Homesteading Aspect Oddball Thread

I needed to get some peeled logs stored under my new lean-to.  I thought I'd try to make a rack system that could hold them up and double as a sort of wall.  I used pallet wood pieces and attached them at the top to the beam.  At the bottom I added a cross piece between the posts for the shelf brackets to push against.  It is very robust :)

Needed to make a counter top for the sugar shack and wanted to have some drawers and storage.  To keep critters out I decided to use plastic bins for the drawers since they're easier to get tight fitting lids for.  The raw materials were all pallet wood pieces plus a piece of laminated countertop from the Habitat for Humanity Restore.

I had a weird need...  A wooden bucket to thresh wild rice in.  I could buy a wine barrel for a couple hundred dollars and cut part of it off.  Or I could make one...  Guess which way I went...

I used some full size 2x4s that I milled from white pine last summer.  I laid out a segmented circle and decided that 17 pieces would be a good size.  Cut the sides on the table saw and shaped their inside surface on the band saw.  Held the together with a ratchet strap while screwing them together with some subtle "trim screws".  I tried to come up with a way to hold them together with wire or rope but if it got loose at all, they'd shift out of shape and it wouldn't work.  The screws will hold together as the wood shrinks and expands with changes in humidity.  There are two rows of screws, one near the top and one near the bottom.  You can kinda see them in the "Rounded edge photo".  I screwed boards on the bottom and rounded off all the corners with a router.

Next week we'll start processing rice and hopefully it works good enough.  For wild rice processing it just has to hold the dry, parched grains while you dance on them to rub the hulls off.  Once they're threshed in this bucket they move on to a winnowing process.