This is how ours looks straight out of the garden, covered  in thistle fluff, dried zucchini blossoms, and a little bit of dirt.

Next, we had to create our counter top out of barn wood, as well as the lower shelf, which is made from new pine..The top is actually made from three barn wood siding pieces held together with wood glue and dowels.

We held everything together with clamps in every direction to make sure things would dry to be straight and strong.After a couple of hours, we removed the clamps and we were good to go!.The lower shelf was created in much the same way, using a long piece of pine shelving and then adding strips of two-by-two all around the edges to give it a chunkier, more substantial look.

We’ve created a few different counter tops this way around the house and they always turn out beautifully.This set up looks a bit like some kind of medieval torture device, but it’s really just a matter of adding a clamp (or a ratcheting strap) to each piece that needs to be held in place until the glue dries.

It looks more complicated than it is.

Obviously this was Chris’ creation!.Place them one at a time into the crock pot.

Pour the sauce over everything.Turn the crock pot on low for about 8 hours.

Serve with pride!.Here’s how it looks right when it all goes into the crock pot.. And here it is 8 hours later!.