This is a tale of two projects. Two projects that couldn’t be more different, except for one thing. They both require wood. What are those two projects you ask?

Chicken Coop and Coasters.

Yes, building a Chicken Coop for my urban homestead dreams, and making coasters to protect my coffee table. I know. I dream big.

Let’s cut to the pictures.

This is the pile of coop building materials now occupying The Husband’s garage. Building materials we found in a garbage pile behind a commercial remodel as we were making our way to the Farmer’s Market yesterday. It was actually our friend in tow who noticed what lovely big pieces of dry wood were sitting on a bed of garbage bags. (Side Note: Good Eye KTB!) After locating a worker to confirm these were really trash, we loaded up. In fact, we loaded up the car, went and borrowed another friend’s truck, came back and loaded up again.

As you can see, there are big pieces of nice plywood. The pile had just been put out that morning. This stash will make much of the guts of our chicken house. I’m still not quite a dumpster diver, but definitely a quality trash pick.

Moving on, the coasters also involved a little help from my friends. We’ve had the same set of 3 (yes, missing one) hand me down coasters for as long as I can remember. It’s not always a big deal, but for things like Christmas Parties and big dinner events, 3 is woefully inadequate. I recently posted these on my pinterest, with a note about how easy they would be to make. This garnered a response from a friend who had wood medallions in spades leftover from various wedding functions. Yesterday, after procuring coop materials, we stopped by to pick up a few.

Scene’s from a project in progress.

Add stain and varnish, readily available from the depths of The Husbands garage, and soon I will have more coasters than I know what to do with. I’m actually thinking some of these will make nice little gift sets.

In both of these cases the universe definitely provided, with an assist from the quality people in my life. Just like with my latest thrift score, having good people around me, knowing what I’m looking for, pays. Complaints about my busy schedule aside, I think this is compelling commentary about the inherent value in networking and being part of a community.