Building with recycled materials
When we came here, we had almost no experience with construction or wood working. But, life invites you to bring more out of yourself and do things you thought you never would be capable of.
Pallet wood is an amazing and mostly free material to work with. It only asks for patience to remove the shelves.
Projects
Building our own rain water harvesting system (WATER)
When you live in an area with lack of water, you do everything you can to use the water in the best possible beneficial way. We build our own rain water system, with a 10.000 liter tank in the ground, and 2 containers of 2.000 liter for the irrigation of the greenhouse. For this we used 2 recycled containers (used for food.- so no harmful), and a lot of pallet wood. We had to buy the gutters and pipes, and pay a little bit for the containers, but overall, we saved a lot by doing it this way.
Making our chicken coop (FOOD)
We had 6 old wooden window frames left over from our house renovation. Besides that, we used pallet wood, a recycled metal frame for the roof and we had to buy a few beams and chicken wiring to keep out predators. Making the chicken coop was easy, but the chicken run... Well, we learned a lot from each other during this project... Especially that even though it is hard sometimes, we can do it!
A new fence and 2 gates
Out of pallet wood, we made a fence and 2 entrance gates. One for the house and one for the farm. This project was challenging because we decided to build a little wall under the fence, to keep the 'rustic' style of the village, and we made 3 meter gates, which needed to be level. It all turned out very pretty.