As many of you know via Facebook or from the horse's mouth, the two of us spent the pre-Valentine's weekend constructing a compost container in our backyard. It may not sound romantic or look glamorous, and the time to build it was longer than expected. Yet it saved us some money, got us spending time together outside, and will be very helpful come garden-planting time. Here's a look at our project, with the addition of a few other pics and points:
If Patrick and I had simply bought a bunch of lumber, this project would have been over much more quickly. However, that'd be rather expensive. A junk pile of broken pallets collecting dust & rain for who-knows-how-long, near one of Patrick's work areas, provided cheaper (and re-purposed!) materials. Since moving to CA, we've been advised to be leery of black widows when poking about in neglected outdoor areas. We saw this one in the work building near the wood pile. Gave us the heebie-jeebies!
It took us several hours to pull all the bent nails out of the old pallet boards, plan the most efficient way to use the boards since there was a limited supply, and cut them to size. At least the weather was beautiful that weekend- blue skies & got up to 70 degrees!
Evidence of the tedious work that took! A lot of them were a real pain to pry free.
Mid-day we broke for a southern-style lunch of homemade chili, cornbread, and...
....limemade from the fruit of our beloved tree! Mmm!
We realized we needed more materials, so we had to make a trip to the decrepit wood pile. After a trip to Lowe's for some screws, hardware, and chicken wire, the remainder of the afternoon was spent erecting a frame.
Not exactly choice lumber. This frame is a bit rickety due to the boards being warped, and split. But it is just a means of containing decomposing food waste until we move again, so whatever.
Sunday/Day 2 we built removable front panels for easy turning & transporting from one stall to the other, and attached the poultry netting for the "walls."
Clipping off the excess wire. We got pretty far, but didn't quite finish that weekend! Even so, we thought we had earned a reward...
Sugar cookies shaped by our Michigan cookie-cutters. The watch pot never boils, but we couldn't help gazing longingly at these while they baked.
Living economically means forgoing fondue for now.... except on special occasions! We bought the ingredients for our favorite, chicken curry fondue, as our way of celebrating on the 14th. One of the ingredients is white wine, so we broke out our fancy goblets to "cheers" a glass of the leftover vino!
This past weekend, Patrick fastened the hardware to the front panels. We had a deficit of wood, but we needed to buy a piece of lumber to mount our hangboard indoors, and the remainder was enough to supplement the creation of a lid for the stall currently in use. Last night we managed to scavenge another board from the old pallet pile to finish off the cover for the other side, so the work is to be continued.....
But in the meantime, it is functional and garden planning will soon be underway!
If Patrick and I had simply bought a bunch of lumber, this project would have been over much more quickly. However, that'd be rather expensive. A junk pile of broken pallets collecting dust & rain for who-knows-how-long, near one of Patrick's work areas, provided cheaper (and re-purposed!) materials. Since moving to CA, we've been advised to be leery of black widows when poking about in neglected outdoor areas. We saw this one in the work building near the wood pile. Gave us the heebie-jeebies!
It took us several hours to pull all the bent nails out of the old pallet boards, plan the most efficient way to use the boards since there was a limited supply, and cut them to size. At least the weather was beautiful that weekend- blue skies & got up to 70 degrees!
Evidence of the tedious work that took! A lot of them were a real pain to pry free.
Mid-day we broke for a southern-style lunch of homemade chili, cornbread, and...
....limemade from the fruit of our beloved tree! Mmm!
We realized we needed more materials, so we had to make a trip to the decrepit wood pile. After a trip to Lowe's for some screws, hardware, and chicken wire, the remainder of the afternoon was spent erecting a frame.
Not exactly choice lumber. This frame is a bit rickety due to the boards being warped, and split. But it is just a means of containing decomposing food waste until we move again, so whatever.
Sunday/Day 2 we built removable front panels for easy turning & transporting from one stall to the other, and attached the poultry netting for the "walls."
Clipping off the excess wire. We got pretty far, but didn't quite finish that weekend! Even so, we thought we had earned a reward...
Sugar cookies shaped by our Michigan cookie-cutters. The watch pot never boils, but we couldn't help gazing longingly at these while they baked.
Living economically means forgoing fondue for now.... except on special occasions! We bought the ingredients for our favorite, chicken curry fondue, as our way of celebrating on the 14th. One of the ingredients is white wine, so we broke out our fancy goblets to "cheers" a glass of the leftover vino!
This past weekend, Patrick fastened the hardware to the front panels. We had a deficit of wood, but we needed to buy a piece of lumber to mount our hangboard indoors, and the remainder was enough to supplement the creation of a lid for the stall currently in use. Last night we managed to scavenge another board from the old pallet pile to finish off the cover for the other side, so the work is to be continued.....
But in the meantime, it is functional and garden planning will soon be underway!
4 comments:
Great looking compost bin. Good job. Now you can build me one, next time you come home:)
That sneaky Shay might protest...
chili and corn bread --- yummm
should have carried the spider to a water spout
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