Paint it Red, not Black
Some actors get a facelift or Botox or embalming fluid to give them that paralyzed face-look that Hollywood likes, but my Smokehouse has been given a shingle lift. It was something of a fiddly operation, but it turned out to be a success. It was actually completely unplanned.
The story is this: Melanie Jane wanted some tongue and grove put on one of the walls in our bedroom, so I went by our new local wood only lumberyard/sawmill to see what they had. It turned out their office was clad with exactly the kind of tongue and groove that I was looking for, and it was only 3/8″ thick. I left with two bundles of 12′ boards, all a little over 6″ wide.
That was a lot of board feet, as it turned out. I had about one fourth of it left over, and my work shop is not big enough to have a bunch of lumber lying around. I finally thought, what is 3/8″ lumber good for? Then it hit me–shingles. There was just enough wood to shingle the front of my smokehouse.
I cut it up in to 16″ long shingles. The part that is left visible is called the “reveal,” and all the rest is overlap. The 4″ long reveal means that there is actually three layers of shingle on each run, which if installed properly, will make a waterproof covering. I planed off the tongues, and cut off the groove edge with a bandsaw.
Many many shingle nails later the wall was ready for some paint. I wanted to do it right, so I bought some pigment called Blue Ridge Hematite, which is a dark red Iron oxide from Virginia (the door is made from Virginia Juniper, aka Red Cedar). I made egg tempera paint with it using the following recipe. This is for a pint:
1 tablespoon Iron Oxide pigment
2/3 pint boiled (cheap) Linseed oil
Mix these thoroughly and leave overnight. The next day add:
1 Egg
1/3 pint Water
Stir, but don’t shake, the paint. Think of it as one of James Bond’s martinis. Theoretically, the building will rot down before this paint fades. Now there’s only three more walls to shingle. I think those can wait.
Southern Fusion Cooking 