salvaged redwood bench

 This is a bench I made last summer from some salvaged redwood I bought for $1 per foot (for 2x6's) at the rebuild center.  It was the only time I saw redwood there, but I'd love to find some more.  The bench is made for Rachael's tiny front porch.  As you can see I built the top sitting-surface sloping back at about a 30 degree angle.

chicken-proof pea apse

Here is a chicken-proof pea apse I made using bamboo that Rachael grew and dried.  The problem is that the chickens run around and eat all the vegetables, so we needed to fence them out.  But you also want to be able to get in there to weed.   You can see the trellis is a tripod of bamboo (Rachael made that) with twine running up two faces.  The third face (the south face) is open making an apse shape.  This allows us to plant inside the apse.

 We dug some post holes in the rich dirt (thanks to the chicken shit) to set the bamboo posts.  I then filled the holes with some clay we dug out of one of the other beds.

 I tied chicken wire to the post with twine and installed two doors to allow for weeding.

 The peas are about one foot high right now.  This picture is with the door open.

Here is the finished chicken-proof pea apse.  In front of it you can see a cold frame Rachael and I made from salvaged floor joists and and salvaged picture window

Here are some seeds we are sprouting in the cold frame.