The wooden bread box has gone out of fashion, and I didn't even notice that it was missing until recently. Nowadays, instead of using wooden bread boxes, we usually store bread in one of our cabinets. I am sure that you do the same thing. The wood bread box, strictly speaking, is not a necessity. It is
basically a small chest, and in some ways it is pretty inconvenient. It takes up extra counter space, scatters crumbs when you take the bread out of it, and can be forgotten quite easily, leading to stale or even moldy bread..
I didn't even realize the advantages of wood bread boxes until we ran into a problem. Our whole house became infested by ants. They got into our cabinets, and managed to worm their way into the bread. They completely ruined several loaves of artisan bread. Worse, I knew that if I replaced it, I would only see them ravage it again. The ant traps were not working, and I knew that I had to find some way of coexisting with the ants. I would lock up every scrap of food, giving them nothing to eat. Then they would leave me alone.
The wood bread box was the easiest way to do just that. I decided to make one myself. In retrospect, I had been actually looking for any excuse for a craft project. I had been so busy of late that I had neglected all of my old hobbies. Crafts were one of my favorite things to do, and once upon a time I was involved in some type of woodworking almost every weekend. I don't know what happened to those days, but I was anxious to get back to them. The wood bread box seemed like just the place to start.
One of the best things about building a wood bread box was that it made a perfect first project for my son. He had been longing to help me out with a real project for quite awhile now. Of course he had “helped” me work on the car, but in reality he was too young to do any of the work. It was simply too difficult, too messy, and too dangerous. Building a wooden chest, however, was easy. I could supervise it, keep him out of trouble, and let him do most of the work if he wanted to. Best of all, the worst thing he could do was to hit his thumb with a hammer..
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