* Mungo Says Bah * Bushcraft Blog: The Backyard Shed and Monty the Beagle

I haven't posted in a while - I'll get to it, but am rather bogged down with stuff and more stuff.

The evenings are getting colder here in Toronto, but I don't really mind. This is excellent camping weather.

I sat out in the afternoon with Monty and watched the world go by from the backyard.

The shed is getting close to completion.

Without tar paper and shingles, the light and the rain comes through the roof.

The window shutters are done, and close up nice and tight. Better this than a window, I think.

The door is on, with nice black iron hinges.

The top lining of the back of the shed has spacers placed between the purlins, allowing for the tongue-and-groove to more easily fit.

Above the door, a caulked, pressure treated section of wood has a small, narrow rain groove in it. Look closely. The rain will dribble on down, but not work its way back towards the door, to settle on the top of the door and rot the wood.

The shutters looks really good, I think. They're on sliding rails.

A couple of vertical pieces of wood at the apex of the roof are a nice detail.

Against both inside sides of the shed sit strong shelves.

The door's Z-frame takes the stresses and prevents the door from sagging over time, as the stress migrates to the bottom inside of the door, by the hinge.

The shutter groove mechanism can be seen well above.

What remains is for the galvanized steel sheets on both sides of the roof bottoms (partial section above) to be nailed on.

Insect netting is staple-gunned to the inside of the roof, at the gaps at the top of the walls. This should stop the bigger and smaller creepy-crawlies.

Then tar-paper and shingling of the roof. Finally, a ramp, and finishing off the various gaps in the foundation skirting (as I shall call it).

Until the latch mechanism is created for the door, this very sophisticated piece of wood affixed by a nail will remain. Fancy.

This weekend I carved a handle for a ferrocerium rod and glued it on the weekend - will finish the material with a sanding job and then with some coating, a finish of some sort, and then make some cordage for a lanyard.

I am currently making a handle for a Frosts Mora laminated carbon steel blade blank out of locust tree wood. It has a creamy yellow/white two-toned pattern on it, and I am using a Turkish silver coin as the bolster (blade guard) at the front.

I might decide to cut the wood in half, and insert leather spacers for a nice design in the middle, and have even considered buying some cow bone from the butchers and using some of that as a spacer too, in lieu of having any antler supply handy.

In early November I will be going to New Hampshire for a course in the mountains instructed by Mors Kochanski, and I will bring my new knife into the woods.

Monty won't be able to come to New Hampshire.

But I am sure he will have tons of fun staying home with his mum. He likes to sit in or very close to the potato patch. He will likely do that for a while.