Homestead Building Update—Camper Canopy & Barn Doors

Homestead Building Update and Inchworm Progress

What’s Going On at Ridge Haven Homestead?

It’s time for an update on our homestead building project. There has been no update of late, because you can’t report much when not much is happening. But, we’ve worked on some of our homestead projects, and I’m happy to report that little by little, some things are getting done.

Barn doors for the shop

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One on-going project we’ve been trying to work on, as funds allow, is our shop and cabin–shop below, cabin above. The basic structure has been built since winter, but we slowed down because of slow funds.

Recently, we got going again, so Austin and Troy began constructing doors.  W decided to make them instead of purchasing ready-made doors.  We always try to find a hard way if there is one!  Clearly, MAKING doors is the hard way here, but they turned out very nicely!   Far better than the tarps we’ve had hung up for the past several months!

For the double barn doors, Troy took milled wood, and constructed them.  He used construction adhesive as well as nails to secure the boards, clamped them until set, then built the front X’s–for support and decoration.  These doors are thick and strong, and he built a channel on the inside where we will add a layer of 1″ foam insulation.  We still have to pressure wash and stain the doors.

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Hanging the doors/Hardware

He then hung the doors on simple rustic hinges like these available on Amazon.  Simple Rustic Hinges  We used six of the hinges, which supported the heavy doors well.

We opted for simple rustic pulls as well, to match our simple rustic design.  We used these black pulls, and they came out looking very nice, and didn’t cost much!

To lock the door from the inside, we used a Cane Bolt, which hooks down into the concrete to secure it.  Our doors have a nice, clean, but rustic look, with the locks inside, to hopefully deter any lock-pickers.

The small doors, he made in a similar way, just smaller!  These also have the channel for foam insulation, and we used plain black/brown door handles. While we want these doors to look nice, we opted for simple and classic.

Camper Canopy Completion

A little while back, I wrote this post about when we started our Camper Canopy project. Go there to see the BEFORE pictures and the truss setting.   We got that project wrapped up this past week, and now have it roofed.  We debated for awhile on the color of the roof, and finally settled on a basic Hunter Green.  This will also be the roof color of our cabin.  We wanted it to blend in with the surroundings.  I actually had my mind set on burgundy, or brown.  I think my preference would have been brown in the long run, but everyone seems happy with the green. Think Lincoln Logs!

The Roof

Before I show you the picture, I’ll tell you what we hoped to accomplish with this roof.  Obviously, shelter our RV from the elements, which we have accomplished.  Secondly, we wanted to assure ourselves that we could still get enough light into the RV, even with a canopy over it.  My husband has a multitude of ideas!

First, we considered glass panels inserted between the metal.  These would have been long-lasting, and heavy-duty, as we already have glass such as this.   However, the problem arose of how to get those heavy glass panels placed, and would we need more support, etc, came to mind.  When my husband ordered the metal for the roofing, he decided to go with clear plastic roofing panels, with the exact dimensions of the metal panels.  This certainly made things more simple for putting them up.

We chose four panels to let light in, and the rest metal.  The results are good as far as how much light comes in.  We placed them above the skylights and bedroom vents.

Results

My verdict is still out.  I don’t love the look, because with them being crystal clear, you not only can see the wooden purlins, but it also kind of looks like the panels have been blown away by a storm!  But…I am getting used to them, and my dear husband told me that if I really hate them, we can change it.  Living with an idealist is fun and crazy at times!

You just order these clear panels at the same company where you buy your roofing metal.  We will update you on their durability after a little while.  They were thinner than I expected–more thin than the rigid plastic panels that get used on greenhouses.

Here’s how the roof turned out with the panels:

Tiger conquering the Grumps

Aside from the homestead building updates, here’s a little light-hearted update on our friendly new addition, Tiger. 

She came in like a tornado, upsetting our tenuous balance in the cat world even further.  See this post for her official introduction.

Tiger seems determined to make friends with ALL of the cats.  She is well on her way.  Hairball and Tiger are good friends now, and she has brought out a lot of play in that big old cat.  It does him well to get active again!

Tiger has also plowed in and has attempted to make friends with Poppy, the Recluse, and LB, the Offended.  She’s almost won Poppy’s heart, but Poppy doesn’t know it yet.  LB, she’s still working on.  Sort of like too many cooks in the kitchen, perhaps, are too many cats in the camper.  I have confidence that before long, LB and Tiger will have more of a truce than they now have.

Daisy

The only sad note on our homestead is that Daisy is gone. She disappeared over ten days ago, and we have not seen a trace of her.  She’s been with us since the boys were small.  She just showed up and stayed!  She’s been a fun addition to the family, and will be missed by all of us.  Maybe, just maybe, she will return, but we aren’t holding our breaths about it since it’s been so long.  Here are a couple of shots of that crazy dog!

Garden site/Retaining Wall Plans

The last area for our homestead building update doesn’t really involve building, but organizing.  The building will come later on. We’ve been clearing out our garden area, although we won’t have our garden til Fall, hopefully.  We stored a bunch of stuff in that location, so we’ve been getting it cleared out.

Now, my husband is dreaming and planning in the area of Earth Bag forms or similar to construct a retaining wall.  It’s going to be that or gabion walls to keep the erosion down.

My vote is to fill old tires with dirt and make a wall, but so far that’s not the vote.  Any of these methods sound like a LOT of work to me!

Homesteading Homework

Greg pulled out a bunch of his dreaming books, and he’s been perusing them while he dreams.  He’s great at coming up with ideas, but they almost always involve a lot of work, and they’re rarely conventional.  That’s just life here on the homestead!

A few that he’s really been studying hard are these:

Landscaping with Stone

How to Grow More Vegetables than you ever thought possible on less land than you can imagine

Earthbag Building

The Complete Guide to Stonescaping

Stonework

Stonebuilder’s Primer

Building with Stone

There you have it!  Homestead building update as of July, 2019

We actually have been getting a few things done, even with all the rain, disruptions, and life.  We have to remember it’s not a race, it’s a journey, so keep going at it.  As the song goes,

Little by Little, Inch by Inch.  By the yard it’s hard, by the inch, what a cinch!

Keep pressing forward!

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