Adventures in Sierra Nevada Land: Clover's Rabbit Hutch Part I

In my ReBoot, I offered a dedicated post to Clover's rabbit hutch. I have so many fun images that I've split it into two parts. The story begins in Mills River, North Carolina where Sierra Nevada Brewing Company is busy constructing the largest 'craft brewery' I could ever imagine.

Through Kitty Love of the Asheville Area Arts Council, I learned of a call to local artisans: to collect and make good use of abundant crates and pallets before they should be turned to mulch!

These pallets are built with a 17-foot diameter arc to transport 60-foot tall stainless steel fermentation tanks from Germany! You can see some of the tanks towering in the background.

 

(no shortage of plywood scraps)

 

It just goes on and on. These images don't even show everything. Don, the Site Manager, took me around from pile to pile so I could see what was available. Along the way he educated me on Sierra Nevada's green building initiatives. However, I wasn't permitted to take images of the actual building sites.

We joked that the stack pictured below is only lacking a few posts and drying in and you have an instant cabin with a deck!

 Unfortunately, two standard sized pallets was all that I could fit into the Love Machine that day.

Back home, I set to the task of deconstructing my scrawny pallets. The larger one contained some decent boards and lumber. Virtually all of the wood available was heat-treated and so dimensionally stable and (relatively) free of insects.

 (below you can see the 'HT' stamp)

(the Juju jar is quickly filled with scrap nails)

The next day, I lured Justin into the fray. He came for a short visit with Charlie.

 Yup, almost Nine-Inch-Nails.

 

We grabbed three long pallets similar to the one below. The largest was a couple feet longer than this one.

Cutting the boards loose proved to be the quickest way of disassembly. Someone in Germany went overboard with the ring-shank nails . . .

 We agreed that for the use of his truck, Justin should take the choice material: straight clean pine timbers.

We had two other helpers along that day and they were thrilled to tour the Brewery site. After all, they were required to wear hard hats. This one is destined to have his tongue carried away by birds:

 They did a wonderful job of neatly stacking the boards upstairs in my workshop.

Just kidding; I had to do that part. But they did happily bring it all upstairs while Justin and I were busy cutting and whacking away.

The next day, I graded and stacked the wood; now I am ready to get to it!

How's this for synchronicity? Sixteen prime boards (relatively uncupped, unbowed, unchecked & untwisted) and the number sixteen randomly appears twice. In the end I needed exactly these sixteen boards for siding on Clover's rabbit hutch . . .

I might make a cutting board from the top piece there. I wonder, would that knothole be annoying or useful?