Finally, My Grilling Shed

First, we finished processing the last of the 8 hogs yesterday.  Still have almost all of the bacon to slice and seal, but all the hard work is behind us.  My son is cooking lard and cracklings today.  We had a good group of neighbors involved in this and I think everyone enjoyed the project and is happy with all the pork they took home.
   Now for my grilling shed.  This has been on hold for about 4 years now, never seemed to have the time to start construction.  I finally made up my mind this spring that come hell or high water, this year it was getting built.  It's far from some of the beautiful grilling areas I see posted on here, but I'm very happy to finally have ALL of my grilling equipment and supplies together in one area.  No more gathering up stuff from 3 or 4 places to cook.  It fits well with the old out building it's attached to.  The siding is poplar that we had sawed from a big tree on our farm.  Some of the 1" boards are 20" wide.
   It is an addition to our old Meat House that sets about 20 feet behind our old house.  And I do mean old house.  It will soon be 200.  Built in 1830 by my great, great, great, grandfather. Built with brick fired here on the farm.  All the walls, even the interior are 12" thick plaster over brick.  Rewiring it when my grandmother passed was a real chore.  Had to cut groves down the walls, embed the wire and boxes, then plaster over.   It's been years since we hung any hams in the meat house, but I'm hoping to revive that again.  But we need to cure hams in the winter.  Requires cold weather to prevent spoilage, at least that's how my mother always did it. 
   So here's some pictures.  Once again, nothing elaborate, but it works well for me.  And even though we tried to repurpose and scrounge our junk for any materials that would work, the $$$$ still added up. 


My son in the foreground stirring the fat today to make lard.  The guy on the other side is our neighbor that guided the whole process and did most of the butchering. 

 My M and XL housed in a stainless steel counter.  48" x 144" counter.  A good friend gave me the stainless sheet.  I owe him a brisket as soon as I can get a good prime one to Egg.  That is some tough stuff to cut.  I under sized the openings and then made radial cuts out to the proper size and bent the tabs down and under the 3/4" underlayment.  I got some Rutland gasket material from @RRP and adhered it around the opening.  It protects the eggs nicely from getting against the stainless.   I made rolling carts to hold my supplies.  I took metal off of some old silage wagons we had junked and welded up the frames.  We had a bunch of 8" lawn mower wheels so I welded 3/8" bolts to the frames to act as axles.  They roll under the egg support shelf which is covered with 1/4" aluminum.  I have a storm window at each end of the counter and two in front of the counter that I haven't yet constructed a system to open and close them without having to go outside.  There is a 16" exhaust fan in the end above the M.  If smoke begins to accumulate, I can turn it on and open the window on the opposite end and in a few seconds the smoke is gone.  My CyberQ and some of the egg tools I use most often are hung there by the eggs.  The floor is concrete.  There is a 4' sliding door on each end.

The other end of the counter.  I had said I wouldn't post any pics until I had everything put away.  But I decided I might never get to post anything if I waited until then.  The closest cart contains smoke wood chunks.  Front section is wild cherry and the middle is hickory.  All from trees on our farm.  The back was for some apple my son and I had cut for a neighbor, but it began to rot before I got it split.  So the third section now has some small bags of store bought wood I had on hand.  The back cart has my fish/deep frying equipment along with a propane tank.  It rolls under the counter and stores nicely.  I removed my Blackstone from its cart and made some short felt covered legs for it so I can slide it to the back when not in use and open up more counter space.  That's Fritzi in the doorway.  


I have a refrigerator and freezer, both are fairly stuffed with pork and beef and a little fish.  I acquired a stainless wash vat from and old dairy barn on a neighboring farm which the owner no longer wanted.  Works great.  Nice and big and deep.  I presently don't have hot water though it's easy enough to heat some with a pot and the propane burner.  Since this shed isn't heated, I have a frost proof hydrant in the front corner under the sink.  I can turn it off and open a valve and all the water will drain out so no frozen plumbing.  And I made storage overhead for items not often used.  I try to keep 5 or 6 bags of Rockwood on the shelf at the far end above the refrigerator. It's still more cluttered than I want and I'm deciding where I want items stored/hung as I get to use it.  

This is the end next to our house.  The meat house is in the middle and the far opening is a wood shed.  That's where my eggs had resided for some time after my wife requested I get them off the house porch.  There wasn't much room and it was very unhandy.  I still have some cleaning and straightening to do from the construction.  The water and electric service is buried along the front of these buildings and with all the rain we've been having, I haven't been able to reseed the ditch line.


And the last picture from the side away from our old house.  If you've made it this far, I want to see if anyone can guess what the covered cylinder is at the corner of my grilling shed, in front of my Polaris Ranger.  While I'm sure there are others somewhere, I have never seen another nor have I yet had any visitor guess correctly what it is.  
Thanks for reading about my new grilling shed.