Restoring/rescuing a 100+ year old shed. Am I nuts?

[sumi]

Small progress being made today… I got some of the corrugated metal sheets out, after some digging. This is my next dilemma:

The yellow plastic bag is caught up in a bicycle wheel under the compost there. The clear plastic seems to be caught in tree roots. The metal rod sticking up I managed to yank and wiggle free, that came with a huge lump of concrete... The blue fabric is a backpack of some sorts, which is pinned down by the next corrugated sheet, which is tangled in the fence wire and pinned under the piece of tree sticking out there… And none of it is budging… YET

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Holy Cow.... what a mess! Can you just start snipping away at the fabric pieces and maybe use a pry bar of sorts to move the bigger stuff? Or just hire a couple of BIG guys to go in there and do it for you!!

 

[sumi]

It's tempting to hire help, but I'm going to need some money for the roof when it comes and stuff for the hens and there is a limit on how much money I want to spend on this project.

I got the plastic stuff out! Both of them and not without some effort, but they are out. Also got an ancient milk pail 99% out, but the dang tree roots grew through the handle, so I have to dig enough out around it to get in there with the saw and cut the roots out, so I can remove it completely… And see what lies beneath there. That shed is like a very cluttered house. Underneath everything there is something.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Wow! It sounds like there's just layers and layers of stuff! Kind of like an archaeological dig!

 

[sumi]

It is a bit, except so far I've uncovered mostly useless junk. Here's some of the stuff, it's quite a pile already

And this is where I'm at now. Milk pail on the left, behind my shovel. Bicycle wheel next to the tree trunk. I need to cut the roots holding them both in place and then dig around the pile on the right and see about freeing those items, so I can take them out. And the fence wire Which is turning into a giant PITA

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Do you have any heavy duty cutters? it might be easier to cut the pail and tire away from the tree roots than to do it the other way around? Or are they too deep into the dirt to be able to do that? It's a shame there's so much crap in there...grrrr!

 

[sumi]

I need to cut the tree roots anyway, so I'm going to cut them back as needed for now, to free up stuff. Rain put a halt to today's work, though I am tempted to head out there anyway and work a bit more… I'm a little frustrated by the lack of progress. But gosh, you start working on something, lift it, follow it and end up at the other end of the shed! Everything seems to be stuck to or under something else in there…

 

[Miss Lydia]

Maybe someone used it as their rubbish bin.

That's a lot of work Sumi you could use some help maybe the landlord has a few able body's hanging around after all this will benefit him too.

 

[sumi]

Someone certainly used it as junk storage/disposal unit. My landlord hasn't been in touch since I told him I found the shed and asked him to come round. I guess he's busy. Finding people to help with stuff around here can be a challenge. Those who want to work are kept quite busy.

 

[Mini Horses]

Once you pull, dig, cuss and wrangle this stuff out of there -- how do you get rid of it? Is there a weekly garbage service, or such? I know you don't have a truck and I'm thinking ahead.