the DIY project you never knew you didn't care about

The problem was that we had rats living in our garage; big ol' fat city rats. Things were getting chewed up and peed on and our four legged friends were even caught climbing on the walls. This is not the state of affairs that you want your garage to be in. So I embarked on a misguided adventure to remove what I thought was the reason for their invasion; the giant pile of wood stacked in the corner.

There were actually several things I needed to deal with:

- Moving the wood pile
- Discarding an old box spring
- Removing some wood scraps from the yard
- Not spending any money to do it

So here's what I came up with:

First, I cleared a spot in the corner of the yard where my new (outdoor) wood pile would reside.

Next, I stripped the box spring bare. My intention was to separate the springs from the wooden frame but once I realized how many tacks were used to keep the two together I had a thought that sounded something like, "fuuuuuuuuuck that." So the springs stayed on. This made for a fun, bouncy effect when I stacked the wood later.

In order to build the platform, I gathered bits of plywood that have been floating around my yard for the past couple years. I didn't have quite enough on my own so ended up dismantling a wooden box discarded by my neighbors. And check out the secret surprise that was inside!

It's a pair of men's work boots with cigarette wrappers inside! I had just opened the equivalent of an urban crackerjack box! Once the excitement of that discovery had died down, I was able to arrange my boards into a patchwork support system.
 

That image is somehow very satisfying for me. Ignore the terrible photography and revel in the beauty of re-purposed materials. But not for too long, because it's time to stack the wood.

At this point it started hailing and I almost called it quits. However, I knew I would have to admit that failure to my readers and so I persisted. I didn't actually get a photo of the entire wood stack when I was finished but I believe it looked something like this:

For my final trick, I kept the top lining from the box spring (since it was made of water proof material) and used that as my new tarp for the pile. It's not very pretty but it gets the job done and didn't cost me a dime. Here are the baby logs all snuggled up for the rainy season:

I made the decision to complete this project without any music or audio books to escape with. My goal was to experience the day as it was, rather than I how I wanted it to be. I listened to the crows in the apple tree, felt the rain on my neck, smelled the sweet rich dirt, and slipped on the wet dog poop that I had hoped was a pine cone. I even spoke to my neighbor as he worked on the other side of the fence, as I scraped my shoe. We've lived next door to each other for three years and I had never had a conversation with him. I guess I've just always been to distracted to take the time. Yesterday, I slowed down for this simple project and it turned out to be one of the most fulfilling things I've done in a while. And if I'm being truly honest, it all started because that morning I woke up and thought, "well what am I going to blog about today?"

Oh yeah, and the rats! Well, it turns out they were getting in through a open vent so I closed it and I imagine that should do the trick. Apparently it wasn't the wood pile after all!