I don't like to do the same thing each day so this morning's adventure was to pull apart the pallets to salvage the wood and make frames. Really it wasn't going to be an adventure so much as quick work since the wood and nails are old. I was planning to pop out to the garage and just pull them apart with gloves and strength. Is there actually something you can rupture under your armpit? Cause I really need to have that looked at. Anyways, needless to say to those of you laughing at me, nope it didn't work. And to those of you thinking it may work, it didn't work.

In my previous marriage Gary spent a lot of time and effort hiding tools from me knowing he'd never know what he'd come home to if i had access to them. I learned to improvise various household items into functioning tools (meat mallets, knives and such). Today, after the failed attempt to separate wood and nails with might, I was happy to go out and grab the first pounder and lever things I saw and try it that way.

Little tack hammer and screw driver didn't really do what I wanted. I needed a bigger hammer and wedge.

Can anyone fix this? I'm really lucky they didn't find me laying on the garage floor with a head wound.

After lunch I decided to go to Lowe's to see if they had anything that could help me. You know, those guys over there are really nice and if you explain to them what you are doing they can tell you what to get. so I got some stuff.

I got home and spent the next few hours liberating very old wood from very old nail. But ya see, there is a guy at the pallet company and that guy's only job is to make sure the pallets are strong. So this guy goes back through and pounds in or shoots in or screws in whatever is needed to make sure this pallet is NOT gonna come apart. I also found out that rusted nails and old wood together form one of the strongest bonds in nature.  And maybe, just maybe, this guy is a drinker and comes back with some kind of vendetta against the pallets as seen below...

No no, Skeeter, 6 nails at the same joint isn't overkill *rolls eyes*. The reason you pay so much for reclaimed wood products is it is almost impossible to get it apart without damaging the wood. So if you have something reclaimed appreciate it.

I've spent the rest of my day hammering, and wedging, and praying, and swearing and hammering and placing some curses on Skeeter and lots of prying (a few times I hit myself with the hammer too so there were some colorful words and "thank God"s).

Like the work table? Made it myself. Protip: buckets of drywall mud and an old pallet aren't a good work surface. Anyway. After what could be a broken knuckle, metal paint shards in my eye, tetanus, Gary's dad's broken hammer, and whatever that yellow stuff is on the ground... I have reclaimed wood

A VERY small pile of it and only 5 more pallets to go. So now I offer reclaimed wood frames... $50000 for a 4x6. Just a thought.