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I care deeply about the Earth, I love to repurpose things and use the natural resources around us. It’s funny, even though our house has many closets, my children and husband leave their coats and back packs all over our kitchen chairs. This drives me crazy! Since closets and wall racks did not work, I thought maybe a coat tree placed in the side hall would. The coat tree would be prominent, they could easily hang their coats, hats and backpacks as they walked by. I choose my battles and would rather have the coats on a coat tree in the side hall than on my kitchen chairs.
When I started researching coat trees, all I saw were flimsy or unattractive designs. I looked further and found some really unique coat trees made out of TREES! Can you imagine? After seeing that and living on acres of wooded property…I think you can imagine my thoughts. I called out to my husband and showed him my idea, he was all for it. We couldn’t have picked a better time, many trees were recently cut by the town because they were too close to electric wires. We gathered our tree supplies and started the process of assembly.
For the base my husband split a large log in half. Then he used a chainsaw and chisel to make a hole in the top of the base for the tree trunk. He also hollowed out the underside of the log right beneath the hole on the top. Hollowing the bottom made it possible to get the screw/bolt used to attach the trunk to the base, deeper into the trunk. We wanted to make sure the base was very safe and secure.
We also put wood glue around the base before attaching it. Then my husband cut the “hooks” from long lengths of tree branches. After that he drilled holes in the tree trunk for them. He put wood glue on the base of the branch hooks, then placed them in the holes and knocked them into place with a 2 pound sledge-hammer. Right now, we have three branch hooks on the bottom for the little kids and three on the top for adults but we plan to add a few more.
As soon as this New York winter, err I mean spring, wants to give us some seasonable weather, we’re going to take the coat tree outside and seal and protect it with marine varnish. I will update when it is finished with the final pictures.
We are really impressed with our unique coat tree and have more projects in mind that we will share with you in the upcoming weeks. We’re happy we can utilize the natural resources on our property to make something we need. In the end we have something we’re proud of and best of all is made in the USA by us!
The coat tree is super sturdy and far better than anything we could purchase. I wish we could make everything we need, but there are some things we can’t. Batteries for our remotes, kid’s toys, clocks, and more are something we can’t harvest outside. Last weekend I was shopping at Walmart and saw new Energizer® EcoAdvanced™ AA Batteries and picked some up. They’re right in the normal battery aisle in the photo department. EcoAdvanced™ AA batteries are the longest lasting and best performing Energizer® Alkaline ever! Equally impressive EcoAdvanced™ AA and AAA batteries are the first in the world to be with a percentage of recycled batteries. You can stock up on them too, because they hold up to 12 years in storage.
Performance is very important to me, I work from home and rely on the battery in my computer mouse. If I’m in the middle of a webinar or conference, I can’t afford to have the battery die when trying to change a slide (I hate touchpads). I need performance I can depend on. Energizer® EcoAdvanced™ Batteries give me peace of mind knowing I have that! This is another step Energizer® is taking on their journey to bring performance and responsibility to the world – that’s positivenergy!™ I’m thrilled at these steps forward and love the guilt-free benefit I can count on in the longest lasting Energizer® alkaline!
You know what else I love? Coat free kitchen chairs around my table! Yippee for small but gratifying victories! Speaking of victories you can enter the “GuiltFreeEnergy” Giveaway below for your chance to win $1,000 in Gift Cards!
GuiltFreeEnergy Giveaway – $1,000 in Gift Cards
I hope you will let me know what you think about our project and share with me what you’re doing to make our Earth a little greener!
