Yesterday I posted a quick picture of Aubrie in all of her fabulous, fashionista glory on our Instagram feed.

I'm totally obsessed with Fall and Spring. They're my absolute favorite. The weather is PERFECT, and the colors that come out are seriously breathtaking.

Fall is when I also become completely smitten with Utah all over again. If you live here and haven't driven the canyons to check out the leaves around this time of year... shame on you ;)
Okay, really, you're just missing out. The trees look like they're on fire, and everywhere you turn there's a different shade of red, yellow, orange or lime green.

Our cozy nook is ready- now if only we were too!

Smudge fire to keep May flies away.

 

We envision a cool outdoor patio. "Envision" is the key- haha.

Some of these logs were huge! Luckily Michael had a chainsaw on hand too!

Hooray for tractors! -Check the goat on the wall in the back...

All clean!

Our version of a romantic date. :)

We hope all you people that are moms and people that have moms (that covers everybody, right?) had a nice weekend! 


The work continues. Dan has been steadily collecting and dismantling more pallets. We have had a few runs of luck at the pallet place that takes them apart, but we are finding the wood is better quality from the ones we take apart. 

On Saturday, we were told it was going to rain- so rather than sit home twiddling thumbs, we decided we would do something we don't do all that much lately- go on a date! Naturally as we got ready to go the weather cleared up and became beautiful- but it didn't take much to convince each other to keep to the date. ;) Since it was so nice out, we improvised. Our romantic date consisted of take out in the back of the pickup, parked in the back mall lot. The lot is abutted by large chunks of granite and trees, so it is kind of nice back there. We enjoyed the fresh air and sunshine, then headed in to watch our movie. 

Of course, as soon as the movie was done the sun went away and the weather predictions started looking more accurate. We resolved to work anyway. After returning home and changing clothes, we jumped in. I started the disorienting job of organizing the wood pieces...somehow. Dan continued ripping things apart.





I finally decided on sorting out all of the wood, loosely, by width and thicknesses. We finished up just before the rains started. On Mother's Day, we put together a little pen for Wendy outside. Once we move to the farm, we plan to make a secure area for her outside. We figured it would be better to adjust her slowly, so we've started putting her outside while we are home for a few hours at a time. I don't think she's a big fan of it right now, but TOUGH! We aren't about to have her stay inside with her own personal fan blowing all day- not with solar power! 

Sorted....sort of..

Just yesterday, Dan started ripping all the pieces of wood down to a 3 inch width. The pallet pieces came in all different widths, but the vast majority were around 3 inches or could be cut to this. It definitely feels good to start seeing a stack of uniform pieces. Next up after ripping: filling in all the nail holes with putty, then planing the boards so they have a smooth face. 

It is certainly a lot of work, but it's free and it's recycled. Two factors that make it very much worth the effort!

Yesterday also held other exciting things! A lady from a prominent television network wanted to interview us via phone on Tuesday. She liked us so much that she wanted to do a Skype interview and consider us for a possible show!! Needless to say, it was exhilarating just talking with her! This might not turn out to be anything, but just sharing our story with someone and receiving such a positive response felt great. She really liked us! We will hear more next week on what her team thinks!

Bun-bunnnns!!!

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, we've been radio silent.

Over the past two weekends, we've done just what I've been talking about for, what? -The last FIVE POSTS. So I will spare you the redundant details and keep it short and sweet. 

Sooooo much of this....blaahh

Plenty of saw dust!

We spent a couple weeks just ripping apart pallets. Once we had all that wood stacked up, we spent another week simply de-nailing, chopping and squaring ends and ripping down to a consistent width. This past week (well partial week, I was in Colorado for work) we spent time planing all of those boards. Hundreds of them...and we don't even know how much this batch of wood will cover!


One story/lesson I will share really quick: The planer we have was purchased in late June 2013 to begin prepping the barn boards for the ceiling and other pieces. We planed A LOT of very wide, very long, VERY hard pieces of old wood. I remember the lovely surge of wonder and joy as each old rough gray plank passed through and emerged a flawless, gorgeous, bright wood surface. Those memories had faded a bit by the time we pulled the planer out last week. We started planing the boards and it went fine for the bulk of them on the first day, but then with more consistency, the boards came out with certain areas scuffed. We thought maybe the knots or grain of the wood had something to do with this. We would run them through again. I'd also been away from the planer too long to remember how damn loud it was and how long each board took. 

