There was a point about 15 years ago when I seriously considered learning how to use power tools so I could finish up the %&^$# house myself. I knew a woman who had done exactly that after waiting about a decade for her carpenter husband to take an interest in their home.

Then she sawed off three of the fingers on her left hand right across her top knuckles during a moment of inattention while using a table saw. My enthusiasm for power tools waned considerably after that. I've been terrifically scared of both table saws and radial arm saws ever since then.

Which brings us to last fall. Somehow we have morphed into project people around here and we always but always underestimate how much time it will take to finish something. The spousal unit got the tin on the roof of my garden shed, but one thing after another kept getting in the way of the siding.

I put two coats of stain on the siding we had made from rough sawn boards in the summer. That way, they could go up even in the coldest weather and be protected from the elements. But still, they had to be cut to size and to angle. A lot of the nailing would have to be done from a ladder, because the sides are high and the shed perches on a small escarpment we built out of rocks from our land.

Constantly going up and down a ladder is exhausting. It was a lot to ask of the spousal unit and so it was that I found myself (wo)manning a radial arm saw. Actually, the proper verb here is probably chimping a radial arm saw, since it was the spousal unit who set the angles for where the boards met the gables. He also called out the measurements.

My first hour was pure terror. After that I just felt, uh, wary might be a good verb here. I cut each board to his specifications and handed it up to him. That saved an enormous amount of time and effort for him, thus allowing me to work him to death on other projects. It's important to think ahead.

And now I finally have a place all my own. No scrambling over snowmobiles, assorted small wagons, carpentry tools, kindling, and whatever else the spousal unit stored in what was supposed to be my garden shed. Now I can get to my tools easily in a small outbuilding that is organized exactly how I want it.

Behold, The Most Wonderful Shed in the World:

When the daughter was down for a visit this past weekend the two of us went into the shed and marvelled at the spaciousness of it, the order. Just being in there makes me want to grow something. Now.

Unfortunately there's a little something called snow in my way right now. It will be gone soon enough.

Years and years ago the spousal unit gave me a small piece of marble on which he'd had a gardening observation engraved. I loved it, but didn't exactly know what to do with it. Now it resides above the door to my garden shed, the perfect place.

I can hardly wait for spring.

--Marn