Driftwood Tool Shed

Slowly but surely we have been gathering up all the tools and implements necessary to make us look like real farmers. Just because we have them, though, does not necessarily mean we (read: I) know how to use them! Case in point: a hundred dollar scythe blade I bent and cracked within the first five minutes swinging it around our field. The culprit? My overzealousness and, of course, one nefarious sukanpo stalk!

Even if I do not know how to use the tools correctly yet, I at least recognized the fact that for the expensive tools we bought to actually last past our lifetime as intended we would have to take great care of them and keep them from elements, if not from my own hands!

Enter the driftwood tool shed...

Overgrown pile of driftwood

Excavated and sort of leveled

Scavenged cinder block pylons

Someone's old chest and some else' cabinet

Perfectly level without even trying!

One roof and anchor poles added

Second roof and a rain barrel

A few days later, time for the first door

Pallets...

...the poor man's dimensional lumber!

Not bad for my first ever door

Fits like a charm

Double-sized pallet = double-sized door

Much pounding, prying and cursing later...

...Two fully functioning doors

Keeps the rain out...

...and the tools safe inside!!!

This was a three day endeavor over the course of a couple weeks, as the sun was at it's hottest and we had to leave the island for our Permaculture class in Nagano. Everything except some nails, screws, four hinges and two latches was salvaged from the coast or the junkyard after the tsunami. 

I have had a dilemma in my own mind over using the things we find on the shore. Obviously, these items were once in someone's home, integral parts of their daily lives. I have convinced myself that by reclaiming wreckage from the disaster and repurposing it, we are creating something peaceful and practical from the chaos and carnage. I hope it does not offend anyone to put these things to use, rather than have them rot on the shore or be burned away by the clean up crews. We are grateful for each and every scrap that has come our way and hope that we are doing it justice and giving all the embodied energy within it new life.