Sinker Wood


““Sinker” is simply a term for a log that sank to the bottom of a waterway during transport, or the bottom of a holding pond while it was waiting for processing. They’re also referred to as “deadheads.” These big logs sank a very long time ago (sometimes over 100 years ago!) and they remain there until they are “rediscovered.”

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Update on our Recycled Wood House

Today is our slow day and so I thought I’d pull together a short blog post about our recycled wood house. It’s coming along nicely as you can see in the photo above. The walls are mostly done now. My favorite feature is the wide porch that overlooks the front gate and forest garden. There’s … Read more

Housing Reclaimed – Sustainable Homes for Next to Nothing

Jessica Kellner, editor of Natural Home and Garden magazine and author of Housing Reclaimed, is pictured in her home made of items destined for the dump.
Jessica Kellner, editor of Natural Home and Garden magazine and author of Housing Reclaimed, is pictured in her home made of items destined for the dump.

“As editor of the Topeka-based magazine Natural, Home & Garden, Jessica Kellner had plenty of stories of families and organizations from across the country who had built their homes from materials that were otherwise destined for the landfill.

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Old Lumber Reborn


Nothing beats the beauty of old growth lumber. “You’ll never find material today that has that characteristic. I don’t care how hard you look, unless you go to South America. And who wants to go to South America and destroy the rainforest when we’ve got material in this country that’s being thrown away.”

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Low Cost Wood for DIY Homebuilders

The recent posts on Pallet Furniture and building with Recycled Wood got me thinking about other types of low cost or even free wood for furniture, woodenware and home building. That word “free” has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it? Okay, it’s not always free. Sometimes you have to pay a small amount for … Read more

Pallet Furniture

This is a continuation of the previous blog post on recycled wood. A reader left a comment about the door they built from pallets and so I thought a post about pallet furniture would be interesting. Many don’t realize how countless thousands of pallets are discarded every day. Some pallets are made with strong wood … Read more