From Milking Shed to Greenhouse/Sugar Shack

When we moved into our 150 year old farmhouse, there was one other building on the property. It was a small shed-like structure with a 2x6 front porch and a back deck made of 2x4s and plywood. It stood--actually it still stands--on a 3 foot tall concrete foundation, and in the middle of the concrete floor was a square hole about eight inches by eight inches. An iron pipe is centered in that hole, presumably leading out through the foundation, to the east side, where a pipe of the same size an material protrudes.

For a long time, we wondered about the origins and uses of this shed, and came up with all sorts of ideas. We're pretty sure that in recent years it was used as a play house for the previous owners' grandchildren, because its inside walls have been adorned with lovely wooden paneling, and because of the nifty and now close-to-rotten deck.

We began to refer this structure "the milking shed" since that's what it most closely resembled. It's quite possible it was a hen house, too, but since we moved in, it's been storage for old broken crap: our kids' wading pool, a flamingo that could be hooked up to a garden hose to spray the kids, and a plastic slide called the milking shed home for the past few years.

Recently I've toyed with the idea of turning the space into a greenhouse. It has a nice southeastern exposure, and it seems this would be a pretty good use of space.

So one day on the way home from school I was driving by "Tommy Gump's Master Bait Shop" (yes, it really exists, for those of you outside the River Valley). To date their contributions to the community have been witticisms on their board ("Three things to fear: Osama, Obama, Your Momma"), and tributes to fallen Maine soldiers. Truly a wide range of civic value. But from a purely selfish standpoint, the contribution they made to me that day was of the highest value: a 5'x6' picture window that adorned Nash's Store, Hoppy's Place, and everything the building was in between. It was sitting out by the road, with a "FREE" sign affixed, and after sizing it up a little bit, I began to load it on the truck. Mark Dupuis and his son, who were working on the bait shop, came out and helped me load it.

Once I got it home, it slid quite nicely out to the milking shed, since we still had ample snow cover. I levered it up the deck and in the door, and began to imagine the window in place.

Shortly thereafter, I made a trip to Lowe's to pick up some plexiglas: the 5'x6' window takes up almost the entire wall, but the roof needs to let light in, too.

This week I got aggressive, and with chainsaw and reciprocating saws in hand (not simultaneously, mind you) I began ripping out the wall and roof. Earlier this week, after some framing, the picture window went in place. Today, Weather Lad was out of school sick so I got to do some more work on the greenhouse. Note the subtle shift of terminology here: no longer the milking shed. The first panel of plexiglas was put in place on the roof, and though it still needs some tying down, the greenhouse is taking shape. I even got a little bit of a sunburn!

Before long, all our seedlings for this year's garden will be out there, getting ready for a long, productive summer. Over the summer I'll be looking for a small woodstove for boiling sap. This stands to be the coolest upgrade to our property since we moved in. Pictures forthcoming when the job is finished.

(Edit: in retrospect, there have been two other cool upgrades: our outdoor wood boiler (19 gallons of oil delivered in January? are you nuts?) and the third zone of heat added to the upstairs, which makes it so we can sleep with fewer than five comforters during the winter.