building projects

Building a Sawbuck

DIY

After I built a sawbuck I was watching a movie.  In front of a remote woodland cabin in the Russian wilderness was a sawbuck.  I never would have noticed it before I had my own.  I’ll probably start seeing them everywhere now. It was the same when I built a beehive.  In every period film [...]

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Rainbow Trellis

DIY

I’m not sure what got into me, but I went all playschool on my new tomato trellis. We’ve given over three entire beds to tomatoes this year.  The two flanking beds have stakes that are simply painted 2×2′s.  I wanted to break up the monotony, so I screwed together some scrap lumber into a shape [...]

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Composting with Chickens

Barnyard

My compost pile is located inside the chicken yard– part coincidence, part deliberate decision, and it’s been a good combo. The compost pile has always been beside the outbuilding which is now the chicken house. When I enclosed a space connected to the chicken house, I included the compost pile area and it’s naturally the [...]

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A Suburban Guide to Buying Lumber

DIY

Back when I started building things out of wood, I had no idea what I was doing. I would go up to the man in the hardware store and describe what I wanted and he would help me the best he could. Over the years and over numerous simple projects I am not an expert [...]

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Tater Boxes

DIY

The biggest headache of raised bed gardening is root crops.  Even if you could build a box deep enough for them, you couldn’t rotate….unless ALL your boxes are that deep, which is PRICEY if you’re buying your dirt. So, here’s what we’re a-gonna do: I built myself a little 2ft x2ft -ish box from boards [...]

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