Iron Horse Ranch ...

[1953mercury]

Looking fantastic and thank you for sharing.

Thanks for looking. Like a lot of things, better when you share. Mike

Quote: Where do you park all your equipment during the winter while you are down south? Inside the building or do you have another equipment shed?

Some of the stuff used to reside in the original side of this building. Once the building is finished it will all stay outside until I leave. Then if there's room it will get to live inside for a few months. I don't want it to end up storage space. Will likely always have several projects underway at a time so I want it keep it as un-congested as possible. Might do some simple parking shelter some day, maybe not. Thanks, Mike

Here's a pic of some of it put away for a long winters nap. Mike

 

[1953mercury]

A few shots of north side siding going up. You can see the receiver for the deck between the the two entry doors. It will extend out 10' supported by to 6x6 treated posts and a cross beam with the deck cantilevered three feet past the supporting beam. It will be covered by a two pitch roof with the longer section following and just under the main roof line and a shorter steeper section on the overhead door side. I built trusses for the garage door overhang to keep most of the summer sun out and the snow from piling up more than necessary, but mostly to break up the facade and keep it from looking too box like. Between it and the deck it will hopefully make it more pleasing to the eye, and I'm already envisioning having a cold beer out on the deck on a warm summer afternoon. Hoping to get everything finished up over this coming summer. In the meantime I will just have to live vicariously through you guys and work on our place here on the island. As always thanks for following along. Wishing you and yours a happy and prosperous New Year. Mike

 

[1953mercury]

Does anyone know how to edit the thread title here? Thanks, Mike

 

[jabin]

No sorry, but I'm really enjoying the picture story!

 

[1/2 Cup]

Enjoying reading what you are up to Mike and as usual thank you for sharing it with us here on the GJ.

I am not sure the you can edit a thread title, you should PM a moderator and ask the question. I have a vague recollection that the question has been raised before???

All the best to you and yours for the New Year and looking forward to seeing your build progress.

Regards

 

[CoopVA]

Pretty neat setup Mike! Thanks for sharing...

 

[1953mercury]

Thanks guy's. Not a big deal on the title change. Mike

 

[Bib Overalls]

I may have missed it but where is the "island?"

 

[hemifalcon]

Mike.. talk about some beautiful country.. You're in the heart of it all!! Great build and lovely aesthetic.. I love the roof style or as some would consider it "southside"... If I didn't want a full open space inside I could have run a center support structure for a roofline like this for windows up where your vents are.. Again--beautiful work!

 

[fergus]

Lookin real good man! Would love to have a shop that looked as nice as that.

 

[kkcshipp]

Awesome build, what about the Owl? Did he take to his new home?

 

[ODIS]

Appreciate all of your hard work and beautiful results on the shop and your property. Over 30 years at this location is fantastic and your work there reflect the love for the location. Beautiful!

Looking forward to further updates on the progress.

With warm wishes to you and family along with a prosperous New Year.

 

[1953mercury]

I may have missed it but where is the "island?"

The island is called Culebra. It's in the Caribbean between St. Thomas and Puerto Rico. It's part of PR an is considered US.

A view of the the harbor from our deck.


Christmas on the beach.


This pretty much describes the vibe here.

 

[Bib Overalls]

Snake Island. I can see why you migrate there in the winter. At one time, when I was still single, I was giving serious thought of retiring to one of the US possessions in the Caribbean and opening up a tiki beach bar.

 

[Xicaque]

Very nice!! I miss Colorado.

 

[1953mercury]

I apologize for not getting back to respond to some of your comments, but it's been a tough couple of weeks. My dad passed on at 91yrs of age and I had to fly back to Wisconsin for the funeral and help my brother with some of the estate details. I'm really going to miss him and I'm very glad I went home at the end of October to celebrate his birthday. We had a party for him and there were probably 60 or more folks showed up. He left his walker in the car when we got to the venue and walked in on his own and mingled and talked with everyone and had a really good time and that's how I will remember him. He taught me a lot growing up, and he was always there if any of us needed him. When I look back on my life I can see that I followed his example in many ways and am a better man for it. Love you Dad.
Three generations My dad, son, and I.


Want to thank all of you for the kind words on the shop build. Much appreciated. kkcshipp, on the owl I really can't say for sure. I was so busy trying to meet my goal on the siding that I never took the time to climb up and look before we left. They are definitely still in the area as we can hear them, and they like to sit on the beam that extends from the roof line above are bedroom at night and serenade us. They also leave bits of what they feed on, on the deck below.

 

[1953mercury]

Looks like 3 years since I've updated this post. Have spent the intervening time dealing with the affects of a bad fall, 4 1/2 months in a chin to lower waist brace and many trips to the docs. This in addition to my dad's death, followed a year later by my brothers, leaving me with two estates to settle with all the legal, logistical, and family issues involved in that, including my nephews heroin addiction and my younger brothers crack addiction, with a major hernia surgery thrown in for good measure. This entailed spending almost six months back in WI dealing with all of the above. All in all the two most difficult years of my life. OK, enough of the whining, life has somewhat returned to normal and I did manage to make some headway on the "Barn" as my wife has dubbed it, during that time. At present I'm in the Caribbean working on our place there until mid April. Hoping to finally get everything finished up and all moved in when we return this summer. A few pics to show where things are at this point. Thanks for following along. Mike

 

[1953mercury]

Pics didn't come up for some reason. Put up approximately 7000sf of 5/8x4x12' sheets of fire rated sheetrock. Did this while I was in the back brace limited to lifting 10#. I did all the layout and cutting, but had two laborers to help with hanging. Got a great price on the finishing, but ended up having to teach them how to do it, and still ended up having to do a lot of touch-up work after I finally got tired of having them try to get it right after multiple attempts. Will post up a few more pics when I have time to find them. Mike

 

[Lee Yoder]

Wow, tough time for you. Glad that you are back on track and doing better.

Later, Lee

 

[odj]

Sorry to hear about your family situation, Mike, but glad things are looking better.

Build is coming along nicely. Good luck

Cheers,
Jackson

 

[1953mercury]

Thanks guy's. Some say that adversity makes you stronger, and there may be some truth in that. Now days just trying to go forward and leave the past where it belongs, in the past. A few more pics, not really much to see, but did get densifier and two coats of floor sealer put down on 2100sf and all of the expansion joints filled with Sika-Flex. Quite a bit of time involved, and when your all done it looks exactly like when you started. I was aware of that going in and I'm happy with the way water and oil bead up on it, and the dust I always had on my old shop floor seems to be much diminished. This will definitely be a working shop, and I didn't want be constantly worrying about messing up the floor finish. Will get to do something a little more interesting on the clean room, office, and bar floors. Mike

Pic of the sheetrock delivery truck. The driver said it was a brand new rig and ran about 180k. They made pretty short work of unloading and stocking all 150 sheets in five different locations inside.

 

[82355]

I know it has been three years, but any updates? Very cool building, in a very picturesque location.


Martin