Building the subfloor for the temporary housing at the farm

We’ve been wanting to put another building close to the existing farm house. Our main challenge is that we have a long drive to get to the farm and that takes away quite a bit of time and energy for working on the farm. Being there the whole day with no need to drive anywhere at the end of it would make things so much easier.

After some consideration back and forth we’ve decided to go back to some earlier ideas and have started to build a platform for a Mongolian Yurt and some shed-like structure for some basic infrastructure like bathroom and kitchen.

This work is also good for learning some new skills with all kinds of woodworking tools.

If you look closely, you will not find a generator anywhere. All the powertools are battery powered. At the end of the day the batteries still have a lot of charge. There is no annoying noise and - which is the best part of it - one can hear the sounds of nature and what’s coming off of the neighbors working their land.

The temporary structure is not supposed to have a real foundation. We just build a few cinder blocks under it and adjust with wood blocks to keep the subfloor level. The wooden boards are 5 cm x 25 cm (2” x 10”) and of a pine species.

In between the long boards we are putting in some blockers to stiffen up the floor. They get doubled up where there is supposed to be a wall on top.

We began using string line to keep everything level but we discovered that the cows were jumping the pig fence, it is too low for cows, and have destroyed to string line a few times already. So I’ve justed ordered a laser level to get around the issue.

Yes, we could improve the fence and stop the cows. However, the cows will be gone soon as they belong to the previous owner. When we get our own pigs and cows we’ll have a different animal management system with moveable electric fences. There is no point building a real cow fence which would only take away time from building a structure that allows us to be at the place instead of on the road.

This article has been posted to social media sites. There might be comments. Just follow the links: