A local Drumheller resident has been battling his own demons for years and came up with his own plan to deal with it on his own terms.
Eric Dahl decided to use his hands to help his mind and overall mental health by building a new shed in his backyard. This wasn’t just a shed you could grab plans from at the local lumberyard, it was his own design and built from scrap wood from pallets. Dahl shares why he felt that he needed to build this project. “I just thought to keep my mind and my hands busy. To keep feeling useful. At the time, I was feeling down and my mental health wasn’t the greatest, so I figured it would be a good place to start from.”
The building was completely built by hand, using hand tools only in its fabrication. Dahl shares what he believes the project has done for him. “I tried to do it as old fashioned as I could. It’s all recycled wood, 100 percent scrap wood and made from pallets. About 50 percent of the nails I have recycled. I pounded them straight again and reused them. Every part of the pallet is used. Just trying to feel useful again. It’s been a tough slot so it is something I have had fun doing.”
Using recycled wood has been a struggle as Dahl had quite a bit of trial and error building the shed. He decided not to measure during building, he only used hand tools to cut the wood, going through two hand saws because he wore out the teeth of the saw, and the elements have created some challenges with swelling of the wood. It kind of took him back to how buildings may have been built when Drumheller was first developed. “I’ve seen it just by looking around the room sometimes, absolutely. It is solid. (One of the) walls has 2×4 turned sideways for the entire wall. The floor is solid, all scrap 2×6.”
Comments