Nice Shed for Cheap

I was poking around on craigslist and found this 7x8 shed for only $25.00.  I wasn't planning on purchasing a shed but it was so cheap I couldn't pass it up.  I also didn't plan on taking a trip up north but I wanted to have it up there before our next trip in a few weeks and Sunday was the only day I could make that happen.

After church my oldest son and I strap the shed down and headed up.  The trip normally takes about 4 1/2 hours but with hauling a shed it took us 8.  We couldn't go over 55 mph because the shed was on a 4x8 trailer and I didn't want to take a chance of it flipping off .  Also, the leaf spring collapse after we went over railroad tracks and it took about an hour to jack it up and rig the leaf spring with 2x4s.  Eventually, we got back on the road, traveled all back roads to the property and stayed off the highway.  We arrived at 11pm that evening.

We got up the next day, leveled out bricks for the shed to sit on and then lowered it down on the pads.    We have been putting miscellaneous stuff under the camper.  Stuff like, shovels, buckets, boards and so on.  The more expensive items I've been putting inside the camper but now, we can throw it all in the shed.  Also, I can keep my motorcycle up here now.  Before I would need to haul it up every trip.  This is going to be a great addition to our property.

 Strapped down and ready to go from Battle Creek on a haul of over 280 miles.  This was crazy, it wobbled most of the trip but it was fun.

 I used the level app on my iPhone to level out the pads.  I put a 2x4 between the pads and set the phone in the center.  Not the best approach but I was grateful that I downloaded that app today.

 I hooked a come-along to the bumper on our camper and ratcheted the shed down onto the pads.

Memorial Weekend

The family and I went up north for a long Memorial weekend.  We got there around midnight on Thursday and left about noon on Memorial Day.  The weather was perfect. It was sunny and 70s all weekend.  We had one thunderstorm Sunday night, other then that, a fantastic weekend.

We hauled the boy's motorcycles up and spent all day Friday riding the trails.  They had a blast.  This is a first for our family and I think we may make a habit of trail riding, enjoying northern Michigan.  We discovered lakes, sand trails, flowers, mushrooms, pine trees, deep mud puddles that will stop a small motorcycle in it's tracks, logged acres, bridges over streams, jeep trails that go forever, and ticks.  We got lost a few times and had to pull out the compass to reorient ourselves. 

On Saturday my father-in-law showed up to help me drill a shallow well.  He is a retired well-man so, that was greatly appreciated. We drove down about 13 feet and the threads broke so, that was the end of that or so I thought.  My father-in-law left after lunch because there wasn't much more we could do at this point.   We needed to rethreard the pipe before we can go any further.   After he left I went into town and rented a pipe cutter and threader and rethreaded it myself.  By then it started getting dark so we waited until Sunday to start driving again.  We drove down another two or three feet and now it won't drive another inch.  Not sure what's going on but I decided to stop for the weekend and think this through a bit more.  So we spent the rest of Sunday riding.  Not a bad alternative to hand drilling a well.

My son, Mikey, and me hand driving a well.  This was very hard work.  I knew it would be ruff but I had no idea how hard this would drive.  It took us 22 hits with the driver to drive about an inch down.  The reason it's driving hard is because there is a lot of clay.  We here hoping to only have a few feet of it but it doesn't seem to letting up.  Every part of my core body hurt.

This is Tomahawk Creek Flooding Area that we discovered by accident while out riding the trails.  Left to right is, Joey 12, Mikey 17, me and Curtis 14.

 

The camp site.

Close up of fire pit.  We just added the large stumps for extra seats.  Also, we cut up downed trees and stacked some some wood for future use.  We finished every day sitting around this fire pit.  I love the memories we are making here.

 

We are the 3rd owners of this property.  The 1st owner was a single woman from New York who received this property from the state of Michigan as a homestead.  We found one of her dump sites and dug up some very old, cool bottles.  A few were old prescription liquor bottles from the Prohibition.

This is my wife, Jenny, her dad and my middle son, Curt pretending to be drinking.