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A Cape Cod Notebook can be heard every Tuesday morning at 8:45am and afternoon at 5:45pm.It's commentary on the unique people, wildlife, and environment of our coastal region.A Cape Cod Notebook commentators include:Robert Finch, a nature writer living in Wellfleet who created, 'A Cape Cod Notebook.' It won the 2006 New England Edward R. Murrow Award for Best Radio Writing.

Board by Board, an Idea Takes Shape in Building a Shed

Robert Finch

Over the past few months I have, in my spare time, been framing a shed. I’d thought about building a storage shed for several years, but what finally prompted me to do it was the unexpected coming together of several sources of free lumber. 

Last spring our neighbors decided to have their outside decks replaced. The original deck was made of pressure-treated 2x6s, which had grown splintery but were still sound. I offered to take the old lumber off their hands, saving them the expense of disposing of it and giving me a significant supply of recyclable lumber.

Another source of used material came from a carpenter friend who offered me several dozen pieces of wide-board oak that he in turn had salvaged from an old house in upper New York State years ago. The boards were finished but paint-spattered on the smooth side, so I turned up the rough-but-clean side as more appropriate to a modest shed.

A third source of recyclable lumber was a pile of beams and boards that the previous owners of our house had left us when we bought it two decades ago, and which I had kept carefully covered ever since just in case an opportunity like this presented itself. When I disassembled this pile, I discovered an elaborate, carefully-constructed nest made of oak leaves and fur between the boards. A small red squirrel emerged from it and gave me what seemed a doleful, accusatory look, as if to say, “Aw man, why’d you have to go and do that? I was all set for the winter!”

The shed was the first structure I had framed in over twenty years. Much of it came back to me, a combination of mental and muscle memory. I found I remembered how to square the deck; plumb the corner posts, and brace the walls. Others skills and procedures I had to relearn – how to spring curved boards straight, how to cut rafters, and the time-consuming task of making soffits.

The physical effort, too, was like a memory recalled, but now made more intense by age. There was the unanticipated ache from carrying 4X4 posts on my shoulder, the increased effort of nailing 20 penny spikes, the unexpected difficulty of kneeling down on the floor – all of which prompted a friend of mine to quip, “Aren’t you too ancient to be crawling around on roofs?”

But mostly, in the golden light of those late October and November afternoons, I had the feeling that this was not just a shed, but an idea that was gradually taking corporeal shape, becoming real, beam by beam, board by board, spike by spike, nail by nail, thought by thought. Oh, there were a few bent spikes that I gave up on and pounded over, smashed down into the wood, and then covered over like bad thoughts. I considered them the necessary imperfections of any work. Still, I could only wish that writing proceeded in so straightforward a manner as constructing this shed.

This essay is part 1 of a 2-part series. You can hear part 2 here.

Robert Finch is a nature writer living in Wellfleet. 'A Cape Cod Notebook' won the 2006 New England Edward R. Murrow Award for Best Radio Writing.