NEW and improved chicken coop

Today was the day! The hubby finished the new chicken coop and not a moment too soon. With in minutes of being done, the rain came down. The girls moved in, and are happy and dry in their new digs.

This is the old coop that was in the garden, that we moved out of the garden, into the yard, to build the new coop.

The start of the rebuild. The pallets came from a warehouse my mom works at.

ok, so this pic is mostly of the garden, but you can see we painted the pallets in the background a pretty green. 🙂

Here it is almost finished. All that’s left is to move the chicken house back over.

You can see a dismantled chicken run in the background with a missing house…..

…that’s because the house has been moved over to the new run, with the hubby putting finishing touches on the chicken wire.

With the new run and new roof, I am hoping the chickens will stay drier this winter and happier. They had a few roosting bars in their coop/house, but we added more bars for them to hang out on at the far end of the run ( by the green pallet) This run is also longer, so they have more room to spread out and we made it so that the feed and water are now hanging, which will hopefully mean we are cleaning out the water less (YAY!)

ps. if you didn’t notice the plants in the garden and the change in each picture…..this project took a few months to finish! what can I say….we are procrastinators. 🙂

PALLET PROJECT: Pallets with Strawberries

Ok, so it’s been awhile since I visited my board, but summer was REALLY nice this year, and let’s face it….if you  live in western washington, you get out WHENEVER the sun comes out.

My strawberries did really well this year and I LOVE strawberries and so do my kiddos. I had a bunch over runners off them and was trying to find a place to expand my strawberry patch for next summer.

Then I got the brilliant thought – “hey I made a vertical planter/screen from a pallet for my flowers, why not strawberries!”

Just think of it……cascading strawberries, spilling over come next spring. Makes my mouth water. So, got to work getting a hold of some more pallets. Thanks to my mom, I got  my hands on some pretty nice ones from a school district warehouse. YAY! Pretty built them the same way as the first https://nwgreengirl.wordpress.com/2012/07/09/project-pallet-planter/( to see how I did the first). The only thing that was changed was the pallets for the strawberry plants were painted black, and instead of using landscaping fabric to make the little planter boxes, I used wood to box in the bottom of the planters.

These strawberry planters will also serve as double duty too. I left on all the boards on the other side to make it more of a screen.

( the other side)^

Hears, to next years strawberry bounty!

Project: Pallet Planter

I see these great ideas for upcycling pallets and I think ” Man, I want to try building something like that!”. I found this idea to use a pallet as planter, and I wish I had know about this idea when I lived the high life- in an apartment. Now here I am, a happy home owner with a small backyard….

I realized that the idea to grow plants in a pallet could be used in many different ways….so, I decided to make it into a screen to use on my back patio

Here’s how I did it:

First, I found my pallet of choice….

Next, I got out all my materials- scissors, measuring tape, staple gun(not pictured) and black landscaping fabric ( the kind you use to keep the weeds down)

I measured out the length and width (depth of the two sides and bottom) to know how big to cut the fabric. Now, after I measured, I added some extra all the way around, just to make sure it would fit. Then I went around and stapled all my fabric into pallet, to create little boxes. I grabbed my scrissors once more and cut off all the extra material. NOTE: You could also fold down the extra stuff and staple that down too.

Follow that with some dirt and seeds/starts of your choice, and you have got yourself a pallet planter.

 

Like I said earlier, I took it one step farther and turned it into a screen. I purchased two treated 8 foot 2×4’s, a bag of gravel and two cinder blocks. Two holes were dug and the cinder blocks placed inside. The 2×4’s were attached to each side of the pallet and lowered into the cinder blocks. You might need an extra helper for this next part.

While someone holds the pallet and posts upright, you can pour in the gravel in and around the area of the blocks and posts. Then fill the rest in with dirt.

And there you have it! A pretty pallet planter screen. 🙂 Say that five times fast…

This is how mine turned out- a little sparse looking in the start, but its been about a month or so, and my plants have really “bloomed”. I plan on doing two more around my patio, and am, trying to decide what to plant in them next, after these plants are done and die back.

I will post pictures tomorrow of what the plants actually look like now….tomorrow. So stay tuned.

PALLET PROJECT: Pallet Wall

OK, so I like finding creative and fun projects that reuse materials either around the house or easily accessible around the neighborhood. I found this interesting project online and ( well….my husband found it and put all the hard work into to it) thought it was pretty cool as an accent wall. I am drawn to that rustic feel. With that being said, it spurred my interest into what else you can do with pallets….

I have a feeling a few of my next posts will have something to do with pallets….

http://www.myluckylemon.com/2011/04/pallets-of-love.html

this is the original picture that was posted.

….and this is how it turned out for me…

OK, so this in our garage…before we had just the frame and insulation. I  don’t think it turned out super “stylish”, like in the photo above, but I still think it pretty cool and was cheaper than buying drywall, considering it was free. 🙂 My husband liked it so much and was so proud of himself he decided to do more walls…..

This is still in the garage, but over by our washer and dryer.I think the red pulley hooks add a nice touch. Note to reader: if this is something you would consider trying and you go looking for pallets. I recommend finding ones that are heat treated and not chemical treated.