We don’t live on ‘The Farm’ just yet. We actually live in a typical residential neighborhood with neighbors within a throwing distance from us. We have frequent walkers that pass by the house and always give a friendly wave hello. So when we decided to build what we now call “The Coop” - we did so in our driveway where we had the modern convenience of electricity. We wanted to reuse some materials that we had obtained in years past, so we decided to build the chicken coop primarily out of old shipping crates. After week one, we not only had a frame to our structure, but a pretty significant start to the future home of the chickens. Spring was in full force at this time, and after the harsh winter we had, several individuals had decided to take up walking as a form of exercise. Each day we would hear general comments from the neighborhood such as, ”looking good”, and “keep up the good work”. It wasn’t until the actual outside structure was built that we started getting more curious looks and the occasional question, “Ok, you have to settle a bet, are you building a playhouse or a dog house?”. To much of their surprise, we would laugh and tell them that it was actually a chicken coop….always followed by a quick clarification of “Don’t worry, it’s not staying in the driveway, we are moving it out to the farm”. Now, we live in a small community, where the head football coach of our small high school lives just up the street. Without hesitation, one day at school he approached one of our boys and commented, “Son, you are going to have the most elaborate dog house on the block”. To the horror of our son, he shyly admitted to Coach that it wasn’t a doghouse at all, but a chicken coop in progress. Life has never been the same at school.....

You can find more about our coop and meet our nine hens here : http://oldworldgardenfarms.com/news-from-th...

http://makemeprettyagain.blogspot.com/

The barn table project had been on the “to-do” list for sometime and was one of our “TOP 30 GOALS” to accomplish for the farm this year. So, with our first barn party scheduled - we needed some extra sitting and eating areas for the guests – this project fit the bill.

We wanted a big long table that could seat at least 12 – so we made it 12′ long and 45″ wide. Eventually we will make matching benches to go down each side – which will seat 6 to a side. If we added a chair to each end

We started by building the trestle out of the old 2 x 4″‘s barn roof rafter pieces from the Cardington Barn we took down last summer. Not your typical 2×4′s – these boards are made from old growth solid red oak, and unlike today’s lumber – actually measure 2 x 4″. I just used a sawzall and cut them smooth – leaving all of the character of the old nails holes and dents of the wood in tact. Grey and weathered – they made the perfect base material for the table.

We made the trestle base 9′ long – with angled 2 x4′s supplying all of the strength needed to hold up the 12′ top piece.

For the top piece – we just simply used alternating 2x8x12 and 2x10x12 pine boards and glued them together to make a large table top. We used ratchet straps in place of clamps (I didn’t have any that long!) to hold it together while it dried.

After that, Mary took over and applied 2 coats of stain with a rag – and then finished it off with 3 coats of polyurethane to make it strong and tough. We also added some 1 x 4′s underneath and screwed them into the underside of the table top to secure it all together.