He, my husband, Kevin that is. Would prefer to buy all new materials. Frankly he would prefer to pay someone else to come out and construct an entire project for him. Then along comes me. (insert big tooth grin here) In addition to my small farm/homestead aspirations. I am also an artist. I have a vision. I can see clearly what I want to accomplish in my mind. The aesthetics of it are important to me. I don’t want something that looks brand spanking new. I want it to have a history, a story. I also want to keep things out of the landfill, save money and teach good, strong work ethics to the kids we can still influence.

Images [internet]

I have access to a never ending supply of wood pallets. Pallets have some great wood on them. Why not use that to our advantage? Between Google, Pinterest and Youtube I started looking, saving, and dreaming. I have a number of projects that will be constructed from the reclaimed wood from the pallets. Above you can see the fence we started in the fall. We all helped take the pallets apart using a tool called a deck wreaker. We sorted the good from the bad, and removed all of the nails. We later constructed section by section using new 4×4 posts and 1×2 boards for each of the fence sections. We’ve only gotten one side done so far and we will have a number of gates in it as well. We are going to have some locking gates and at least two with cannonball closures. I fell in love with those when I saw them on vacation at Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia.

We also built a few shoe racks that are attached to the wall above the heater in our mud room. It helps control the shoe population and migration here. We made two for a friend of ours as well. Any kind of organization is helpful on the homestead.

Some other projects we have planned using the pallets are our new chicken coop, wood shed, goat barn, cladding the lower half of our screened porch, various signs, a wine rack, outdoor furniture and of course finishing the fence and gates. I have plenty to do that’s for sure. I get so much satisfaction out of creating something new out of something old.

If anyone has any ideas for additional projects I would love to hear from you. I’m always looking for new and useful ideas. I will of course post our projects here are we go forward.

You can follow us on Pinterest at https://www.pinterest.com/heavinshomestead/

Take care