Middlefield Project

Several years ago I purchased a small piece of property in Middlefield. I bought as a place to go and relax away from the day to day business. The location is high on a hill with a good view to the south and east. It's wooded, has a source of water and is cool in the summer. Amazingly there are few mosquitoes. A few neighbors are close by and I've made friends with many. Shortly after I bought the land I decided to built a small tool shed both for temporary storage and as a place to shelter from poor weather. I spend time there almost every weekend even in the winter. I have a good supply of firewood and use it both to keep warm and cook on. Before I built the shed I studied how to construct it. I thought about ordinary stick framing but then decided to timber frame it. I set out to build it entirely by hand but switched to some power tools as the winter came in. This is the story of how I built it.

Click each photo and they will enlarge allowing the caption to be read.

About twenty years ago I discovered the town of Middlefield. It soon became a favorite place of mine to fish and hike. Part of the town history is the Keystone Arch Bridges. I found these to be amazing. The bridges were constructed between 1833 and 1841 to extend the Western Railroad. They are constructed with no mortar and are entirely freestanding, being held intact only by the top keystones. I believe there are eleven bridges in total. All are still standing with the exception of one which was destroyed in the flood of 1922. Most are still in use today but several including this one are not. The modern day railroad line was straightened to remove some of the tight curves thus bypassing several. The bridge in the photo is about seventy feet high.