Wood Pallets: A Farm Girls Best Friend

Rewind 10 months and you arrive at the time that I meet my new best friend......the wooden pallet.......

We have two goats coming and along with putting up a fence, we need a goat shed.  Fences are not cheap, goats are not cheap, nothing is cheap so we are out of money, almost out of time, and nearing panic state!

I take a look at pinterest to try and find any ideas for an inexpensive way to build our goat shed and I notice one that is made of wooden pallets.  You know, those wood slat thingies that businesses take shipments on?   There I have it!!  My solution!!

We head to various businesses and I discover that finding someone to give you wooden pallets is not quite as easy as the online articles I found led me to believe.  After a little driving around and phone calling we were able to obtain around 15.

Within one day my daughters and I were able to create this!!!

On the inside you can really see the pallets.  We bought the metal for the roof and added some other scrap pieces of wood, but this thing went up in one day and works perfectly!!

After that I was smitten!  So...what else can I make around here with pallets?

The previous owners left this table outside when they moved.  Though it is a cute table, it did not really go with our ideas of what we want the house to look like so we were going to get rid of it.

But NO!!  Pallets save the day!!!

Farmer Willie removed the top of the table frame....

Then we pulled off some of the wood on one of our trusty pallets, attached them to the table top and BAM!!!!

Beautiful table!!


Then we needed a bridge across the stream that runs through our property.  My daughter decided to build one for us using....you guessed it....PALLETS!!!

It works perfect and how much did it cost us????  Zilch!!  :)

Another view so you can see how she used a pallet base as the base of the bridge.

Now moving on to animal uses....yes, there are more!!

Farmer Willie built a double stanchion for our dairy goats out of pallets!!  Pretty awesome isn't it??

And finally, when you thought that there could be no more...a dog house!!!  See the pallet base there? Our farm dog, Tank, loves pallets too!!

We are in the middle of working on a sign to hang at the front of the property identifying us as Bumpkin Farm...wanna know what we are using for the actual sign portion?  Pallets!!!

Now, these wooden pallets will never laugh at my jokes or listen to my whining like my friends will, but try making a bridge using a 5 foot brown-head for the base!! 

If you have enjoyed reading this blog, you might enjoy some of the other ones participating in Homestead Barn Hop #145!!




Look for other DIY projects at DIY Accomplished!



Cinnamon Ornaments

In our chat yesterday about Bumpkin Farm's Christmas tree traditions, I told you that I would give you more info today on how to make cinnamon ornaments.  Being that I am a farm-ess of my word, here ya go!!! 


First you start with 3 cups of cinnamon and 3 cups of applesauce.  I was able to get my cinnamon at Dollar Tree!!  Whew!!  That could have been expensive!

Then you mix it up! 

I started with a spoon and eventually went to using my hands because the dough became to thick. 

Oh, you should also know that the batch in the pictures is a double batch so you won't have as much dough.

Then you grab some cute helpers and some cookie cutters!!

Sprinkle a little cinnamon on the surface you plan on using just like you do when you make biscuits. 

Then you plop the dough down and start rolling it with either a rolling pin or your hands!  I prefer the rolling pin, but....there is a girly that lives in my house (otherwise known as my daughter) and she likes to use her hands!

You flatten it out at whatever thickness you want your ornaments to be, but remember, the thicker the ornament the longer it takes to dry.  Then you get cutting!! 

Be sure that you keep some extra cinnamon around to use when things get sticky!!

Then beautiful cinnamon ornaments begin to appear in your kitchen!!

After cutting them out, make sure you use a toothpick and make a little hole at the top for the string, ribbon or hanger!  We forgot this one year....Oops!

Stick them on a cookie sheet once they are cut for about an hour to allow them to harden up just a bit.

 

 

 

You will notice that about this time your house starts to smell REALLY yummy!!  Our dogs started to think there might be something good for them in the kitchen.  They are not allowed into the kitchen so they were both sitting at the entrance just hoping someone would share!

Tank really, REALLY wanted to help!!  He thought they smelled REALLY good!!!!

So after an hour on the cookie sheet, move them to drying racks where they dry for a few days.  It was funny because I had these racks in the corner of my kitchen during Thanksgiving and because of the yummy smell, everyone tried to grab the cinnamon "cookies" during our celebration!  They taste GROSS...trust me ;)

After they are dry you string your hanger of choice in the hole.  We use twine, but ribbon is really pretty too!! 

Then you can either paint them or leave them the way they are.  We usually do a little of both!

