Why a shop?

I know what you are most likely logically thinking why a shop and not get started a cabin / house. Actually the shop is a real part in this building project. A lot of the interior will be hand made by Ellen and I from lumber we harvest this fall and winter from the place.

Not only so we can make things there for the house. We will need to stage and store things there as well. It is fifty miles to a supply house in Boise. So logistically we will have to have some stock on hand. Electrical and plumbing, windows and doors. We also will be best able to 'shop' Craigslist and the big box stores for buys and have a place to put things from windows to the kitchen sink even that huge stained glass window we have been storing will go in to the house.

Remember also Prairie does not have a Home Depot, Lowes or even a Do It Best. There sort of a network of they might have it there, well if there is one up here. Meaning drive around from ranch to ranch, cabin to cabin and asking. It is also the foundation of I will make one myself. Believe it or not God did give us the ability to modify and change things.

Somethings however can not be changed nor modified so the treasure hunt begins. Sometimes this requires going out in to the fields and finding a trail of dust coming up from a lonely tractor. Or looking for a herd of cows being driven some where. The standard answer is 'Ya I have one but I can not remember just where it is. Lets go look for it." That coupled with the other conversation involved, the protocol that is ever bit as important as the meeting of two heads of state, or CEOs or CFO's.

Somewhere there it dawns on you as you are looking through old dusty boxes in a storage shed or barn 'This takes longer than going to Lowes.' But then more importantly it is part of being a neighbor. One of the many lost arts of the latter part of the last century. The lost art of helping out and allowing others to help you. Maybe not a whole day of hard toil but lending a hand and an ear now and then. Showing you care... Tragic as is is when part of America moved from being faith based to more humanistic we also became a lot more centric.