How to take pallets apart

About 2.5 million pallets end up in land fills EVERY YEAR!
That is A LOT of free wood!

I found an ad on craigslist stating they had 14 free pallets. I had my SO go by and pick up as many as he could. Many places having them laying out by dumpsters. I have also found out big box companies (walmart, homedepot, lowes, Tractor Supply Co, etc) send theirs back to the warehouses for reuse.

I was reading around on the internet how to take them apart and came across a post saying use a crowbar. I tried this for a very long time and was not getting anywhere, I mean NO WHERE! My SO came out and simply took 2 hammers and showed me..

The pallets:

 

Step One:

Take the claw end of the hammer and fit is as best you can between the wood
(sorry for the poor pictures, my camera was acting up that day..)

Step Two:
Hit the head of the hammer that is fitted with a second hammer

Step Three:

Once the claw has wedged under there enough to raise the nails a little stop

 

Step 4:

Hammer the top of the board (not the nails) back down

This is what it should now look like

 

Step Five:

With the claw end of the hammer pry the nails out

You should end up with a nice pile of wood to do many things with! Im planning on making a goat shelter with the wood Im gathering now! Pieces I cant use I am using as a divider between the gardens and grass.

Have fun!

First Egg of the Year

Yesterday, March 19, 2010, my one winged wonder, Uno, layed her first egg. She is my only hen and I have vowed to never sell her off. This will be the first egg of the year. I heard her singing her "egg song" but couldnt get it layed due to the three remaining roosters I have in the coop jumping all over her. I had to go out there shoo them out and lock the door. After about 20 minuets I went back out to check on her and low and behold she was sitting on her egg!

Now, here is why I call her my one winged wonder. I bought her last year around this time as a 8 week old chick. She and 2 others were suppose to be Black Jersey Giants (what I had wanted to raise at the time) but turns out they were Black Austalorps. Some months later we had some friends over who brought there dog. Their dog was not chicken friendly and they knew this. Well my SO and the boyfriend work together and had to work get up early and go to work that Saturday. While I was sleeping she let the dog out and went in plopped back in the bed (Im not a big fan of this girl BTW, just grin and bear her when I have to). I heard the door slide open and the dog go out so I got up and looked out the window. What did I see? Their dog getting after one of my chickens. I yelled for her to get her dog and she went out there to chase him. She came back in telling me hed got one pretty bad. I had to amputate the wing as it was snapped in half. I had to end up cutting the bone back about 2 inches as well. I was pretty furious because I had asked them to let the dog out front (but the dog wont listen to them when they call and have to chase it down..)

This is a picture of her after the amputation:

For a long time I didnt know if she was going to make it, but here we are almost 8 months later:

Shes very skiddish and hard to catch, but I dont blame her. After what she has been through I wouldnt trust anything either. I love her and will never sell her..

My Uno.

Chick Brooder

Monday of this week I started a chick brooder for my chicks. They had seriously outgrown their rubbermaide container. Well last night I finished it! I am no master carpenter by any means, in fact this was the first time I had ever used a circular saw (and I was all alone only with Google to guide me), so, so what if its a tiny bit wobbly. My chicks love it, I love it, my kids love it. It turned out to be a win win for everyone. The part I disliked the most was the staple gun and chicken wire. I now have a nice bruise on my lower thumb joint (weak I am..). A meer battle scar in a war I won!
It only cost me $25. I used 1x2 and 1x4 boards that I had stained a few weeks ago. Enjoy!

I am selling off all my standard chickens (save Uno my one winged wonder..) and going into Silkies. Here are a few of my babies that I had hatch out on my birthday (January 24th)

SUNFLOWERS

Yesterday I planted around 50 mammoth sunflowers along my fence line. I have been wanting to grow sunflowers since I was little. Last year I had some in pots but just never got around to planting them and the HOT Georgia heat finally took its toll. I did have a Teddy Bear that I planted but I dont think it reached over 1.5 feet and withered out and died early off.
I will succeed this year! I started them in peat pods a few weeks ago and most of them were 4 inches going in the ground. I didnt bother cutting much out of the grass, maybe a 6 inch circle. I planted them in the evening then gave them a nice watering. Today it has been over cast and rainy. I checked up on them and they are going strong. Hope I produce some wonderful flowers this season!

The Goats

Sunday, March 7th, I traded a man some hens for a goat. I love trading. I always seem to have a problem handing over cash as I feel Im not getting what Im paying for. Trading opens all sorts of windows for me. In the trade I got a 5 month old boar cross billy. Hes cute but very skiddish. When I let him out of the crate I transported him in he ran the whole yard and started butting the fence trying to run through it. Frantic this goat was! To calm him my SO and I cornered him and I picked him up and put him in our chicken coop (future goat house) and shut the door. The dogs came out for a sniff and he tried butting them through the chicken wire. After a few minuets I put the dogs back up and spent more time by the chicken coop before going in for the night. The next day I leashed him and tethered him to the chair and read to him for about an hour. He started coming around and would come up and sniff me but then jump back and try to take off if I moved my hand. Later that afternoon he took up a cough. The next few days were rainy days so instead of letting him sit out in the cold rain I put him in the extra large dog crate and let him stay inside for a few days. He has really warmed up to us but is still very cautious.

I have named him Socrates.

This past Saturday I got him a nanny friend. She came from a petting zoo type place my SOs cousin manages. Being around people so much she is use to them and loves them. She follows my boys around like a little puppy. For the first day she cried and cried running around the yard until we would come outside. Socrates had NO idea what to think. She is very loving and just wants to be next to people. Right now she seems to have dropped some weight because she is use to being hand fed but in time Im sure she will learn how to get food on her own better.

I have named her Aphrodite.

While I was getting Aphrodite I had the man band Socrates. I did not need a aggressive billy peeing all over himself sticking up the place. I got goats because I wanted an enviromentally safe way to clean up the blackberry bushes that have started taking over my yard. It has gotten very out of control. Here is a before picture and I will post an after once they have finished their "job".