Update on Our Garden Cage and Salvaging Old Original Shiplap

An update on our garden cage and salvaging old original shiplap was getting us closer to our gardening and renovation goals.

GARDEN CAGE UPDATE

I’m so thankful that my husband built me a garden cage over our raised bed to keep the squirrels out! Otherwise, they would’ve kept helping themselves to my melons. At this point they had already helped themselves to about five to seven of them! Even eating some right in front of me when they were not even ripe! Since the garden cage was put up I counted about 18 or so melons growing.

One day I looked out the window and saw one of squirrels trying to get into the garden cage. It was literally throwing a tantrum because it could not get in. And it looked as if it was trying to figure out how to unlock the cage door and get in. I was a bit concerned about it, but that never actually happened so that was certainly a good thing! But, it was quite amusing to watch the little guy run up and down the cage almost as if he were trying to strategize a break in.

When I walked outside to confront the little pest, he had no fear and didn’t even run away. It was as if he was trying to challenge me and communicate that he would find a way to break through the cage to retrieve those beloved melons!

If you live in an area where you have squirrels or other little critters that get in your garden beds and steal your crops, you may want to consider also building a simple cage around it yourself. It has been such a good thing for us and another garden learning lesson.

POLLINATORS IN THE GARDEN

I had previously talked about planting a pollinator garden to attract our precious pollinators like bees and butterflies. If you build it, they will come. And they certainly did! Various species of bees and butterflies showed up. One of my favorites was the monarch butterflies. They were absolutely beautiful and stunning!

It was so sweet to visibly see pollen all over the bodies of some of the bees. They were really enjoying the new playground I had built for them. It was such a delightful experience. I’m not sure that I’ve ever done something like this for nature in my life.

In the Garden of Eden God called man to steward the earth and care for all the creatures. It was a proud moment for me to realize that I had contributed to that mandate in a small way.

Another surprise that we found in the garden was praying mantis and even baby ones! They are such sweet creatures and beneficial for gardens I hear as they take care of the pests. I also read that they are a sign of good luck. I try not to be superstitious about things, but these little guys just made the garden feel more complete.

SALVAGING OLD SHIPLAP

One of our neighbors was getting ready to tear down their old garage and asked us if we wanted the original shiplap in there. We sure did! So Nate got over there to salvage this gem of old original shiplap from possibly a hundred years ago!

It was a lot of work, but so worth it as you will soon see how we ended up using it in our diy home renovations.

Nate started to remove the shiplap at the top of the garage because that’s where he could remove the tongue end first. He had to be careful working with old wood as it can be a bit brittle. Using a pry bar and rubber mallet hammer helped to get the job done.

He removed the old original shiplap from both sides of the garage. And then the back wall had larger planks of the shiplap. It was thick and good quality. There were also some smaller pieces too. The character and history in this old garage was incredible. We made sure to snag it all before the garage demolition.

I feel like giving Nate the nickname, The Salvage King at times because he has been doing such an amazing job salvaging and using reclaimed wood for our little pine cottage. Another great way to steward the earth and reuse materials of the past to avoid filling our landfills with the debris of these precious resources.

The cost is a bit of labor, and sometimes a lot of it, but in the end it’s always worth it! Thankfully it was an easy task for my man, just a bit time consuming.

There is just something so special about older historical homes and structures. The timeless beauty, quality, and nostalgia is what we’ve fallen in love with. I keep saying this (and it’s becoming more and more true), but it seriously feels like we are building a historical museum of our neighborhood right inside our home! Let’s see how it all turns out when we’re finished with this preservation project and what our neighbors think. And maybe even our local heritage commission.

Materials & Tools We Used

Table Saw: We used this tool to build window frames for the outside of our little cottage.
Pry Bar: We used a tool like this to remove the old original shiplap from the garage walls.
Rubber Mallet Hammer: We also used a tool like this to remove the old original shiplap from the garage walls.

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woman watering garden and man removing old shiplap in garage

CHECK OUT OUR VIDEOS

Thanks for joining us on this journey! We hope that you will find inspiration watching us learn as we go while we’re attempting to renovate and rebuild this old small historic cottage mostly on our own~ while working full time jobs! Stay tuned for more progress updates ahead. Read more about us here.

You can also watch a video about this here.