SHED MEMORIES

My son Toby and I were recently building a lean-to chicken shed on to the 
side of our barn (house). As the day wore on we pressed on to see if we could
complete the roof before dark. Around six o’clock we had all the panels laid 
in place ready to nail. In the evening twilight I climbed up on the roof with 
my trusty nailgun and within a few minutes had everything secured. Back on the 
ground I stood there admiring the finished job as the sun went down  behind the 
mountains, and it brought to mind one of those deja vu pictures to
my mind from Berendo.

Al Magdaleno and I had come into possession of a bunch of 1 X 10’s and 1 X 
6’s from who knows who. Anyway, we got the bright idea to build a lean-to 
shed off of the side of the Magdaleno’s second garage. That would be between 
the garage and Manual’s shed. If I had to guess, the floor was probably dirt 
with 2 X 4’s around the base. We built a crude 2 X 4 lean-to frame nailed to 
the garage wall. We worked like mad all day long to get the walls and roof 
done before dark. Just as we had finished laying all the planks up on the 
roof, Al got called to dinner and I couldn’t stand the thought of not nailing
the roof boards down before quitting for the day. I remember pounding nails 
left and right until the job was all done. Al came out between dinner and 
having to do dishes and we stood there admiring the dim silhouette of our new
shed.

The next morning I was all anxious to see the shed in daylight and ran down 
to Maggie’s to get Al and check it out. On closer inspection of the previous 
night’s work we discovered that I’d nailed about half the nails into the roof
backwards. I couldn’t believe my eyes. I’d gotten a can of finish nails from 
Eddie’s Garage and evidently in the dim light I couldn’t tell which end was 
up on the nails.

My memories of this particular shed are as dim as the night the roofing went 
on. Maybe Al or Lamora can bring some light to what ever happened to it. I 
don’t recall it being there for long. Maybe upon inspection Eddie thought it 
looked better as a pile of lumber. I remember digging a few big holes in that
area of the Maggie’s back yard but I think that that shed was the only one we 
built at their place.

Author = Dave Dumas
category = Things We Made