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Post by steev on Apr 5, 2015 16:56:49 GMT -5
First trip this year to the sawdustery: they've gotten serious enough to buy new bulk-bags (they were always recycled, before) which don't have a bottom sleeve, so I couldn't tie that to the truck, to prevent roll-out. After a little thought, I tied a low "belly-band" around the bag and was able to tip it the needed 90*. Turned out not to have a top sleeve, either; when untied, the bag opened entirely, much easier to shovel out and when pointed into the breeze, the bag is held open. Sweet!
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Post by reed on Apr 6, 2015 2:43:57 GMT -5
Not sure this qualifies as junk but someone gave me three old wheel hoes. One had a odd small wheel and a double attachment that I was unfamiliar with. It's wheel and wood handles were completely shot so I gave it to the woman to decorate her flower bed. The second one's wheel also bent up and worthless but it had the little plow attachment. The third one had a multi prong critter I'm not sure the use of and is over all in excellent shape.  The double blades from the first one won't fit on this one but the other two attachments do. The little plow part is wider and shallower than I think is good for making planting rows but I expect I can find or make one. The handles adjust but playing with it it seemed pretty comfortable the way it is. Never saw one before with metal handles but they feel pretty comfortable. Marking on the handles say 22IL. Haven't used one of these in many, many years can't wait to try it out. |
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Post by steev on Apr 6, 2015 10:14:27 GMT -5
The prong-thing is a cultivator for light weed disruption, useful as a harrow. Great score!
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Post by treefrog on May 10, 2015 18:37:50 GMT -5
55 gallon plastic barrels can be cut in half and make great x=large pots. i use them to grow several types of bananas. plastic barrels are easy to cut with a circular saw. i cut half a dozen vertical slits across the bottom "corner" for drainage. easy-peasy. the bananas spend the winter inside the greenhouse, and the summers outside. it's really crowded in the greenhouse in the winter. the resident avocados, mangos, guavas, pineapples, etc and lots of stuff in pots - large and small. a handtruck is good for the half - barrels.
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Post by steev on May 10, 2015 20:21:16 GMT -5
I ripped a barrel in half longitudinally; it works great as strong covers for four flats of transplants going to the farm with a load of other stuff on top.
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Post by treefrog on May 10, 2015 21:00:17 GMT -5
having trouble posting pics
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Post by oldmobie on May 10, 2015 21:15:08 GMT -5
having trouble posting pics Can't upload directly to the forum; all the storage space for pics is used up. You can host elsewhere and share here. Here's a link to some instructions. Or we'll be glad to walk you through it, but we'll need to know your Operating System and preferred image host. |
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Post by reed on May 11, 2015 5:44:12 GMT -5
Those plastic barrels are great. I use a little jig saw to cut the ends off then split them lengthwise and flatten to make a panel. It is very strong and light weight and can be cut and used for lots of things. Back and ends of cold frames, bird houses, sky lights in tool sheds and chicken coops, who knows what else. They have to be the straight sided ones for this, the ones with bowed or ridged sides are good for other things but you can't get a flat panel out of them. The ones I have access to have had concentrated drink mix in them and especially the orange smell stays with them for a long, long time.
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Post by treefrog on May 14, 2015 20:18:56 GMT -5
i put a lot of plants in pots for one reason or other.
folgers sells coffee in 48 oz plastic cannisters which are about two gallon size. i belong to a fellowship that drinks a LOT of coffee. we buy it from costco in the big size. i recycle the cannisters as pots. they are made of hdpe, and stand up to the weather for about four or five years. when it's time to get a plant out of one of the cannisters, i just cut down both sides, and peel the pot off.
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Post by steev on May 14, 2015 20:38:16 GMT -5
I put my used grounds in an empty one; when full, it goes to the farm; every time I plant a rose there, it gets a can or so of grounds for mulch/fert.
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Post by flowerweaver on May 14, 2015 21:24:46 GMT -5
I pick up 5 gal buckets of used coffee grounds from a coffee shop I visit in the city. It's very much helping to transform the field in which I'm growing potatoes into something that actually looks like real soil instead of dust. The buckets come in handy around the farm for moving manure, etc.
