With What You Have | 69
Truth is, I've talked about that larder so many times you may have grown weary of it by now. That little broken-down shed that was on the property when we moved here, the one we decided would be just the thing for fixing up, for insulating and venting, for storing a supply of food that's just a hop, skip, and jump from the little house, remember that?
Dreams take a while to unfold, this one no exception, but happy was the day last fall when it came one step closer to completion after our carpenter heavy-insulated, vented, and drywalled it for us. To have it nearly complete, just wanting a coat of plaster and herringbone white oak floors (or was that me wanting?), and floor to ceiling shelves, gave the tingling taste of victory.
But, in the swirl of late fall, design projects, sports, and all-around full life, there suddenly wasn't time enough to go that last home-stretch to the finish. I looked up and saw below-zero temeratures coming at us, and realized I had to pop up some modular shelving to make it serviceable enough to hold the provisions through this first winter. How, exactly, I was going to do that took a bit of contemplation. If I could assemble shelving, by myself, in a corner of an afternoon, using materials I already had, or that I would need to build the permanent shelving in the spring, it would be a stepping-stone success.
Turns out, that's exactly what it was.
Nine pine crates, (some of which I've had for years, plus a few new ones to equal the amount I needed), and nine 1x3 pine boards, cut to the long length of the shed wall, were all I needed. The design was along the lines of the age-old plank over cinder block shelving we've probably all constructed at some point in our lives, only instead of cinder blocks, I used up-ended wooden crates, three columns of three, with 3, 1x3 pine planks running as shelves between. Perfect for holding the goods, perfect for now, and for later (the crates will hold potatoes, onions, and squash, functioning like drawers in the finished shelving units to be built in spring; the 1x3s will become part of the shelving unit itself). Plus? With all that fresh pine sealed away in a closed-up larder, you can probably imagine how heavenly it smells in there.
Do what you can with what you have.