I think they look lovely on the tree and they make the house smell yummy all season!  And, when you go to open your Christmas boxes next year the smell of cinnamon instantly gets you in the Christmas mood!!

This is a really simple project to do, yet yields a great return!!  Super fun, beautiful in a simple way, and a fun tradition to have.

Blessings my blogger friends!!

Christmas Trees on Bumpkin Farm: Christmas Traditions

After Advent, I would say that my next favorite family Christmas tradition is the cutting and decorating of our tree.

The day after Thanksgiving we head out to find the "perfect" family tree!  Now, perfect is relative cuz I could tell you some crazy stories about trees past!

Unfortunately, where we live there is no place to just head out in the woods and find a Christmas tree, so we head to a tree farm to find it!

We usually walk around for a couple of hours going from tree to tree declaring each tree's perfection until we see the next one.  Then about two hours into it my back hurts and everyone is getting a little dizzy from all of the trees so we just pick one and begin cutting!

Christmas tree cutting this year!! 2013

Tree cutting from 2011!!

Tree cutting 2010!!

We load it up and carry it home, set it up in the living room and allow a day for all of the branches to settle, or all the insects to wake up from their slumber!

Then the following day is probably one of my top five most favoritest days of the year....tree decorating!!  The Friday night before we decorate the tree, we spend time decorating the house and Farmer Willie puts the lights on the tree so then once Saturday comes....BAM, we decorate!!

It is a decorating party!!  We have a spread of finger foods, always have some chips and queso, red and green M&M's and Little Debbie Christmas Tree Cakes.  There is usually some fruit and raw veggies with dip thrown in there too.  And finally......Christmas punch!!!

After we spend time eating and visiting we begin decorating!!  We usually put up three trees.  The main on in our living room we cover with ornaments that we make.  This year it is mostly cinnamon ornaments and boy does our living room smell good!  (I will show you how to make them tomorrow!)

The other tree, usually in the dining room, we hang our yearly ornaments.  Each year one of the girls and I will go and pick out a special ornament for each person.  Sometimes we have a theme and other years we get ornaments based on things that each person was interested in throughout the year.  We label them with the year and the name.  We started this about ten years ago and the plan is that when the girls leave home they will be able to take their special ornaments with them to hang on their trees!!

We also hang our travel ornaments on this tree as well.  Each time we travel to a new destination we try and pick up a Christmas ornament as a souvenir!!

You can imagine how much fun this tree is to decorate!!  It brings back tons of memories and fun stories!!!

The final tree is really just there because we love Christmas trees!  This year it is decorated in red and white and is in our library.

You will note the cat at the bottom, Aslan, thinks he is the best gift of all!

We keep the lights on the trees going as long as we are awake!  I love the mood that it sets in the house!! 

We don't really do presents, so under the main tree we have our Christmas books, under the red and white tree we have some homemade gifts for each other and  we don't put anything under the memory/travel tree.

So....what traditions do you have with your Christmas trees??!!

Fall on the Farm - Living Room

Mmmm..........FUN last few days with my mom, but now it is back to work!!  Goats are outside trying to bring themselves to come out of the goat shed and face the cooler weather we are having this morning!!

It is officially 48* in our neck of the woods and the animals are moving slow today!!

So while I wait for them to get moving, I thought I would share how our home is decorated for the fall.

Today I will show you the living room.  Here is an overview pic of what it looks like.

Our living room is super hard to arrange because we don't really have any walls.  You see the two sets of French doors on the one side and the other side that has the fireplace and built-in shelves.  There is also a large window on the left side of the shelves that you can't see in the picture.

The wall that the piano is on has about 5 feet of wall, the rest is floor to ceiling window. 

And the fourth side is no wall at all, just built-in bookshelves and a window seat.

So, super hard to arrange, but I love all of the windows!!

I had a lot of fun decorating the mantle for fall!!  The mantle is pretty large and the wall above it goes up forever!!  So I have a lot of room to play :)

Close-up of the wreath.

Farmer Willie, Tori and I made this super cool table out of things we found around the house!!  The frame is from an old outdoor table that the former owners left.  Then Tori pulled wood planks off of some old pallets for the top.  William cut them down, screwed them in and tah-dah....we have a table!!  I still need to apply a sealant on the top though.

This is the window that I told you about which is on the left side of the built-in shelves.  I found these two pews on the side of the road!  Can you believe that someone was going to throw them away??!!  I still have some plans to cutify them, but they work well for now!

I hope you have enjoyed checking out what we have going on over here!!

Talk to you soon!!