We filled two large jars with all nails we pulled. -Well mostly Dan. :P

After the fourth board in a row came screaming out the other side with scuffs, I signaled Dan to cut the power. "When was the last time the blade was changed?" I asked. Dan's blank stare gave the answer. Despite his aversion to taking a break from the work (we've had so many interruptions lately- graduations, going away parties, travel, weddings, RAIN...), we headed to the box store to buy new blades. Upon returning and insisting we consult the manual for blade changing tips, I learned we could have simply rotated the blades we already had. Oh well! Now we have our back ups.

Dan's irritation for the time spent acquiring and changing the blades melted away instantly as the first marble smooth boards effortlessly, and quickly I might add, zipped through the planer. There were no harrowing protests from the machine either. Suddenly planing boards became a pleasant and rewarding experience again. I began to see the positives once more and reveled at the 20 plus species of wood we had. I am a tree lover/nerd through and through so maybe it's just me, but I am fascinated by the sheer variety in color and pattern of different woods. People use some preeeeetty nice wood to make pallets. Better for us! We finished the remaining boards and retouched a few others in about 50% of the time it took for the first batch.

 I guess the lesson here is: Do things right! Don't hold off on replacing tool parts because you think you will save a little money and eek out one more use. We would have wasted so much time and effort (not to mention wood that wasn't even smooth) if we had tried to keep milking those blades.

The first peek and how our siding will look!!

Next up, we have to notch the boards to create a ship-lap style. It was a long road to this decision, as it is important to install siding that effectively sheds water and doesn't let it build up or get between the siding and the house. We did a small test run with the table saw, but we called it a day after that. Dan's Dad has a blade that will get the job done with more accuracy and a cleaner finish- not to mention significantly less time. We got the tool from him last night, and hopefully the weather will allow us to get cracking on those boards before the weekend.

Look at all the variety! And this purple and green wood!!

Oh, and our solar power system arrived by freight truck while I was away. MAN, THOSE PANELS ARE HUGE. We have been a little frustrated with how long the pallets are taking, so I have avoided the solar power system on purpose. We need to build a rack for the panels to be mounted on. Hopefully this weekend we will get some boards up on the damn walls! I think once we see just a few boards in place, we will get the gusto to power through. THEN we will deal with the racking. 

Sawdust for the composting toilet! Waste not, want not!

Ship lap style pallet siding.

This guy has put in SO many hours! AND he's getting reeaally good at shiplapping.

WE HAVE SIDING UP!!

This weekend, we finally had enough wood prepped to start slapping it on the walls. First, we had to finish putting up the trim around the perimeter. We headed to the store and grabbed the wood we needed. 

Dan and I kept a steady rhythm, he measured and chopped while I painted. As one set was finished drying, we would nail it up.  We opted to have the base trim be quite thick. That way as it terminates at the wheel well, it is the perfect level for the siding to go right across the top. We really like the way it looks. Clean and simple. 


Seeing that first line of boards go up- neatly and easily no less - was nothing short of magical. It's been a long several weeks doing the same labor intensive chores and seeing no visual reward. It might has well have been lightning that delivered the new batch of zeal, we both felt charged with energy and the determination to keep going. 


We worked steadily, he ripping more and more boards to be ship lapped, me chopping and nailing up rows. We had no regard for time, and as I slowly gained on Dan's ship lapping and ran out of boards, we decided to call it.  We both stood back and admired the progress so far. We absolutely LOVE the look of this recycled pallet siding. From far away it has that interesting diverse look- kind of like a huge cutting board as my dad would put it- and up close it is full of texture and character. So- all that long tedious hard work? WORTH IT.








"What time is it?" Dan asked. "I don't know, five thirty?" I was quite wrong. It was seven! We had worked a solid 8 hour day! We felt like we really gained some ground Saturday, all the more rewarding after all this rain! Unfortunately I pushed too much, and didn't listen to my body as I worked away. My ankle/foot is on the fritz again! As a result, I wasn't able to put in as much effort today....but hey! It's my birthday! I'm good for working at all! ;) 






We estimate that we have enough wood "prepped" to finish the front wall. We may start a side wall if we have more ready. Given how much time this has taken, we are considering corrugated steel for the back wall. HA! Hey, we have to try to keep to the timeline-- which we haven't been great at lately. 




Siding is underway! The solar power system components are in! We will be ready to move soon!