We hope you’re having a wonderful new year 2026. Ours is starting out in productive fashion, getting out in the Barkyard and getting things done! While I could make a list, I find my lists quickly become so detailed, they’re overwhelming by the time I’m done. But I’ll try to give the bullet points anyway.
Speaking of overwhelming, my lists pale in comparison to getting the Barkyard operational again. Now that the holidays and all the work that went in to getting the other house sold are in the past, it’s time to get back to work on the Barkyard. But at least we’re moving forward and not backward.
When I say backward, I’m talking about having to tear up track and remove rotted stringers, basically taking things apart instead of putting them together. It’s pretty bad when it’s been nearly a year since we’ve run any trains. I should probably check on that figure and see how long it’s really been… Time flies and all that.
Where Do We Go From Here?
So where do we start? Without getting into too much detail, all that backward momentum together with all that “stuff” that came over from the other house has consumed any space left in the garage. Bins and boxes of screws and nails and hardware and motorcycle parts and tools and… You get the idea. All the leftovers from the other house.
Now stack all that together, more like on top of, all the track and switches and PVC to make replacement stringers with and we’ve got quite the disaster of a mess to deal with before we can even think about gaining forward momentum again, let alone getting back to operation.
I’ve had my eye on a new shed. One that’s more than twice as big as the old one. I’ve even done some “what-if-ing” to see how I can fit something that big into our track plan without disturbing what we already have too much. After all, we’re trying to get things operational again, not tear up even more track!
A New Shed
There are a number of drawbacks to that new, larger shed. First is what to do with the old shed. Next is site preparation. Where the old shed sits now is already level. Who knows what we’ll run into preparing the new site? Then there’s the old fence that needs replaced first. And the dying tree behind the fence that needs cut down before that.
As much as I want that new shed, it’s a losing proposition when all the “has-to-be-done-firsts” are added up. Too many dependencies. Too many things to go wrong. All this before considering the large price tag that goes along with a large shed.
While we’re talking about disadvantages and drawbacks, the old shed has its own set. At slightly less than 7’x7′, nothing that’s longer than that can go in there unless it’s stacked tall instead of wide, like 4’x8′ sheet goods. Basically anything much longer than 6′ can’t lay down flat. It needs to stand vertically.
And now that I have those 8′ long stringers from the old HO layout that came over from the other house, they have to stand upright at the roof peak just to fit! But at least they do fit. But I’m getting ahead of myself again.
A Better Idea
Ann came up with a better idea, buy a smaller shed instead of that large one. That’s right. A smaller shed for just the lawn and gardening equipment. Because it’s smaller, it can sit next to the house along the driveway. Much more convenient than having to walk all the way to the back of the Barkyard for what’s needed in the front yard!
The Christmas blog was all about 3D printing all those snowmen, but we did a LOT more over the Christmas break than make Christmas presents for friends and family. Ann had a number of things on her list, and the new shed was only one of them!
Before the assembling the shed came the new shower doors. We managed to get those installed in a day. Less than a day actually. That in and of itself self is amazing. No yelling. No arguments. No harsh words or hard feelings. Just a sense of accomplishment and a Christmas present to ourselves that keeps on giving.
Assembling Ann’s new shed took the better part of the next day, but we’re two for two now. Two projects complete in two days! With that finished, Ann moved all the lawn and garden equipment from the old shed to her new one, freeing up much needed space for everything in the way in the garage, soon to have a new home in the old shed.
Skidding The Shed
Not so fast! First we need to replace the rotted plywood floor and framing under the old shed before everything can be moved to the shed. To do that, we need to skid the shed off of the rotted floor onto a set of 4x4s, then remove all that rotted wood to the curb for trash pickup. And before we can do that, we need to empty the shed.
That all goes smoothly. And quickly. We began to pull up the rotted plywood. But that left us with irregularly shaped pieces, too big to fit in the trash barrel. Turns out the plywood was so rotted I could use the flat shovel to chop it into small enough squares to easily bag up and drag to the curb. There isn’t much left of the 2x4s…
The site already level enough from when we first put the floor in place. That’s not accounting for any settling, but the HexPave will contain the gravel and gravel will pretty much self level itself once the shed is in place over it.
We decided to lay down landscape fabric to help keep the gravel from sinking into the sand. After that, it’s a matter of fine tuning the levelling and placement of the fabric and HexPavers. Finally the many bags of gravel get poured in and the new base is ready to skid the shed back in place.
