More and more free wood

[milkmansdaughter]

It's funny how quickly plans can change with just a phone call...

I was just getting ready to work on the garden and M. got a phone call. Our friend is clearing his place to get ready to move and just brought a 16' trailer loaded with free wood, with two more loads once we unload the trailer (he lives over an hour away, so it might be a few weeks before we move the whole pile from his house to ours...)
Some of this stuff is over 100 years old (old barn wood), but is still solid and very usable. We're sooo excited!

Bonus: the weather is unseasonably cool and comfortable. Awesome!

Ooooh, the possibilities!

 

[milkmansdaughter]

We've been sidetracked recently a bit on building by some medical issues, digging up leaky pipes, and winter projects like clearing brush and pruning vines. But I finally finished some doors on the smaller greenhouse, and we're building a bigger coop for the chickens. Our 2nd oldest is recently out of the army and has been visiting this month, and it's so, so great to have him here!!
(Don't look too close), but here is the door and vented window for the small playhouse/greenhouse, and the beginning of the coop (all the wood was free to us...)

 

[milkmansdaughter]

Ok, it's been taking forever, but our new coop is finally almost finished. As a reminder, all the wood was free to us, as was the door. The greenhouse panels on the roof and back wall were 75% off at Lowes. Finally, the windows and hardware cloth are in. All the windows are used, and are tinted and double paned (found at a thrift store). 4 will open, 4 won't. All have construction cloth to keep stones from the lawnmower from breaking the windows. I have to add perches yet, paint, and do some finishing touches, but if I had to, chickens could go in today. I love all the light and room! The chickens are pretty lucky I'm allowing them in....

 

[milkmansdaughter]

Dado cut (@crealbilly or @Joel_BC correct me if I'm wrong, thanks!)

And rabbit cuts:

My new bookshelf:

Hidden behind an open door:

@Beekissed , yes, the radial saw was a great deal! I actually got two at rummage sales last summer. One was $35 and needs new heads (I actually don't know what that means, but took a chance. It's a craftsman saw.) The second was $15 because my old neighbor was having a sale and wanted it out of his way. He said he hadn't used it in two years and was tired of moving it. I got a table saw for $50, from a couple in our church who got a new one (same people I got the $35 saw from). And I got a brand new scroll saw (used for one project only) from another neighbors sale with instruction book, all blades and orig receipt. That was $75. Radial arm saw (ignore the red motorcycle charger):

The shelf next to the radial arm saw is on wheels so we can move it to work. We can also slide the shelf that the RAS is on away from the wall. The second one might get sold now that we know this one works.
Scroll saw:

And table saw (we have all the pieces, we just moved this and not all the pieces are in the picture):

I got all 4 saws for less than what I would have paid for one of them new.

 

[milkmansdaughter]

Sooo, a few finishing touches:

And one very happy little girl full of imagination...

 

[milkmansdaughter]

Lol, bay! I love those bargaining skills!
Today I started making raised garden beds with some of the most recent batch of free wood...

I also got my roses and blackberries and fig tree pruned too, and made a fence for the blackberries, all while training Max all day to "come!"

 

[milkmansdaughter]

We finally got back to working on the coop yesterday. It was hot and dry, and has a slight breeze. It was a great day to build!

We added more ventilation lower down than we had originally planned (thanks, @Beekissed for the post on Deep Litter!) And I finished digging trenches for a hardware cloth apron. We're hoping to get windows framed in today.

So far we've only had to buy screws, hardware cloth and nails, the roof panels (on clearance marked down to less than $8 from $35 a piece), two packs of shingles, and a few braces for this job. All of the wood is reclaimed and was free to us.

Ps 13:6, "I will sing unto the LORD, because he hath dealt bountifully with me."

 

[milkmansdaughter]

Sooo excited. Free pallets 15 minutes from home!

 

[milkmansdaughter]

I love free firewood, Bee, but it's kind of sad to have those big trees come down! How wonderful though that they fell where no one was hurt, and nothing major was damaged. Sometimes God lays things across our path, doesn't he??
And it's a great time to start restocking for next winter's fires. It'll have all year to dry out.

It's funny. Yesterday morning I saw the ad for "about 50 free pallets" just 15 minutes from home. We jumped on it. We got there with the pickup truck and my son's trailer. The guy showed us which ones we were allowed to take. And they fit EXACTLY! We could not have fit one more on safely, and one less would have made that load unstable.
When we got home, my son was all excited and was telling a friend of his about the wood. His friend asked what we were going to do with them and called us hoarders because we didn't know yet.

Yep, I'll "hoard" free wood all day long. It's money in the bank for us!
And yes, God has been good to us! I'm sure he'll show us soon what to do with all if these lovely pallets.

I might also be getting some free round bales of 2 year old hay also. I already know what I'd do with that!

 

[milkmansdaughter]

I haven't spent much time on here lately. We had a niece visiting during hurricane Irma (she lives in Tampa), and we're dog sitting a second niece's dog (also from Tampa). And, you know, sometimes life gets busy. But our newest project with the free wood has been to make shelves for the bedrooms, so I can start unloading boxes of books, dvd's and cd's. Most of the boxes we brought when we moved in June are still sitting in the end of the shop, and we're really trying to get that cleaned up and usable. We're all readers, and DS loves music. We don't watch tv (almost never - don't even have one hooked up in the house), but will occasionally put in a movie (on the laptop). And this house has so little storage space compared to what I am used to (no basement, no usable attic space...) Sooo boxes and boxes of books, with no shelves...
So we used old decking to make book shelves that will fit behind the door in the spare bedroom and in DS's room. the shelves are 6'8" tall, 6" deep, and 32" wide. When the doors are open, the shelves will be completely hidden by the doors. It took us a bit to get the radial arm saw set up (GREAT tool - I bought it for $15 at a rummage sale last fall and it works great!) I learned how to do Dado cuts (sp??) and rabbit cuts. One shelf done (unless I decide to paint it) and the second is measured but we still have to do the dado cuts. I'll try to add pictures tomorrow. (Doctor's appts in Atlanta tomorrow, so that will take up most of the day...)

Love, love, love free wood!