Make it at Home Gifts #1 (suitable for children)

This year my wife said that I shouldn't spend any money for Mother's Day. I agreed but could not let her celebrate the occasion without some type of gift to show how much I appreciate her. So what do I do? I got to the work shop.

I know it is too late to use these ideas for this year's Mother's Day, but I couldn't post them ahead of time or she would have known what I was doing. These ideas can be used as gifts for any occasion or just to show you care for someone. In all I am going to cover three projects. I will assign difficulty levels, list materials needed, cover costs and offer step by step instructions. I hope you enjoy these posts. I will make sure they are all linked.

All of these projects were made from reclaimed pallets. Despite what many people say on Pinterest I very rarely find pallets for free, but I can consistently buy pallets any where from 25¢ to $2.00 depending on size and shape of the pallet.

Also please also realize that difficulty levels I assign are based on use of hand tools only. I do not have a table saw or router or anything like that. Difficulty level will probably go down with more advanced tools. 

Project: Photo Zigzag Displayer

Difficulty Level: Beginner (if an adult cuts the pieces this is an excellent project for children)

Cost: $3.00 to $12.00 dependent on if you have any of the materials on hand before beginning.

Actual cost: Maybe $1.00 (you will have enough supplies leftover to do another project.)

Take a 6 inch wide board, normally the outside crossboards in a pallet and cut 3, 7 inch pieces. 

Sand each individual piece.

Nail the pieces together at right angles creating a zigzag pattern. Then paint. You can use any color you want, I chose black. Lowe's has a can of gloss black paint for $0.99 from Project Source. Small box of nails less than $2.00, you will only have to use 12 nails. There will be a lot left over for other projects.

Select the pictures you want to use. Remember if you use actual photos you will not be able to get them off later. I printed our photos from the computer. A good quality photo paper with a matte finish will work best. Allow your photos to completely dry before you continue.

Cut your photos to size and glue a photo to each section. I used wood glue because that is what I had on hand. Any white school glue will do nicely. Allow to dry completely. A small bottle of glue can be bought at the Dollar Store for, you guessed it $1.00.

After the glue has completely dried spray with high gloss varnish or lacquer. When it dries you are done. A spray can of gloss lacquer costs anywhere from $3.00 to $9.00 depending on name brand.

That is it.

I hope you enjoy these projects and I wish you...

Rural Dreams and Homestead Wishes

You can subscribe to The Rural Economist by email by simply filling out the form at the top right of the page. Your information will never be sold or given to anyone else. You can like The Rural Economist on Facebook follow on The Rural Economist on Gplus. Or you can even follow The Rural Economist on Pintrest. If you do the Facebook thing I have a poll going on right now and I would really love to have your input.

Family Memories (2) Taxidermy

Over the next several weeks we will be running two series simultaneously. Tuesdays will be Family Memories. There may be guest posts from various members of my family. This will be a way for us to share our experiences and lessons learned. Many of these may be short.

On Thursdays we will be running a series on Getting  Prepared for Beginners. These posts will have reasons to be prepared and helpful tips to get to a more self-reliant point.

I counted my wife's post God Gave Me a Carter as the first post in the Family Memories series. So here we go.

As I have stated many times before my grandfather was responsible for many of the skills I have developed. One day while I was visiting him he asked me if I was interested in taxidermy. I told him, "Sure". He gave me a complete set of books on taxidermy.

I threw myself into the books. Read everyone of them. Not only did he give me the books, he gave me a large box off wood wool, wire, several sets of eyes, and a catalog for ordering more supplies.

This was in the summertime as I recall so no hunting season was open. So a fishin' I did go. It only took me trying two fish to realize that either I was not artistic enough or I would have to apprentice with someone to do fish.

My next attempt was a bird. I was trying to come up with something to work with. At first I was hunting with my BB gun. I thought the small projectile would do less damage to the skin of the bird and make it easier to mount. I shot at crows, blackbirds, and starlings. I think all my BBs were doing was stinging the birds and making them fly off, so I finally resorted to my 410 shotgun with number 8 shot.

I finally took a red winged black bird. They are very pretty and I thought could make a nice mount. So there I was- bird on the table, book in hand, and tools and supplies laid out before me. 

