Sloop

11. Shed: Done Continue with the shed I did, rolling into the lumberyard at 9 a.m. or so on Monday. Lenny was there at the gate. I lowered my window. "Hey Lenny, what're you doing up so early?" "Bah humbug," he said. "Lenny," I said, "There's only a hundred and eighty-two shopping days til Christmas. You aware of that?" "Not if they drop the bomb on us, guy," he said, smiling at me. He had me there. All I could do was drive on. I bought three more bundles of twelve-foot strapping. I had a whole bundle to break and still have enough to make the struts. On the way out Lenny checked my receipt and made sure the punchout (a little paper silhouette of Batman, this time) fell on my lap. "Thanks, Lenny," I said. "Bah humbug," he said. It was about 9:30 when I got back home and began the process of making struts, again, being careful to keep the strapping in the mild sun as I did this. I broke just one piece, and soon had the twelve struts I figured I'd need for the shed. The next step was to cobble together a twenty-foot ridgepole, which I did by laying down two ten-foot pieces of old two-by-four, end to end, and scarfing them together with a couple of four-foot two-by-four cheeks. This made a twenty foot beam. Then I fished a couple of twelve-foot posts made up of doubled two-by-fours out of the lumber pile. I had used these in staging I'd built to shingle a house, and they had been lying around ever since. I stood these up plumb at either end of my rectangle of foundation timbers, and then held them there with a couple of two-by-four braces. This was rough carpentry at its finest. Then I screwed the ridgepole to the upright posts, one end at a time, and I was ready to lay my prebent struts along the sides, bowed out, so they would come together along the ridge beam like the ribs of a whale along a backbone. Which I did, and screwed them on, and added horizontal bracing between the struts. Then I spread an old tarp folded long and thin along the top of the ridgepole to take care of rough edges that might puncture the plastic wrap, and I began to wrap the shed. It took three passes, beginning at the bottom. Each layer was held on by a few staples, with the final pass draped over the ridge. Then I stapled two-inch-wide strips of old shingle onto the outside of the struts to hold the plastic securely. And it held, and seemed to work. Time to get Bill over for a look. Copyright 2008 by Daniel Robb 12. Consultation I called Bill as soon as I was done with the shed, which was at about four in the afternoon. He answered, sounding weary. "Hello," he said. "That Bill?" I asked. "Yup," he said. "Dan here. Wondering if I can get you over to look at this boat when you have a chance." "How about now?" he asked. "You sure?" "I gotta get the heck out of here," he said. "I've been waiting for some epoxy to go off so I can get at it with a grinder and it ain't. Think I must have let the can freeze this winter. I dunno. But I've cut as many bungs as I can stand to cut while I wait." "Well, now would be great," I said. "I'll see you in a few," he said, and hung up. That was remarkable. Although it is good, if you're a tradesman, to get out and look at somebody else's problems. I suppose it's good if you're anybody. Ten minutes later he was in the drive in his pickup, which was a Japanese two-wheel-drive manual shift with a logo on the door, "Mayhew Boatbuilders, Senegansett, MA," in narrow gold letters. He strode up to the shed in the same clothes he'd been wearing the other day, produced an awl in his right hand, walked through the opening I'd left in the plastic, and jammed the spike into the bow of the boat. "Stem's solid there," he said. "No time for hand shaking, huh?" I said. "Oh, sorry," he said, sticking out his hand, which I shook. "Yeah, I needed to get out of the shop," he went on. "One of those daysRobb, Daniel is the author of 'Sloop' with ISBN 9780743202398 and ISBN 0743202392.