Re-using junk!

[steev]

Some people want to reduce the amount of "stuff" in their lives; I'm not one of those; I'm more all "Cool! Stuff!"

A client's wife didn't get why he was saving those boxes of half-gallon pickle jars, so they're now holding much of my seed-stash, bolts, washers, nuts, screws, etc; I mean, it's a 45-minute drive each way to a hardware store, but I might have what I need in a jar; spare kidney, maybe?

[reed]

Yea, while it can be unsightly a nice junk stash can come in handy. I had a nice shield of multi-flora rose, Japanese honeysuckle and wild black berries that hides mine but when the ash trees died I had to cut it all back some to get to the firewood. That's why I had to get in there and rearrange and clean it up some. Took out most of the rose in favor of the berries, I imagine it will all be out of sight out of mind again by end of the growing season. Also in the process found pretty much everything I need to make my beehives.

[steev]

There you go; had what you need on hand; I really don't understand people who need to get rid of stuff; never can tell when it might be useful.

[oxbowfarm]

We had a huge mound of dirt with twisted metal bars poking out of it at all angles on the back side of the barn, kind of off to the side. It mystified me till a neighbor told me there had been another barn attached at right angles back in the day, you can see the roof line on the north end of the existing barn still. The big mound was formerly a board silo and all the metal were the silo staves. It seems like they had a bunch of dirt in the silo when it was abandoned, the mound was definitely not made of composted silage. I've salvaged most of the staves now, they are a really nice 5/8ths round bar once you cut off the threaded ends and the connector brackets, which are I think made of cast iron, but they're a big dirt and rust lump now. I've forged most of the tongs I've made out of these old silo staves.

[prairiegardens]

A niece built a greenhouse using discarded steel? bands from a pulp mill water line (wooden, thus the bands and the need to replace) as ribs, working extremely well. They had been headed to the dump, not even the recycling, so freebies, did about a 50 foot greenhouse with them.

[steev]

I've been scoring translucent white plastic 55 gal drums from a place that makes essences; they're safe, having been for ethanol; I'll cut them in half longitudinally for mini-greenhouses, so I can plant things out that would be killed by later freezes, thereby getting a little jump on the season.

[reed]

After the recent minor flood of the Ohio river those drums are laying all over the place in the debris that high water leaves behind. The translucent ones, blue ones, black ones. Not knowing what they contained I don't collect them but I get blue ones from the little winery I work for sometimes. They have only had grape juice and smell like it for a long time. What ever they are made of is very UV stable and is useful for lots of things.

[jocelyn]

Ah, junk Stones caught up in the neighbour's machinery get laid at the side of the field, and just disappear, right into the raised bed my vegies grow in, grin.
That broken shovel handle out of the ditch is currently holding the cage for my new quince tree so the mice don't eat it.

Paper and plastic coffee cups, in their legions, get scooped out of the ditch and hold all my transplants for the spring.

That cracked bucket that the wind has been tossing around all winter, it will hold compost for starting trees before freeze up. I start them in the house to put out after the frost is past.
Right now, I'd need a jack hammer, to bring in compost that was not under cover in buckets.

The Kids drink coffee, lots and lots of coffee, and save me the metal tins it comes in...seed storage, small parts storage for Hubby, ever expanding contents of the junk drawer....

We built a pumphouse, for the well pump, in the days before pitless adapters. We just drove past a store putting out huge bags of styrofoam packing peanuts, and asked if we could have some. They were delighted that they didn't have to fill up their bin with them, and we poured them into the wall space in the pumphouse. 60 watts kept the pump frost free even in nasty weather, bless those packing peanuts:)

[mskrieger]

My husband is always picking up odds and ends from clients and interior designers he paints for. There was a stack of mahogany leather floor tiles he scored once because a designer had ordered a few boxes too many. Gorgeous and $$$$ if you actually buy them. But we'd been lugging around since 2006.

One day while staring at our heinous faded harvest yellow kitchen (it was last renovated in 1965; search '1965 kitchen harvest yellow' on Google images and pick the ugliest kitchen you can find. And it's still not as bad as ours) we thought 'leather counter top?'

And eh voila, we tiled the countertop with leather floor tiles and it is lovely, waterproof and absolutely unique. And best of all, it is not faded harvest yellow.

[steev]

I've long thought it would be fun to do a countertop with lunchmeat, the square kind that has quadrants of cheese separated by olive-loaf, for instance; just lay it on plywood and varathane it; I think that treatment would also spiff up a ratty-looking refrigerator; maybe a toilet seat? I once saw a toilet in which the whole bowl had been covered with pennies and varathaned; striking and perhaps indicative of the artist's opinion of money.

[mskrieger]

Apr 4, 2018 18:16:51 GMT -5 steev said:

I've long thought it would be fun to do a countertop with lunchmeat, the square kind that has quadrants of cheese separated by olive-loaf, for instance; just lay it on plywood and varathane it; I think that treatment would also spiff up a ratty-looking refrigerator; maybe a toilet seat? I once saw a toilet in which the whole bowl had been covered with pennies and varathaned; striking and perhaps indicative of the artist's opinion of money.

I like the toilet seat idea very much.

When I was an undergrad in the geology department, the graduate students had a toilet seat they would bestow with much ceremony as an honorary award each year to the most annoying undergrad. It was signed, varnished, and otherwise defaced in many creative ways, and the rest of the year hung upon the wall in the department lounge as a memorial.

[steev]

The hardwood sawdust I've scored is so great for mulching transplants, though I wish they'd put it in more UV-resistant bags; the sun on the farm chews up plastic like a stoner does popcorn.

[jocelyn]

Yah, even feed bags get chewed up by the sun, sigh. Hubby did a lot of sanding and shaping over the winter. I got the sawdust for the garden,
but I have it under cover yet, cause of the sun.
The neighbour's stone pile has been quite fruitfull, and I will have a new raised bed soon, and will need the sawdust then.

[prairiegardens]

Only problem with collecting useful junk is if you have to move, and see the place with "outsiders" eyes. Suddenly the horrors of moving escalate to monstrous proportions...sigh. Anyone know where a person can access motivation?

[steev]

I think "motivation" is something that may or not be available in adolescence; can't say I felt it before my late 30's (guess I'm a late bloomer).