Trash VS Treasure

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HI everyone this question is just for the fun of it. I want to hear of some real creative Ideas. Do you like to find things at the dump/transfer station and use them on you homestead or in your garden? What is the coolest thing you found and reused? I have an old rabbit cage I grow my potatoes in, a lampshade converted into a Tomato cage, a wire display from a store that’s a trellis and another that’s a gate. What have you recycled?

-- Albert (albertm@psouth.net), June 02, 2001

Answers

Albert, on our place the better question is "what have we got that is NOT recycled". Our whole barn is built from recycled wood, in fact everything but a few fasteners and some roofing are recycled. It is amazing what people throw out. (I did buy my computer new, but that was a really rare thing)

-- diane (gardiacaprine@yahoo.com), June 02, 2001.

I used to run a trash route. I never used anything for the garden but ive found plenty of goodys. Its really sad how much these college folks throw away when they leave. I have found a working apple laptop with a printer, a pair of bose speakers a nice deep sink( i hate these little shallow ones these trailers come with ) many tools a nice older craftsman circularsaw just needed a better cord with case, a nice skil beltsander just needed a good cleaning.

-- MikeinKS (mhonk@oz-online.net), June 02, 2001.

If you are looking for "found treasure" and live near a college or university, you are in luck. Find out when the semesters are over and the last week of school and the following week or two kids are leaving campus - spring is the biggie. Just travel around near the dorms and near campus and you will find so much stuff that the students don't want to cart home - some of it brand new or never used. This includes furniture in excellent shape, kitchen stuff, you name it and it might be out there.

When we brought our daughter home this spring, my husband said he wished he had brought a trailer to pick up some of the stuff students had thrown out. He did bring home a nice 3 tier wooden table that works great for plants.

-- beckie (sunshine_horses@yahoo.com), June 02, 2001.


We have bought new very few items. Most of what we own was "previously enjoyed". Hand-me-down clothes, furniture, dishes, appliances, etc. My son came home with a perfectly good sewing machine he found in someone's trash. There was even a sign on it that said, "It works." As for recycling, we're good at that. Our rabbit hutch is an old metal wardrobe turned on it's side. Tom cut the side out and put in wire for what is now the bottom of the hutch. The front is three racks from a couple old stoves and it stands on what used to be the iron legs and frame of a coffee table! We live in an old rented farm house, and I have seen lots of wooden thread spools being used as closet doorknobs and doorstoppers. My dad got an old shed from somewhere and hauled it to his place. Half of it became a tree house for the grandchildren and half is a utility shed with lawnmower, garden tools, etc in it.

-- Cathy N. (keeper8@attcanada.ca), June 02, 2001.

My daughter made a rain gauge at school. Take a 2-liter bottle and cut the top off just below where the diameter starts to taper in at the top. Then turn the top over as a funnel into the bottom part. Duct tape the cut edges together to hold it in place. Cut a little door hole up near the top of the gauge to pour out excess water. Put some pebbles in the bottom so it doesn't blow over. Add water to just above the pebbles. Then use a waterproof marker to mark the beginning water level and one inch, two inch, etc (or cm) levels on the side of the bottle. I put it on the back deck railing where I could see it from the kitchen. It not only shows rainfall, but you learn to notice other things like a skim of ice, the look of liquid as ice begins to thaw, and the way it fogs up when the weather is changing suddenly. Watch out for mosquito wigglers- i never had much trouble, probably because I left dishwash soap residue in it.

Also I buy laundry detergent in 5-gallon buckets. One use for buckets we learned from the local YMCA Christmas tree sale. Take a bucket and brace a 10-inch(or so) long section of 5 (?)inch diameter PVC pipe upright in the center. Then pour concrete around the outside of the PVC pipe. When it hardens you have a tree stand. Our original bucket cracked a couple of years ago but we just slid the concrete form into a new bucket and keep using it.

-- Cindy Wells (bwells@nauticom.net), June 02, 2001.



What fun! I live in a mobile home park that has 3 dumpsters. I go look about every other day, and I wish I'd kept track of everything that I've found over the years! Tables, chairs, beds, cribs, stereos, televisions, computer stuff, all sorts of clothing, bedding, mattresses, shoes, dishes, silverware, even good FOOD in the original wrapping (potatoes, oranges, etc.), plants, lots & lots of toys, cosmetics, home permanents, shampoos, and so much more. Sometimes when people move, they throw almost everything out! I even found a pet turtle in an aquarium, and another time, two gerbils in their cage, with food and everything! They were both found in the dead of winter, but survived - I took them home and thawed the turtle out and let him loose in a creek in the spring - the gerbils I gave away to my son's friend. I haven't bought jeans or sweatshirts or tee-shirts for decades, and have plenty to give away. I always wash the clothing, bedding, and stuffed toys and take them to a church giveaway program. If my kids can wear the clothes, I wash and mend them & take to them. If the clothing or bedding is too worn, it goes to my sons for rags when they work in their shop. I have enough stuff to make a dozen or more quilts (if I ever get time!). I just hate to see Mother Earth have to swallow all the garbage that gets thrown out, so if I can recycle anything, I try to do it.

