Well, besides happy Easter, I've learned a valuable lesson about meself this last week: I live in Fantasyland thinking I can do this. Gonna have to hire someone. I actually believed it would work, right up until the comealong started tearing up the shiplap...

There's just too much weight in the structure and no place to securely brace a jack. What I need is a skidsteer with forklift blades...That or some gasoline and a Zippo....

Well don't feel bad, I am trying to get the rear drum brake off my wifes toyota tacoma, the adjuster is frozen, and the pads are hanging, I am to the point of firing up the torch.

My mechanic had to literally BURN the driver side rear rim off the pickup; It had welded itself to the drum with rust. He almost gave up, then I said I didn't care if he melted the dang thing off, so he just about did...

I actually got the 8th acre tilled this week--Had nuthin' else to do once I figured out that to continue on the shed would just be plying failure on top of failure. This spring has been so unbelievable...The trees are greening up, which doesn't happen 'round here until early May.

...So watch us get a couple of hard freezes before the month is up.

Heh, well I gave up and cut it in half with a grinder, never could get the adjuster to move even though when it came off it looked brand new.  So what started out a 3 dollar fix for a broken stud will run into a hundred now.

And at least the good thing is its so dry and hard I only broke the plow once yesterday..  er wait.

After reading this thread, I have come to the conclusion that what you are describing seems to be a whole lot like work.  Since work can be contagious and possibly life threatening, I vote for the gasoline and Zippo.  If you use higher octane fuel, it imparts a rather unique flavor to all the hot dogs you could roast while the shed burns.  Since the building appears to be mostly wood, there will be no need for an environmental impact statement.

Stetto - I have run into the same problem you have several times already.  The stuff I used to do with ease years ago has now become a major chore.  After nearly sending myself to the hospital a time or two, I decided it was time to back off and leave that kind of stuff to the guys that do it all the time.  It's a lot cheaper than having to go back and fix the damage I caused the first time around.....

Honcho - both my daughters married diesel mechanics.  All I have to do now is pick up the phone! 

Well Jaime, I found a guy with a skidsteer. He has no clue when he'll have the time to trailer it over, and I'm supposed to officially be back to work this week--Powerwashing...The temps have decided to come back down just in time; it's 20 degrees right now and I don't wanna get wet today.

Ok, so I just got back from the box store, where I bought 20 ft. Of 1/4 inch chain. The heavy nylon rope, while strong enough, was stretching too much. I'm going to try a floor jack on the door header at the front corner of the shed. This won't work on the east side, because the door is on the west side of the north wall, but I'd really like to get something accomplished today--Can't powerwash when it's this cold.

Wish me luck or waive me off, I could kill myself in there!

Drama queen 
Hope it works better than you are thinking. 

That didn't work either. The jack is rated at 13,650 lbs, the framing creaked a little bit before the jack started to bow, but no real weight relief. Guess I wait for the skidsteer...

hmmm....what about a couple of pounds of C4 ?

Nony, the Zippo would be cheaper. Looks like that's the avenue I'll have to take. I really wanted to restore the shed, but after having a couple of savvy builders out here they've got me pretty much convinced that I'd be throwing money into a hole.

Gonna just save pennies and put up a steel building (next year?). There are so many other things that NEED attended to this summer, I gotta shift gears and start on rebuilding the deck and installing a sliding door, a scuttle to the rafters in the master closet so the electrician can fish some wire, get the house prepped and painted, patch untold miles of concrete cracks, figure out how to pay for a new roof (we've gone through four vent turbines in three years, the last one fell down yesterday), and reroute our wires from the transformer underground so I can get the butt-ugly powerpole out of the back yard....At least that's what I can think of off the top of my head, and doesn't include the interior stuff.

I'm changing my name to Oliver Wendell Douglas...

sorry it didn't work out for you, but it sounds like you have your hands full of other projects for quite some time... 

Are the Stettolings old enough to learn handy man stuff ?   

Heh Nony, they're old enough to have mastered camouflage and diversionary tactics...

Camouflage and diversions?  You must have taught yours well, because any time the word "work" comes up at my house, everyone disappears.  And it happens so fast, I never seem to notice it.