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Post by RpR on Jun 3, 2015 12:47:24 GMT -5
I pick up 5 gal buckets of used coffee grounds from a coffee shop I visit in the city. It's very much helping to transform the field in which I'm growing potatoes into something that actually looks like real soil instead of dust. The buckets come in handy around the farm for moving manure, etc. Ah, used coffee ground, nothing could be finer. Been using them for decades and get five gallon pails from winter ice melt. I use them hard enough I actually wear them out. They eventually develop cracks and split. I used kitty litter pails also but they are getting smaller now and can be more of an, in the way, annoyance after a while. I put some used kitty litter straight stuff, no scent or added components, on the mulch pile but usually only in winter and not too often. Old broom handles, especially metal ones, make good posts for holding up temp. winter fences but I am amazed at how fast they rust out. Broken hickory shovel handles work great too but I am amazed, again, at how they splinter apart after being pounded in the ground year after year. What was once a four foot post is pretty soon only two and half feet long although waiting till the ground has started to freeze probably is part of the reason. |
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Post by steev on Jun 4, 2015 21:58:48 GMT -5
Got to love the craigslist free line; scored a black granite 5'x2' free-standing "bar"; I have no use for a "bar", but it'll be a great "side-table/counter" thingy. I'm thinking in the foyer of the farm-house, for people to leave their calling-cards and pick up a mint; really, one must try to raise the gentility level, don't you think?
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Post by steev on Jun 11, 2015 22:08:43 GMT -5
Went by the rabbittry for their bags of bunny-bean-bedding; up the block, there were large sheets of cardboard out for recycling; grabbed those to stockpile against Fall sheet-mulching my sweetheart's pitiful lawn. Cali is getting serious about conserving water, so offering water-bill credit-rebates for replacing lawns with less-thirsty landscaping; it's about time.
Cali is a Mediterranean climate; SoCal is semi/full desert, used by Big Ag to grow cotton, alfalfa, lettuce, and citrus with NorCal water, thanks to water projects pushed by that (socialist) Republican President, Dwight D. Eisenhower, back when the top income-tax rate was >90% and CEOs put their corporations' profits into their industries, rather than stock-holders' pockets, hedge funds, and tax-havens. The pipelines going over the Tehachapi Mountains are rivalled, as engineering and visual spectacle, only by the Grapeline Highway, connecting Los Angeles to the Great Central Valley, both built in that era, when it was thought that the strength of the nation was in the well-being of the general population, rather than the privileged few, who could take their marbles (and yours) and go elsewhere, if things got sticky.
To tie back into "Re-using junk", I think the USA needs to put resources back into its population, re-building its infrastructure, which is crumbling, and public education, which has been strangled by "Why should I pay to educate people who don't accept my authority?", to paraphrase Ronald Reagan. "Accept my Authoritah!", as shouted by Cartman, in Southpark. 'Kay; I admit to not liking Ronnie Ray-gun; not since he ordered my tear-gassing at Cal; not since he did what he could to destroy Cali's premier public-school system; not since he did what he could to dismantle Cali's mental-health system (Hello, homeless loons in the streets!). "Morning in America?"; what a day he ushered in.
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Post by Al on Jun 12, 2015 17:22:02 GMT -5
Love the idea of a bar in the foyer on which visitors can leave their calling cards, I saved a slab of polished pink marble from a house renovation. It was a hearth stone so about 40cm x 160cm. I guess it could be a fine bar for passing gentlefolk to leave cards, or I could just sit it on some blocks to make a bench at the plot to pull on my boots & admire the view.
I also acquired some oak lintels from a medieval Scottish townhouse which was being demolished, these were collected by a dendrochronologists who eventually did not need them (dendrochronolgy = science of dating by measuring growth rings in timber. Seriously heavy, wormy & gnarled hunks of old wood, again I imagine these as benches...with history.
My best re-use of junk recently has been the old trampoline frame & safety net which has made a superb brassica cage. It has some plastic hoops & additional netting over the top, it is keeping pigeons off the brassicas & I don't think any cabbage white butterflies have sneaked in either.
A load of old boards are proving useful as compost bins which can be dismantled & moved easily. The 2cm x 15cm ( 1" x 6") boards were all cut to about 1 metre in length, about 10cm from both ends of each board 2cm x 2cm notches were cut into each edge. These notches should be just wide enough to snugly receive a similar board set crosswise. Two boards parallel can be set on the ground, two more across the way with notches aligned sit securely on top. A bin can be easily built as high as needed, a bit like a log cabin, but with gaps between the boards for aeration.
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