"Hello, my name is MDR and I'm a Redneck Hypocrite."
"Hi MDR and welcome"
My shop has taken a back seat now for almost three years. In that time I have built everything here at the Mini Farm by hand except the green house and we all know how that turned out.
Giving a idea your blood, sweat, tears and even some of your religion here and there is what it's all about. Using your own skills and intellect to build that same idea into a structure, plus having the feeling of accomplishment after the project is done gives a man a high not many drugs could match. Then, the everyday self worth when you look out and see what your own two hands have built is something that can never be outdone or taken away. Yes it is a man thing and yes it's what drive me on.
My shop has been designed in my head at least a hundred times and then drawn out even more, but that is as far as it gets. Lumber and materials have been gathered, but always used for something else more pressing. When the work shop reaches the top of the ever changing priority list it's only there a short while until knocked back down to a more lesser spot. At this rate the shop was never going to get done and everything tends to be more important, even the smallest of things.
Over the past three years I have worked out of a little yellow wagon, pulling or dragging it along flat tires and all to the next bigger and better idea that had to built. The small wagon is so full that every time I hit a bump I have to stop and pick up whatever fell off. When it reaches it's final destination I unload the cart onto tables spreading the tools out so I can efficiently find what I need when the time comes. At night I cover the tables in tarps to keep the dew off my used up equipment and bungee them down so the high winds will not expose the tools to the same.
When the project is completed, I repeat the process in reverse by packing up my little yellow garden cart and storing it away until the next project develops.
A couple of years ago my buddy Dave bought a complete, turn key shop building that he had delivered and set up. They handed him the keys, said "Here you go" and that was it, an instant shop.
Of course in my manly way, I thought that was an atrocity to mankind.
I made fun of him for not building his own shop with his own bare hands and I even posted about it for all to read. I think I even used the words, "Well, I would never"
A shop to a man is like a bathroom to a woman, it's where the magic happens. It's where you transform a raw piece of material into something stunning and beautiful.
I am sure I will get some hate mail on that one, but stay with me here.
In most cases you woman have the majority say in everything about the house decor to the flower gardens. You may be shaking your heads no but look around, did we really care what you planted in your flower beds we built or the girly way you fixed up our master bath? No we didn't because if you are happy, we are happy. But a shop is our land, our last frontier to having testosterone we can call our own.
In our shops we feel two pounds heavier from our new growth and can beat our chests giving out the deepest Tarzan yell we can muster. I am man, hear me roar!
It was really hard to do that when I was pulling around a little yellow garden wagon.
Enough is enough, I decided to move forward with my shop so I did.After much consideration and eating a little crow, I figured my buddy Dave did not have a bad idea after all. I had it delivered yesterday. Call me a hypocrite, it's okay.
So what if someone else built it for me. I still have to build all the shelves and storage spaces. I still have to design and build all the work benches and add all my own touches. I still get to decorate it to what I had pictured in my head so many times before. I will still stain the floor with my sweat and my blood and I can almost bet I will still loose a little of my religion here and there when needed.
I am not worried, with confidence I can say I am still a man. A Hypocritical Redneck maybe.
Inside my new shop sits my little yellow wagon. Her name is "Getty Up Go"
She was a brute when she was new, top of line and ready to work.
With all she has done, her duty is almost over, just one more project left. She has seen a lot of use, been abused and even broke a time or two, but she has been there through it all and even held me up when I was too tired to stand on my own. She it hard to pull now so we had to carry her inside, tools and all. I tell ya, we have been through it and I almost hate to see her go but I will always remember the times we had, me and Getty Up Go.