Skidding the shed back over its new base proved to be much more difficult than skidding it off the old, rotted one. It takes repeated, coordinated, focused shoves from both of us to slowly nudge it into place. But once it’s done, it’s done. And done in a day no less! We both slept well that night…
Finally Moving In The Right Direction
And that’s what got the ball rolling. Finally. Forward momentum. And we managed to get it all done over Christmas break! Three projects complete in three days! Actually there were more than that, but those three were the big ones that mattered.
Now the stuff that’s always in the way in the garage can go out to the shed. All those leftover cabinet grade plywood pieces. All the storage bins full of plumbing pieces and parts under the long bench along the back wall now neatly fit on the shelf unit just inside the doors to the shed.
And now I can actually see the floor and vacuum up all the sawdust. That space freed up beneath the bench is now the home of the router table and other items from beneath the casting bench. That leaves room to get the old Super Magna engine up off the floor and on the shelf where the router table used to sit.
I’ll need to build a “crate” to mount that engine to and move it out to the shed eventually. But that can wait. It’s out of the way. Now I can deal with that bag of concrete we ripped open just trying to get the engine into the garage. Neatly tucked into a five gallon bucket, the stray dry mix on the floor gets vacuumed up along with that sawdust.
More Stuff?
All of that just to make room for more stuff. But that was the idea. The shed is already full and now the garage is overflowing yet again. And I still have more in the bed of the truck that needs a home! But there’s hope. Most of what’s in those bins can go in the garage wall cabinets or out to the shed once sorted through.
Now I can sift and sort through all the bins of this and that and whatnot that came over from the other house, no longer living in the bed of the truck, and organize it all together with like items already here. For expedience, all the motorcycle parts get condensed down into as few bins as possible and go straight to the shed.
That leaves room to sort through what’s left of the garage items in the large 90qt bins. Those are slowly condensed down into smaller 6qt and 16qt bins, freeing up a couple more of those 90qt bins. The trick is to find the time to do the sorting. I’ve taken a few lunch hours to get through a major portion of it.
The unspoken truth is there’s more than sorting to be done. Plenty of reorganization to the storage layout in the wall cabinets will go hand in hand with that sorting. The electrical items had already expanded from one to two cabinets. And now there’s more from the other house! Looks like the fasteners cabinet is due next.
Reorganization?
Thinking about it, all of them are due. I already have a few things in mind, like 3D printed saw blade storage and other such organizational aides, like 3D printed compartmental dividers to segregate all the raw materials to build trestles with into like sized pieces parts.
Speaking of those trestle parts, that was another major victory over the Christmas break. Moving ALL those containers with ALL those trestle building parts down from the shelf over the carriage doors and onto the bench. From there, the like sized parts were placed together in the bottom of a 90qt bin, using the 3D printed dividers to organize them.
Three things were soon apparent. First, the need for taller dividers. Second, the need for a second layer. Third, the 90qt bin is way too tall for the job. I searched for like sized, shorter bins and soon found a six pack of 41qt bins and ordered them. They’re about the same length and width, but much shorter. Just the ticket.
That frees up yet another 90bt bin. The only thing keeping this from completion is the lack of a layer divider of sorts. Those 3D printed dividers will need a redesign to make them more like stackable trays. Several containers of parts still sit on the bench until then, but it’s a good start.
The shelf space that freed up is now home to a multitude of 6qt and 16qt bins with seldom needed stuff, some already in the garage, and some moved there from the office now that there’s room for it. And it’s all up out of the way yet readily accessible using the short green ladder. Just add labels…
What’s Next?
Even with a stack of those large 90qt bins sitting in front of the table saw, there’s still much more room to move around in the garage. But enough about all the stuff in the garage already! What’s next? Preparing the taxes. Ugh. And acquisitions of course! Yay!
What do those have in common you ask? Not much, other than looking up eBay purchases for record keeping. And that sets the trap! Once on eBay, I’m reminded of all the things I was watching, like Aristocraft steam engines and other garden scale railroad items.
I’ll just briefly mention some of the items recently acquired. More to come in future posts! We already have two Aristocraft B&O Pacifics and a Milwaukee Road Mikado. Each has its own quirks and missing pieces. So why not add a third B&O Pacific as well as a New York Central Pacific?
And while we’re at it, how about three more Mikados? Two more Milwaukee Road and an oddball custom job that’s supposed to be a Grand Trunk Western unit. The most irritating thing about all of these is none of them included the tenders! I was hoping to score another Phoenix sound card in at least one of them, but no such luck…
I’ll save all the good stuff for the next post. And there’s plenty of it too!
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More to come. Stay tuned!