This past weekend was a pretty busy one for us. My husband has been feeling a lot better since the accident and although he shouldn’t be doing much he insisted he was ok to get some chores done. So, we spent the entire weekend finishing the remaining two dog houses we needed, set all the dogs up at their spots, and built a nesting box off of the ground for the Hens. My husbands work place gets pallets from time to time that they always end up dumping and scrap wood that also gets dumped so he brought some home and I was so excited that we could make the Hens a nest box off of the ground so that the egg thieves wouldn’t be able to steal any more. We were also able to use some of the pallet wood for the dog houses and it saved us from having to buy another sheet of plywood. So, we made a total of five dog houses with $100 worth of wood and had some left over to use for the nest box! Not too bad eh? Some left over 2×3’s from the dog houses and scrap pieces of osb plywood, that and the pallet wood plus some old 2×4’s we found laying around on the property made us a not so perfect but perfect nonetheless nesting box. We didn’t have enough wood to separate and make individual cubbies but we plan to do that later, but I kind of like the idea of leaving it open. This was totally winged, we had to make it work with what we had on hand and since it’s only a temporary fix for now I am totally and completely happy with it. Plus, did I mention that it was pretty much FREE?!

I had a great time working outdoors with my hubs and I had too much fun using his power tools. He has an awesome Ryobi tool set and each power tool is super easy to work with and makes building stuff seem easy. I got to use a circular saw for the first time ever in my life and it was quite exhilarating! Watch out future projects! I may be able to do them on my own!
I hope this post shows you that you can make something useful out of scrap wood/old wood and it doesn’t have to be pretty. The important part to me is that we saved money going this route, and we came up with a solution to the problem we have.

Until next time!

-Cristina

Frame/support built with 2×3’s and reclaimed 2×4. 
Pallet wood was used for the bottom of the box just nailed in.   More scrap wood and reclaimed wood used for the frame of the box.  OSB Plywood scraps used to close off the sides and top along with more pallet wood.
More reclaimed wood and pallet wood for the backing.   It isn’t perfect but it sure has character!
 Here is a dog house so you get an idea of what they look like.  It has a downward inclination to the back.