You have to skin things differently when you are trying to save the hide. If I had been planning to eat that bird it might have taken me one minute to skin it. I was trying to make a lasting display of that bird. About 30 minutes later I had the bird skinned. I only tore the hide once and considering how thin their skin is I was pleased.

Trying to do taxidermy without a mold is an art. I worked with the wire and the wood wool for probably an hour. The body looked fine. I just couldn't get the legs to look right. I worked with it off and on for a couple of days before I found an abandoned nest. I placed the bird in the nest and I thought "not a professional job but good enough for a first". I kept the red winged black bird for a couple of years. It really wasn't a bad job.

Next I tried a snake skin, but used the wrong chemical and turned it green. I have made leather with the knowledge I gained from those books and have done a couple of nice squirrels using the molds. The molds make it a thousand times easier. I even made a couple of coyote skin rugs over the years.

Am a great at this skill? Oh heck no. Do I still cherish this skill? Absolutely. Just because you aren't great at something does not mean it has no value. Like I said I can make leather and furs. Will I ever do taxidermy again? Yup, I probably will. Will it be a business? Oh no. But every skill you learn makes you better.

Learn a new skill and it will help you to have
Rural Dreams and Homestead Wishes 

You can subscribe to The Rural Economist by email by simply filling out the form at the top right of the page. Your information will never be sold or given to anyone else. You can like The Rural Economist on Facebook. Or you can even follow The Rural Economist on Pintrest.

Just a Little Crafty and A Crafting Fail

I am not what most people would call artsy. With me function is king. When my wife told me she really wanted a bedside table I said, "We have those old potato crates that can be stacked and make a real nice bedside table". I thought it would look nice, but that was not the look she was hoping for. She still doesn't have that table, it was not that high on the priorities list.

If I were to try to define my style, I would call it Rustic Chic. Before today I didn't even know that was a term and I still believe it was only coined so folks like me could feel like we are at least a little in style with something. In fact the term is being debated as to whether it is a complement to rural/country people or an insult. Let's see, city people buying things to decorate their homes or offices to look like what they think country peoples homes used to look like. Hum, I don't care. Some people just want to be offended. I wouldn't care if they called it Rural Chic. Hey I may have coined a new term.

It is the holiday season and we are rapidly coming up on Christmas. Fresh cut Christmas trees have arrived by the thousands at local home improvement, department stores, and even vacant lots. Before these beautiful trees go to homes and are decorated for the season the bottom branches are removed and part of the lower stump is cut off and discarded. That is where the gears should start turning in our heads.

As you can see in the picture above I took some of the limbs that were trimmed and decorated the hearth. We had the artificial poinsettia blooms and the painted pine cones already. Total cost of this decoration zero dollars.

On To The Trunk

From the trunk I decided to make drink coasters. I am not sure where I got the idea, but a friend of mine and myself both decided to do the same thing. He was lucky enough to work the Christmas trees on Black Friday, so he was able to use the electric chainsaw and cut pieces to the right thickness from the very beginning. I wasn't so lucky so I took all of the larger pieces I could find. I have found that larger pieces are easier to work with and you can get more coasters out of each piece.

This would be really easy if I had a band saw, but I don't so I am using the fold-able pruning saw that I keep in the truck with me. The most challenging parts are trying to keep a consistent thickness between the pieces (or at least close enough) and keeping each piece the same thickness all the way across. Some variation is acceptable and adds character to the coaster, but I do not want the glass to look like it is leaning. I had to throw a couple away due to uneven thickness.

There you go. Just a little sanding and a coat or two of spar varnish and these coaster will last for years. Great for the home, great as gifts and if you don't varnish them they only cost you some time and sweat. By the way you cannot find coaster like this on Amazon, at least I have not been able to and on eBay a set of 4 runs from $10.00 to $20.00 a set.

The coaster pictured above is large enough to be a pot holder as well.

A word if warning if the 12 coasters I cut 9 cracked. I don't know if this is unique to Douglas Fir. I have never had wood crack this bad before.

Don't forget you can like The Rural Economist on Facebook, join our email list by filling out the form to the top right of this page, and/or join this site by clicking the button to the right.

May you have Rural Dreams and Homestead Wishes.

For instructions on making a homemade wreath you can go here. You can always scale it down to fit your need.

http://learningandyearning.com/2010/12/11/evergreen-christmas-wreath/