
Homemade work bench
Even
though I've got some last mulching and transplanting to slip into the
early winter, we've turned a lot of our attention inside for the colder
months. One of the projects I hope to tackle is turning Mark's
old bedroom into a chicken waterer construction
room and general work space, and the first thing it needed was a big
work bench.
Mark's usually the
carpenter in the family, but he was nice enough not to mind me spreading
my craftsman wings. As usual, the goal was to build something
with as little storebought materials as possible. After a bit of
poking around, I came up with a used kitchen counter (from Mark's mom
--- thanks, Rose Nell!), some used 4X4s (from my mom --- thanks, Mom!),
and some slightly used 2X4s that we'd taken out of another
project. The only really storebought component was a heaping
handful of screws, worth perhaps four dollars.
I
built a box the shape of the counter out of the 2X4s, attached the 4X4s
in each corner as legs, and screwed the counter on top. Instant
work bench! Next, I plan to add a shelf underneath and a bunch
more shelves on the walls to get our tools organized and off the ground.
It's hard to believe
that I didn't even know what a cordless drill was when we embarked on
this adventure four years ago. Mark has been a very patient
teacher, and has barely cringed when I broke his favorite drill bit,
sometimes offering a gentle "Are you sure you want to do it that way?",
but generally letting me make my own mistakes. Thanks, honey!
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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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