[AT] shop cleaning

[Greg Hass]

I to have a rule about storing too much in my shop. However, because my 
shop is only 24 by 24, I must go beyond the no equipment rule. However, do 
to various factors, I have not been following my own rule. In fact, a week 
ago, it reached the point that I can hardly get in the door, much less work. 
The last happened because the weatherman a week ago called for a big snow 
storm. Naturally, they were wrong, but we did get enough to make a mess of 
things. But, before the snow came, I had a lot of  "stuff" outside that I 
didn't want to stay out all winter. So I moved it into the shop filling up 
what little room I had left. A few years ago, I had the same situation but 
did not get things moved inside. A big snow came and it all remained buried 
until spring. That of itself was not all that bad but things were piled all 
over leaving me only an 8 foot path to the shop. When it snowed I couldn't 
push the snow to the side without hitting and breaking something. Thus I had 
to always try to pull the snow away from the shop door which is hard when 
the snow is deep. Here in Michigan, once it snows and fills over the tall 
grass and junk, "stuff"; it usually will not melt enough to get the stuff 
out untill late spring.  Soon after building my shop I decided it was only 
big enough to do some work and to store only shop type things, like bolts, 
shop equipment, and a supply of steel needed to make repairs. Although I 
have broken my own rule in what I hope is only a short term thing, I hope to 
correctly it shortly. About 200 feet from the shop is a hog barn from the 
days when I raised hogs. It is 26 by 80 by 7 feet tall. It has 7 pens with a 
2 foot concrete wall between each pen. I try to store non-shop items there. 
One pen I keep plow parts and cultivator parts in. Another pen is full of 
various combine parts such as pulleys that I need to switch from crop to 
crop. Another pen I use to keep my various Cub parts in such as cultivator 
frames. Everything I keep in this building are things that I only use once 
or twice a year and are things that will not be hurt by the freezing 
weather. My shop I keep to 42 degrees all winter except I turn it up when I 
work in there. Also,because the hog barn is only 7 feet high it has limited 
us for equipment, as well as having only a five foot door as the largest 
opening. This fall I had a lot of major repair work to do on the combines (I 
run 3 combines,2 IH 715's and an IH 82 pull type, all around 40 years old) 
and as I got done all tools were just thrown into the shop and not put away. 
Because of the small size of my shop most major work is done on an outside 
slab of concrete and hopefully in good weather. Parts that I can carry, I 
take inside to weld, drill, or machine. Despite the small size of my shop, a 
common problem for many people, it is heated and is more than I had for many 
years, so I'm not going to complain.
Greg Hass
Michigan