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I’d love to hear about your building projects for chickens, gardening, outdoor living, etc.
I married a city boy whose father taught wood shop to the local high schoolers and could build anything you asked for. In fine rebel tradition, hubby decided to act out against Dad and refuse to learn anything about the craft. So our building projects have been enabled by a good friend who’s a master carpenter just like his Dad (who passed on several years ago), with hubby now looking over his shoulder in hopes he can pick up some new learning, FINALLY.
Here’s a few things this friend has built for us:
https://cabinlife.com/articles/article/how-to-build-enjoy-an-outdoor-solar-shower
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Hello Folks,
We are not off grid but have incorporated some energy saving systems into our home. (South Central Virginia) We heat most of our domestic hot water through a 12 volt solar powered circulating pump. In the summer a coil of black plastic pipe on the roof provides the heat. In the winter time the heat is provided through a simple coil of copper tubing placed on top of our wood stove. It is controlled by 12v (solar powered) programmable heat/cooling controller. We do have to use the hot water heater some when the weather is kinda in between summer and winter.
If anyone is interested in doing something similar I am happy to help and give free advice.
My older brother told me I should you tube some of the things I have done around here. I like my privacy too much.
*circulate wood stove heat through our house using 12v solar powered fans and my original house thermostat.
* 18′ high water tower storing 1200 gallons of water
* Woodland Mills band saw mill to make our own lumber…Love it !
There is more. I love building stuff and figuring out ways to do things more economically.
Like another contributor said.. “Remember free advice is worth what you pay for it” -
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Valerie, that all sounds great. I’d love to do some of those projects. The outdoor shower would be especially helpful to clean off muddy children BEFORE they track the mess all over the house.
We have built movable “chicken tractors”/coops, simple shelters for livestock, and small projects but nothing fancy.
We are in the planning stages of constructing a pond for livestock watering and a cellar for food storage.
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I haven’t built much myself. I’ve hired someone to turn my existing garden shed into a chicken coop with attached Faraday run (360 degrees of hardware cloth!). I did convince DH to let me put solar on the house. Pretty sure it’s already paid for itself. And I’ve installed some rain barrels. That’s about it.
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The largest project we had our friend build was this greenhouse:
http://www.ana-white.com/2012/05/plans/barn-greenhouse
We changed the orientation of the roof panels to facilitate rain runoff, added a door and benches inside, and I’m pleased to say it’s worked great for us as a season extender. Total costs under $300 since our carpenter is a good scrounger for unwanted building materials. 🙂
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Love that greenhouse, @Valerie
I had a handyman put together a chicken coop out of an old swing set, some scrap wood, and some corrugated metal.
The downside of a swingset chicken coop is that, if you’re tall, you can’t stand up straight in it. I’m 5’8″ and my head touched the top.
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My husband has made several outdoor garden boxes for me from reclaimed or salvaged wood. He also made an extension to a trellis for me to keep pots on for my herbs.
Inside he has made several shelving units for storage. -
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I built the picnic table below this year after finding a plan here: http://www.sticksite.com/picnic/ . It took just a few days, mostly due to the time spent waiting for paint to dry and a second purchase of wood when I botched some angle cuts (I did them backwards to what they were supposed to be.) If you don’t paint, you can build this in a single afternoon. It’s a great project for novices.
Here’s the photo’s URL since I’m not able to get the photo to display for some reason: http://oi65.tinypic.com/2zinbf4.jpg
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Since may this year
It’s a never ending labour of love, two new wells 90 and 415 ft, cattle fencing made of cedar and wire so we can get organic status when finished the 5km of it lol.
A root cellar 10×10 x9 out of drill pipe cedar rough sawn planks, pvc piping, c can container doors and torch on.looks more like a bunker but I so don’t want to redo it in later life when not as able.
New insulated garage door, an r22 panel door.
Another 2.2k solar for shop along with allthe trimmings is In the works right now
New from gate posts… gate to be made this winter.
Anyone done large scale land clearing of mainly softwood trees 4 inches and under in diameter? Any suggestions
100 acres next year with more to follow -
Love reading what others have done. Valerie That chicken coop and garden on other side looks great. I would love to put in a root cellar but we are not phy. able to do it. I want to start small projects working with wood but my hand is so eat up with arthritis that I hurts just to hold a hammer. I am going to try to start macrame again. Haven’t done it in a long time. Might be easier on my hands. Just doing taxes and bills is hard to hold a pen any longer without pain. So really makes things hard. But I keep plucking away at trying to do things.
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I’m in the middle of building a dumb waiter for hauling boxes of stuff into the attic of our garage. I’ve got some old 2 sheaf pulley and jute rope dropping down to a loop that I’ll attach to a boxed platform comprised of a couple of sheets of OSB tied in the corners with paracord.
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i bought Harbor Freight (Flimsy) 10’x12′ green house had to add washer & self starting screws to beef it up at the cross members and top & bottom so panels wouldn’t come out from wind.added more spring clips too huge difference.
next to it a 10′ x10′ Dog pen (Tractor supply) to protect? Tomato & Strawberry plants in 12″tall planters, from rabbits Added 3′ Hardware Cloth (wire) at bottom wire cage.since it’s chain link. need to top it off same way Squirrels coming over the top. i’ll add 10 length of 1/2″ Electrical conduit to hold up wire.keep animals at bay.
keebler
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now that living in town, went shopping for Pre built Sheds. i want a 12×20′ double door in end & a double door on front side, get my golf cart out of yard and mower ,tiller having one window on End , NOT hooking up to power Ill just add a 20 + watt solar panel charge a battery for lighting like the other one, dealer/ shop said start in 2 weeks + weather permitting metal roof, so no shingles to blow off. will have 2 lofts, garden hoses etc. amazing how busy he was. couple other places were to High same thing .one i looked at ,shoddy construction.
have a great Day all stay warm  it’ll be in teens &20 next week. Burrr.
keebler.
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Our insulated chicken coop (built this fall) tends to get frosty inside due to several square bales of hay slowly breaking down inside, but it’s out of the wind and the predators, and is about 5-10 degrees warmer than outside on cold days like today (-5f). Now that we’re in serious winter my hens prefer to stay in there most the day.
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