Hen House

Our latest adventure is chickens, at least it's my wife's adventure. I just get to build the hen house. It's taken me a while to get here, weather and golfing has slowed me down. It's 2 x 4 frame construction, with 2 x 8 floor joists, the roof trusts are home made and it has an 8 in 12 run, rather steep when putting on  the sheathing and steel roof, but I manged. The windows are recycled and the door into the hen's pen is home made. Lots of chicken wire to keep them enclosed, from the storage half. Once all the trim gets painted we'll put on the cedar shingles. Here are a few progress pictures for now.

Laying out and leveling the footing posts.

Floor joists in place.

Two layers of 1 x 6 floor boards, overlapped to prevent draft.

Walls are up.

Trusts installed.

Roof sheathing added.

A look inside, vent holes in the gable ends.

Steel roof on and one window.

Hard to tell but two more windows in place.

Gable ends installed.

Trim is up.

Partition wall, door and wire.

Roosting ladder.

Wired and more chicken wire.

A Snow Shoe Bench

There isn't one spot outside to sit and put on show shoes, so I've been told. So the reply to that was: OK I guess I'll have to build one, even a small bench for now. And here it is, it's make from 7/8 inch ash, a sold and heavy bench. I put on a couple of coats of poly for protection and well see how it holds out this year.

It's 17 inches high, with a 13 x 26 inch seat.

Add a hand hold.

The legs are on a 10 ° angle for stability. 

Coffee Table Update

I've finished the coffee table and it looks great. I used a Walnut gel stain for the first time and I thought it went on rather well. As well I applied a beeswax polish rubbed in, this won't take much to reapply every once and while.

Looks good, not too big for this room.

You can see the honey comb pattern in the end panels.

Finally a bit of sunshine, showing off the bottom pattern.

Coffee Table

Slowly I am getting back into the shop and be a little creative, my latest project is a coffee table inspired from a woodworking magazine I subscribe to. It is essentially the same except for the openings in the ends and the bottom grid. I used a honey comb style rather then the original squares. I make mine from yellow birch, most of the construction is the same, mine isn't as bulky as the original, some parts are thinner As well the corbels on the ends were to fit into rabbits, I thought they would hold better if I used a sliding dovetail, and it worked great. I was able to practice this type of joint and any time I can do something new is a benefit to my developing my skill set. We are still looking at different stains and when it's done I'll add more pictures later, until now here is a sneak peek at what I've done so far.

A nice looking table.

You can see the honey comb pattern.

Another look.

Portable Clothes Line

This collapsible clothes line was designed to go on a wall, and you just lift the arm and voila you have a small clothes line, well we couldn't put it where we would like so I thought why not make it portable, so I did. We can roll it to either side of the house on the deck that has the sunshine we need. Or if ReBecca wants to hang some silk material and not have it subjected to the Searsville winds we can just leave it in the mud room.

Of course the day I put it up, it snowed.

Folds down nicely.

Indoor use.

Knife Holder

After a year and a bit with the kitchen knives setting on a towel in the drawer I finally made a knife holder, and of course it's custom fit. It's not fancy but each knife has a spot, the handles fit into groves to hold them in place and now I don't have to worry about cutting myself when ever I reach for one. It's make from maple so it's large enough that it won't move around in the drawer.

 

It holds 16 knives.

You can see the different handle heights.

This is the old way of storing the knives.

Now the new way, much better.

Treasure Box

Another treasure box made for a friend of the family, but from what I was told I don't think it'll get there, she likes it too much. It's made from Birdseye maple with strips of walnut around the top and a little piece of purple heart at one end on the under side of the top, to create a little shadow to hide the cut line. The corners are mitered and there are three coats of poly.

I love Birdseye Maple.

A little inlaid trim.

Pull out sliding top.

Birdseye everywhere.