More and more free wood

[Beekissed]

MMD, you and Bay are like the wood scavenging queens!!!! What a bounty that falls into your path all the time!

We had some fall the other day in our path...in our well path. HUGE trees came down in a storm and took several other trees down too. That's what we call free firewood around these parts.

 

[baymule]

MMD, you and Bay are like the wood scavenging queens!!!! What a bounty that falls into your path all the time!

I'll take that as a lovely compliment! Today we went to Lowes where I actually had to BUY 2x4's for my chicken tractors I'm building. But I scrounged stickers out of a trash can, along with treated thin strips of wood used as spacers between landscape timbers. That made me feel better.

 

[milkmansdaughter]

Ugh! My pictures aren't loading tonight.
Garden bed, rooster house, and the beginning of the hen house (more pictures tomorrow)
And thanks for the compliment @goatgurl, but it was all free to us. It's great fun to be able to share. Plus, I've found that we tend to reap what we sow. I gave one neighbor free eggs, and she brought us tomatoes. Another neighbor brought us pears for eggs. And the man we want to help with the wood helped us get the free crates. Bartering and trading is alive and well here!

 

[Denim Deb]

God provides, though, doesn't He?
I love it when God does that in my life and He does it quite frequently, clear down to just little things we need and, lo and behold, He provides that little thing and it's just right for the purpose.

How true. A few years back, I needed 1 pickup load of wood to get me thru the rest of the winter, so I prayed about it. God not only provided that one load, but several more as well. I didn't have to worry about wood for the next winter either.

 

[milkmansdaughter]

Yeah, the first really big branch that fell was green. It looked completely healthy and fell right onto the shop. The logs cut from it are about a foot across. M has had a vendetta against pecan trees since then, that one in particular. We're afraid it'll fall on the chicken run.

So today I gave up on the idea of having a carport for the car. We work in there so often. So I organized the carport so we can get to things easily. (I should have this in the organizing the homestead thread...)
The big wood boxes were free. We have at least 10 more crates outside, bigger than these and more expected. I was running out of places to store them until we could get to them. So here's our work area(and several of our "works in progress")
Don't look too close. The paint job isn't the best, and nothing is completely straight, but we don't figure the chickens or plants will mind our mistakes. We're getting better as we go.

 

[milkmansdaughter]

I saw that in your post. So I was like, 2 pigs?? BIG holes? Yes I want/ oh so not happening this soon.
Before we moved back South, we had friends who raised a few pigs every winter. It was the best pork I've ever eaten - no contest! We'd go over and they'd grill sidepork. YUM!
But they had a small farm, fields, fences, a real barn...
The smokehouse idea came up today when we saw this new wood... We do have plenty of room for one. If we build it, I'll post pictures.

 

[milkmansdaughter]

Today was a busy day. We had gotten 6 new poults/hens at the trade show Saturday. We had them separate from the others but today we ended up culling two because they were having trouble breathing, swollen sinus, closed eye with a bad smell. They seemed fine when we got them but maybe the dust on the trip home got them or they were sick when we got them. Anyway, we didn't want to risk the whole flock. The other two that came with them are in a small box by themselves so can watch them:
1) free wood project #1

Free wood project #2:
We finished the "old ladies" home and put it up by the garden. We put up t-poles and net, and introduced them to their new home. There are lots of bugs up there and they are LOVING IT! I have to tighten up the fence tomorrow, and stake the bottom to the ground, but the door on their henhouse can be closed so they'll be safe tonight. They also have a laying box so we'll know how often they're still laying. They're all about 4 years old.

Free wood project #3 today was fixing the floor of two of the nesting boxes.
Then we separated the two Bard rock, and put them with Char and Ash in a house for just those 4. They are younger than the rest and were not sure if any are laying yet. We plan on giving them more space as soon as I can fence off an area for them. But now the 4 are together and we'll know when/if they're laying. (This house was not free. It was from a kit, was expensive, and was before we had free wood. It is much flimsier than the ones we built.)

And we separated the two young roosters to their area.

That leave 8 of our original birds (all about 8 - 9 months old) in the biggest run with 4 nesting boxes. 4 younger birds (4-5 months old) in a smaller area, also with 4 nesting boxes. 3 old ladies (about 4 years old) in their own area in garden with 1 nesting box. 2 young roosters with a small hutch, and the two babies (about a month -6 weeks old) in a big box on the deck with a warning light if we need it.
I'm glad we had the new ones separate from the others. Rather lose a few new young birds than all.

Tomorrow I'm planting tomatoes in the new (free wood) planter box M. made.

 

[Beekissed]

What a huge blessing to have the tools and space for them in order to do wood working! I've always wanted such a thing, as I'm none too good at sawing a straight line or any kind of precision cutting.

The shelf looks great, BTW, and I love the space saving nature of it. Kudos to you and your good man for the great scores on the saws and the work on the shelf.

 

[milkmansdaughter]

I thought that too. I was thinking of maybe painting the front or one side with chalkboard paint. I'll have to see if I have any left. Then the flowers could grow and change.
I can see this little house being converted to a roadside veggie stand at some point, or maybe a quick winter greenhouse, a chicken coop for the winter, a rabbit house, oh the possibilities. My grandkids live cross country so it probably won't stay as a playhouse.

 

[baymule]

I do believe that man could build a mansion out of popsicle sticks!