In the mid 1880's a woman in mid-state Vermont gave birth to twin boys. The labor was long and arduous and her bleeding was profuse. She died a short time later. The father was unable to care for the infants and they were seperately absorbed into two local families taking on their names. One of the twin boys was my grandfather. In his adulthood he moved to south central Massachusetts. He married and had four children. Three girls and my father. He suffered from severe melancholia and drank hard to find his way out. He was abusive and his wife often had to provide for the family. A few years before the great depression, a delivery man would come by and drop off groceries that my grandmother had ordered from the local market. He would always place a few extra items neatly tucked away which she would discover in the unpacking. They developed a relationship that soon had him moving to northern Vermont to prepare a place for them. The four kids were old enough to take care of themselves, they reasoned. Once settled, he wired her bus faire and she boarded for a new start at life. Once the plan was discovered, my father hitchhiked the 300 miles of backs roads and bi-ways to get her back. Once he arrived and located them, he roughed up her suitor and they took the long bus ride home together. Not long after they arrived home, she was back on the bus and returned to Northern Vermont where she lived out her life. Her suitor was the only grandfather I ever knew and my father loved him. There is so much more to this story. We all have interesting family histories, do we not?
TaoSpring - pallet chicken coop
I had less than a month to build a suitable coop and chicken run. I had very little money to work with. Having seen many coops and out buildings that people have assembled using scrap pallets, I thought that I would give it a try. Starting with two 4 x 8 pallets as the floor, I assembled all the available pallets that I could find. This is the frame of the coop. It will measure approximately 8ft x 8ft. Saltbox style roof will be 9 feet at the front and will taper down to 8 1/4 feet in the back. My inspiration is drawn from the bottom photo seen here. I varied the plans to accommodate the unevenness of available pallet size. In a perfect world a 4' x 4' pallet would make pallet building as easy as playing with Lego's. Unfortunately downsizing has effected everything. Most pallets now measure 48" x 40" and the solid 4' by 4' pallets are usually reclaimed by their owners. Oh, they're out there, but I am looking to build for as...
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