I’ve been deep into the Christmas card sending this week. How about you? Are your Christmas cards all sent out and your presents all bought? Yeah, mine neither.
Those that have followed this blog for awhile have heard me talk about putting up the Charlie Brown Christmas tree. I call it that because, well, there’s not a lot of ornaments on it and it just gets a bag put over the top of the tree when the season is over. It’s resting spot is in the bowels of the house along with all he other stuff. You saw what the food storage looked like before I started working on it, right? Well think of the rest of the basement in the same condition. I thought maybe you’d like to see the infamous Charlie Brown Christmas tree.
So what do you think? Pretty sad, huh. My wife was the decorator. I was just the lights guy. I would put up the tree and get the lights working and she would fuss with the tree for days to get it just right. It’s just not the same without her touch on things at this time of the year. I’ve been flying solo for 11 years and still think about her often. My daughter didn’t inherit the decorating gene from her so we are in a sad state of affairs during the holiday season. Bradley, my grandson, decided this year we should decorate the Poor Man’s Patio. Since I am the lights guy, I can’t hardly refuse that request, now can I.
This last week I discovered a wonderful website call “Craig’s list”. Yeah, I know, I’m always way behind the times. I heard about it but was never interested in another website to steal my time away. That was until someone told me that there was FREE stuff on it. That stopped me in my tracks and got my attention real quick. So this last week, I set out to cruise Craig’s list to see what free stuff could be had. One item kept popping up quite frequently. FREE wood pallets. Hmmmm. Yeah, you know me too well. I’m thinking about what could I do with pallets. I picked a place and hopped into my truck named “Ranger Rick” and off we sped to seek out some FREE pallets.
What do you see here in Ranger Rick? FREE pallets you say. Well, I see something quite different. After a bit of remodeling, the most awesome fencing ever was born.
Yeah, it doesn’t look half bad, does it. And it appears that there is a never ending supply of pallets to remodel into fencing panels. This picture is two panels that I built by taking other pallets apart and filling in the spaces. I currently am working on a panel that’s 7 1/2 feet long. The height almost 4 1/2 feet. I haven’t decided if I want to paint them or not. If I paint them it wouldn’t be for protecting the wood but just for looks. I found a place called “Green Acres Recycling” that piles pallets out by the road daily for anyone to pick up. I struck up a conversation with the owner and told him what I was using them for and he indicated that if I saw anything in his yard I could have it. Holy cats, it’s a construction debris dump site. When contractors are done with building on a site they clean it up and haul it there. I was overwhelmed with all the stuff there. Poles, blocks, pallets piled high, oh my. I had to leave because I just saw too much project material. He’s invited me back so he can load me up proper. Oh, dear, what’s a fellow to do?
Oooo, Oooo, another item popped up on the FREE list. A real picket fence. Once again I hopped in Ranger Rick and sped off into darkness to seek out the FREE picket fence. It’s all good fencing wood. It will all be dismantled and used for pallet fencing. 
Oh, I can hardly sit I’m so excited. And it was FREE. More fence building material. Can you believe it? All those years wasted when I could have been getting FREE project material. OK, ok, big deep breaths. Calming down now. But it’s all FREE.
Wishing all those GRIT folks that are much more in control that I am a very Merry Christmas. May Santa bring you every thing you wished for. See you next week unless I’m out getting FREE stuff.