-- Bonnie (chilton@stateline-isp.com), June 02, 2001.

Even my computer is recycled, One of the power supplies DID come out of the landfill. I even salvaged old bedrails to build an addition frame on our out building and aluminum tubing for a small greenhouse (that since has blown away). recycle is just a new buzzword. Down here we call it being cheap and I'm so tight I squeak when I walk. :>)

-- Jay Blair in N. AL (jayblair678@yahoo.com), June 02, 2001.

Just last week some new stuff got dumped on the back road. When I kicked the old gas tank off the top of the pile, I found one of those old iron fancy floor lamps, two fine embroidered table runners and a whole bunch of fire cooking accessories, so cool. I came home with a Subaru load.

Last time I got the chance to cruise the back road dumps, I got windows to build cold frames with, tacklebox, large fish net, oak sewing machine cabinet, large swivel mirror, wicker laundry hamper, wood doll furniture, Fisher Price toys, reloading scales, canning kettles with lids.....a full size van load of stuff. I went back later and got maidenhair ferns, rosebushes, irises and enough large flat sandstone to do my barn floor. I had to leave the old Servel fridge there because I can't lift that myself.

My mom still holds the family record for dump picking. She came back with a truck load of new power tools, light fixtures and chandaliers all with defective cords or plugs. She got out her electric kit and had everything fixed by the next day.

-- Laura (LadybugWrangler@hotmail.com), June 02, 2001.


I have built a lot of axel mounted bar b que units out of discarded propane tanks, the 120 stubby is placed parallel to the axel and above it. A 60 is added under it and crossways for the fire box, add a trailor hitch, fenders, lights and suddonly your more popular.

-- mitch hearn (moopups1@aol.com), June 02, 2001.

My fiance built me the coolest arbor this spring from a bunch of round wire forms he found in the trash at work. Its 9 ft. tall and 9 ft long because thats how long the forms were. They put bags over them at the powerplant he works at to catch some off the fly ash. Kinda like a vacuum cleaner bag only giant size. The thing covers the whole sidewalk up to the house. I've got blue and magenta morning glories vining up them. Can't wait till they bloom.

He says he wants to fill my yard with "art" like that. If everthing turns out that cool it's OK with me! Maybe I'll get on Rare Visions and Roadside Revelations.

-- debra in ks (solid-dkn@msn.com), June 02, 2001.



Pallets! They make instant, free gates. Use two of them to span larger distances. I have a heavy duty one as half barn door. I designed the interior barn wall to fit another longish pallet to be used as a door.

Cardboard is wonderful mulching material for the garden.

I scrounge the dumpster behind the local grocery store in the winter for greens for the chickens. Stupid rules of the chain store command dont allow them to give them to me. Long as I dont get caught.. hehe. In fact, my sister did that first, and that was how I learned I LOVE kiwis and HATE avocados!

-- daffodyllady (daffodyllady@yahoo.com), June 02, 2001.


Kiwis are small flightless, nocturnal birds, definitely on the protected species list, I hope you are not really eating them d'lady!

-- john hill (john@cnd.co.nz), June 03, 2001.

Kiwi is also the name of small tropical fruit, a little bigger than an egg and almost too sweet.

-- mitch hearn (moopups1@aol.com), June 03, 2001.

Mitch, you either have rather big eggs or you are referring to those piddling little 'kiwifruit' from California or South America. Or maybe we have small eggs here! :-)

-- john hill (john@cnd.co.nz), June 03, 2001.

I got some orange rubber cones (the ones used in road construction or to guide traffic) from a friend. Just painted each dark green & wrapped twinkling lights around it for cute outdoor christmas trees.

-- Sangita (sangita@kountrycrafts.com), December 18, 2001.


When I lived in Houston there was a lot of renuvating going on in my neighborhood (The Heights). Every weekend I trolled the streets. I found so much wood that I was able to build a deck and fence. Anytime that I found an old paneled door, I picked it up and made tri fold screens to break up the sections of fence or to hide tool areas from view. I found some old windows that had homemade burglar bars rusty and still attached. I made trellises out of those. My sister made arbors out of old screen doors that people threw out, they look great. I found all sorts of things to make planters out of.

-- charles smith (charlesr@ev1.net), January 31, 2002.

Several years ago I lived in a small town in Maine. Every Spring they would have "Spring Cleaning Weeks." Everyone would put their discards out at the road side, and for two to three weeks, others could take what they wanted from what had been discarded. At the end of the designated time, the city would remove the remaining trash. One day, my step-son brought home a perfectly fine 10-spreed bicycle that was missing a seat, and the next day, his Dad brought home a broken 10-speed bike with a great seat. I thought that this was a great program.

-- Sandra Ewell (sewell@cacadj.com), February 18, 2002.

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