One of the several projects Johnny and I have going on is putting together and making our raised beds for our future garden. I think our garden will be a major blog topic in the near future, but the weather here has not been cooperating with any sort of planting of seeds, i.e corn, soybeans.

So on the wet, rainy or drizzly days, we work on one of our several projects to help make our farmstead more like our farmstead. I’m a huge fan of reuse and recycle, especially when it comes to natural resources. Speaking of which, Happy Earth Day everybody! I hope you all did atleast one great thing for your mother earth today!

There happens to be an old corn crib on the farmstead that the farming operation has no need for. It stores the lawnmower, that’s about it. My dad has been wanting to tear it down for some time. That building was probably built in the 1940s we’re guessing. It was used to hold ears of corn, which at that time, corn was harvested that way. The corn crib was a storage building to protect the ears from the elements yet keep them aerated to reduce moisture buildup. The building is hollow and has two hollow storage areas on each long side of the building. If you picture in your mind a baby crib, that is how each long side looks, as if there were 2 really long baby cribs inside the building, separated by a long hall. Each wall has slats of wood running horizontally across it so that air flow can move through the piles of ears. So you can imagine all the wood in this building. At some point in the corn crib’s history, long pine planks were put in to replace the slats. I’m assuming my Grandpa started to store grain in it when harvesting corn became more mechanized and combines that shucked ears were mainstay farm equipment. It had to be built strong enough with quality wood to withstand the pressure of the grain pushing outward on it. I remember helping my dad put soybeans in it for extra storage space. It was all rigged up in a very crude way and was awkward to clean out, but it provided just that little bit of extra storage we needed.

So, the corn crib still stands but we want to replace it with actual steel storage bins, thus, it needs to be torn down. Johnny and I are reusing the long pine planks for our raised garden beds. We are in the process of taking them down, cleaning them off and sealing them. They are all tongue and groove pieces so we hope to sit two planks on top of each other, put some silicone between them, reinforce the sides with wood stakes and connect each corner with some 8-10″ metal corner pieces my neighbors Randy and Marilyn had that were sitting in their shed. I needed a few more so I found some similar pieces without bolt holes in my Dad’s shed, cut them off with a metal cutting saw, used a drill press to cut some 3/8″ bolt holes in them and wallah, I got my corner pieces. It’s really interesting what you can find sitting around in old sheds. Older farmers keep stuff for a reason, you never know when you might need to use it. In my case, I try to find stuff that I can use to help make something else, and many times there is old steel or wood laying around unused. I would think artists and woodworkers would have a hay day in old barns and farm sheds.

Many times, old stuff was built to last. That is uncommon practice these days, unfortunately. I love the fact that I get to reuse the corn crib for something else, something useful! In addition to the garden beds, I found a talented woodworker who will reuse the old 4x4s in the corn crib to make me a dining table and benches! He’s willing to take down the rest of the corn crib in trade for the wood. He told me that he can sell reclaimed wood pieces that he builds, such as console tables and coffee tables for three times the price of new wood pieces! I love it! I’m so happy to hear that urban dwellers want old, reclaimed stuff! The trends are moving in the right direction! The direction of saving mother earth!