during the growing season.

In my world there is no more soothing an activity than working inside a barn or shed while listening to rain roll off a steel roof. It’s a rural right of passage that I appreciate all the more since I know exactly what it feels like to be stuck outside working in crummy weather all day, soaked to the skin no matter what I’m wearing.

One of the rainy day projects Melissa and I have on our radar screen this year is making some heavy duty blanket racks for our main barn. I’m not much of a fan of most commercial blanket racks that you can buy locally or online. They seem to be cheaply made, expensively priced and are nowhere near long enough for our applications. I’ve toyed in my head with a variety of designs but right now I favour six to ten foot lengths of 3/4 inch iron or steel pipe anchored to the wall at both ends with 12″ lengths of chain.

What do you do to amuse yourself during the off season when you can’t work outside because it’s rainy, damp and cold ?

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Lucky and Lightening