Last night, we sat down and made a priority list of all the things we need to save money for on the farm. The top priorities are, of course, the goats and Great Pyrenees. But our next priority is Philip’s shop.
Philip’s Hand-Carved Bowl
This man needs a space where he can work on cars. When people come to stay here, Philip plans on offering a low-cost car check-up for every visitor – oil change, tire pressure check, fluid refills.
Plus, in his workshop, he can build the things he constructs for our farm. Right now, he’s working on a system to hang wire-gridding on standard farm gates so that farm owners can save money by buying the cheaper gates without the built-in grids. (Stay tuned for some tips on how to do this yourself.)
He’ll set up his wood-burning tools. He’ll be using our back porch to do our goat fence dedications soon (so there’s still time to dedicate a post if you’d like – visit here to do so.), but it would be awesome for him to have a specific space to do this delicate, beautiful work.
He wants to repair bicycles and carve wooden bowls.
In fact, he has a whole list of things to make and possibly sell to support the farm:
- rain barrels and wine racks from retired whiskey barrels
- gourds hanging to dry for future use as bird houses or bowls
- fairy doors
- coat racks
- baskets
- bookshelves – I’m a particularly big fan of the idea of building one from a wooden canoe.
- flies that he ties himself
He already has plans to reuse the rope lights from our wedding and to organize his tools and supplies so that he can find them easily (unlike now, where he has to unload the pump house and the cabinet on the back porch just to find a screwdriver).
Today, as the snow descends AGAIN on the farmhouse, we’re going to sketch some plans for the shop. And soon, he and Dad will begin construction.
If you have great ideas for building a shop or are particularly handy at construction, we welcome your ideas and help.
What do you think is an essential feature for any workshop/garage?