Pallet Table (a.k.a. palatable)

I apologize for the poor pun / word play of the table. I assure you that this is a serious post about making a table from a pallet and will involve no shenanigans or squirrels drinking beer.

In the beginning there was a pallet & no where to sit. 

Nowhere to enjoy a meal.

Nowhere to pry the fruit of its pit.

Only bad poems written with zeal. 

This table was built in the background over a couple of months, you may have (literately) noticed in the background in photos since we began. 

We started with a pallet, a pry bar and an idea. This is our idea of re-purposing.  

It turned out one 4x4 wouldn't hold up the table.

We added 3 more

The last two pictures have our benches in the background :) ...

We built them so the squirrel had somewhere to drink his beer

A wee bit of paint...

Some found foam and purchased vinyl 

Come on over... let's have a BBQ

Attracting birds and bugs.

Some parts of gardening can be unintentionally rewarding. Here at the +The Littlest Farm we are finding that our garden is turning us into amateur birders. It has motivated us to make space in our garden for birds, bugs and all sorts of needed critters.

Some of you might remember my Insect Hotel from a few months ago.

We have also placed multiple bird feeders and a bath

Today my lovely wife designed and built something for the more adventurous birds ( and likely squirrels ).

It is another adventure in re-purposing.

Using two old wire coat hangers ( hook portion cut off ) Meg took needle nose pliers and bent
them into a selection of shapes.

Add a couple apples on the ends...

... and you have a lovely decoration for the garden that feeds a bunch of critters. 

Side Project : Broken Pot Garden

Sometimes, when you are just waiting for your plants to grow or having a hard time deciding what chicken breed you take on a weird project. This is a weird project.

Inspired by my clumsiness and our determination to let nothing go to waste we but together a little art project for the garden.

There was no hoping super glue would help here. Something else needed to be done to keep this from heading to the landfill.

A little creative hammer work

A delicate idea

Place the stairs

Some ground cover

An awesome world where dinosaurs hunt sheep. 

So many things done

Sooo many things.

We woke yesterday morning with a new years vigor... as it turns out we don't drink enough.

By 9 a.m. we were breaking down pallets to build our raised beds.

By 10 a.m. we were squirrels 

( these things happen ) 

But, by Noon we were building raised beds, working on our GIGANTIC compost bin and generally falling in love with the littlest farm.

Here are some pictures :

building a new compost bin 

(from recycled pallets)

Cutting up pallets to make planter boxes

Raised bed made from 100% recycled materials.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Pallets are a urban farmers best friend. 

The Littlest Greenhouse

I ( very conveniently ) work at a hardware store. This gives me easy access to recycled materials like pallets ( for making planter boxes etc. ) and also affords me the ability to make odd things out of odds and ends. Today I made tiny little greenhouses with +Brian Assef out of clear plastic buckets. It took us about 15 minutes to make two & now Brian and his girlfriend have somewhere to start seeds safe from their cats and frost.

This is the bucket with proposed venting holes marked.

 Brian drilling the holes.

Taking a break in a shopping cart.

The finished product.

As I said before, it only took about 15 minutes and was made entirely from recycled materials. Voila, the littlest greenhouse. 

*Update

Only 10 days after planting +Brian Assef is seeing results from his micro greenhouse.

We will be giving more updates later from Brian's really little & tiny farm. 

Until then here is a video of Brian working hard...

 

Such a long list...

Dear Santa,
     I know it's ridiculous to complain about the weather in California... but please bring spring. 

Sincerely, The Littlest Farm 


It is ridiculous to complain about the weather here but there is so much work to do and so little time in the day.
Planter Boxes to build.
A new compost bin.
Prepare for Chickens.
Seeds to order.
Set up a new water capture ( which includes installing gutters ).



It can seem really overwhelming at points but damn if it isn't also exciting as all hell.

Immediately after the holidays it's time to get down to serious work. Spring is soon. I'm going to build a workshop - and then start building things in there.