The Race To Glean* Wood - On The Hunt For More 2" by 4" Materials

When gleaning sometimes it is a race to get stuff picked up. Michael is on his way to get as much of this wood as possible. They have someone else who might come later in the day. But if we can get all of the usable pieces we can rip them into 2' By 4's.

I wonder as you look at them, do you think they don't look perfect? Or do you see what we see?  Once the green moss is sanded off, these boards will be mostly hidden under the floor or behind the walls. Who knows, if Michael gets all of it, some of it can be cladding on the deck side of the build. See it's not about what it looks like to you, its what it looks like to us. The used wood is such a blessing. It will not only house us as we build the permanent Huge Tiny House, it will be a dry place for me to make art, teach art and to do outreach to homeless vets. For me this wood is beautiful. Another persons leftovers can still be of good use. In the wasteful world we live in, a second look at that thing you want to throw away, will it be garbage? Or will it have a new life for someone else.  Some of our dreams are attached to this wonderful pile of wood, as well as all the other things we have found so far.  Dreams we thought we would not achieve and now we rush towards by sweat and toil.  

In case you wondered, ripping is cutting down the length of a board. Sometimes it is to make two matching pieces instead of one piece. Other times it is because your wood is to big and making it smaller is necessary. I tell you this not because you don't know, but I'm sure there is someone else out there contemplating what we are doing themselves and they need to know, so I state the obvious.  

It takes about sixteen 8 foot long 2" by 4's to do a solid wall. It can take additional shorter pieces for headers and supports for windows as well as more for doorways both inside and exterior. We have 14 separate exterior walls of various sizes on the temporary house.

This of course will end up being the art studio and classroom that will be on the property. We will be living in it temporarily while we work out the details for the permanent house. It will also serve as the place to go once the smaller Transnational Tiny Houses* pop up one by one on the property.

I make it sound so easy. I wish we had more than the two of us to go and gather but we will be sedate (or did I mean totally worn out and need of a beer?) in our accomplishments, by doing it ourselves for the most part. Although, we do have a few people on standby when we have enough materials to really get a lot done in one day.

Don't hesitate to send us an email if you have some used 2' by 4's or some chip board floating around you have no need to keep. We will gladly come and get it!


*to glean:hunting for abandoned or discarded or to be discarded, used things found or acquired by gleaning.

** To read more about these additional Tiny Houses read about the long term plan re-vistit this blog here: 
 http://desperateforhousing.blogspot.com/2014/07/clearing-up-few-misconceptions.html


Tina Bjorkland of Spokane Voice has started a Go Fund Me for us even a dollar would help. http://www.gofundme.com/cbmxq0