Ideas/ways to re-use/recycle "rubbish"?

[sumi]

Hi all, I'm curious to see how we can re-use and recycle and up cycle things that usually goes into the trash, or landfills. Some examples from my side (sorry I don't have pics):

I used to know a girl that washed out the plastic sachets she bought milk in and re-use them for bagging plants.

We used small yoghurt containers for the same: plants.

A guy I knew turned a broken freezer into a shelter/kennel for his dog!

Show us some pics of your projects and uses?

 

[sumi]

Not rubbish, but a lovely way to upcycle some old farm equipment! Spotted this on a wall in Nenagh, Co Tipperary

 

[Britesea]

My in-laws are on opposite sides of that fence; she saves, he doesn't. There's an old family story about a time when they were living in a tiny old mobile home with two kids; not much extra room. MIL had finally broken down and bought a new broom and she gave the old one to FIL, telling him to cut off the old bristles and store the handle because it was a perfectly good piece of wood. "Where am I going to put it?" he said. "You can slide it under the house- it will fit just fine."
About a month later, he was fussing because he needed a piece of round dowel for a project he was making and he didn't have the money to buy it. "Why not use that old broom handle?" Dead silence... and a stricken look. He had obviously not done as she'd suggested, lol. After that, he got a lot better about saving stuff.

 

[Beekissed]

You know those little carry bags that canvas lawn chairs come in nowadays? Well, we have a full ton of them hanging in our building, as we rarely take our lawn chairs anywhere but down to the fire pit and back. This involves using one of them for another purpose.

Anyhoo, the other day I was thinking of a way to immobilize a chicken so that I could work on them hands free, but in an easy and gentle manner, both for me and the bird. I have a hoop coop, so hanging such an apparatus was my plan, as it's easy to find hanging points in a hoop coop.

Here is the chicken sling, fashioned out of the nice, heavy nylon carrier sack for a canvas lawn chair...we have scads of those things lying around, not in use. I can see a few things I'll change on this design:

1. The velcro tabs were not sufficient for keeping this end of the sling closed if the chicken struggled or if it were a large chicken...I'll likely just make holes there and use a clip to keep it closed for those times.

2. Should have made it larger...just a tad, for my big ol' boy to fit better, though he seemed very comfortable and didn't move a muscle while he was in the sling. I may make another and make it larger and grommet the holes I need in the end, in place of the velcro tabs. As calm as they were in the sling, I doubt I'll need that feature at all anyway.

3. Move it slightly to the left of my work station...their feet was just brushing the edge of it and one got her foot under her and started to stand up. That was easily averted but to prevent the possibility in the future, I'll move it to where the feet do not touch any surface while they are hanging.

4. The hole I made for the head was fine if they are lying on their backs, but I found, with this apparatus, they were examined much better while upright, as the sling seemed to cause them to lift their tails obligingly for vent examinations...perfect! Meanwhile the seam to fashion the hole was preventing a comfortable way for their head to stick out the other end while upright, which was probably keeping them more calm but I'd like the option for them to do so if it doesn't make them too excited.

With the big boy in it.....

And the smallest chicken...the Egg Eater aka EE. Not really an egg eater...well...ALL chickens are egg eaters, but it's just a private joke on my own forum about the breed.

With a bird on her back....I didn't like this position as well as I do when I'm working on them without the sling. Without the sling it's the only way to visualize the vent and hold them still, but when they are in the sling on their backs, the pressure of their weight in the sling prevents good visualization of the vent. I'll probably discard the "on their back" design features altogether now.

Even though the sling is not tilted towards the front end of these birds, they still seem to obligingly lift the tail while in it, as this BA is doing....perfect for examining the vent and doing feet work. Not so great if I need to measure abdominal capacity or pelvic width, but that can be done pretty quickly on the way back to the roosts if needed.

When I'm done with it, it's unclipped on one end and neatly folded up into the rafters of the coop.

Final review of the first mock up? Where has this been all my chickening life??????

Exams went so smooth, getting them in and out of the sling was so easy, all areas I needed to see were easily seen and attended to even easier. My work station was left open for all my stuff, instead of trying to fit my stuff AND a chicken in the same space, while preventing them from flapping and kicking my stuff to the floor.

I didn't have to hold them with one hand, while trying to work on them with the other....BLISS.

I was done in record time and the chickens seemed WAY less bothered by the whole process, returning to a calm state on the roosts before I even got out the door....feet all oiled, butts and skin all checked, nails and spurs clipped and dremeled. Without exception, they all hung calmly in this sling without attempts to struggle or get free in any way...very calm birds throughout the experiment.

I've got the rest of the chair baggy to use for my final product and will post pic of it in action when I get it done. I tested this one with the cat and he seemed to love it and the chickens did too, so I'm thinking a good result.

 

[baymule]

I built my chicken coop from materials I had in my "treasure pile" LOL

 

[baymule]

Cow Panels are the greatest! I had to buy the screws, hinges for the door and the rest was scrap.

My name is Baymule and I am a scrounger.

 

[Mini Horses]

Some peoples trash is another's treasure

My son is always saying "why do you have THIS" about some of my finds/saves. When you are frugal, you re-cycle. On a farm there is rarely a day when I don't need a piece of wood, fence, etc. My stockpile is often the saving grace. No cash outlay or trip to store.

 

[Beekissed]

Just about everything I build is recycled, upcycled, refurbished, etc....I could write pages about them all, but I'll spare ya. The past few weeks I kept 250 large bags of leaves out of the landfill....some on the garden, some stored for coop bedding(they are currently being used to form a warm dog house for the new pup in my spare pen...pen is made from scavenged pallets), some went straight to the coop, some will go on perennial beds.

Also scavenged some overripe pumpkins and melons at a farmer's market...for free! They were just tossing them out into the field next to the stand, so I stopped and asked for them. Will feed them to chooks this winter.

Saved this old rocking chair from the curbside trash, put a fresh coat of paint on it, reinforced the seat where it had split and put turnbuckles on the legs. The pup LOVES it..so does the Grand Girl.

This is just a few things from this fall but have many more. I'm always making something out of nothing here...I like it and I find it to be a creative outlet for me that goes along with my frugal nature.

Need to get a pic of the forge my son just built out of an old steel drum, some weedeater shafts, a brake drum from a car, an old metal grate, some pieces of lumber(salvaged from a gymnasium floor many years ago) and a few pipes. I'll get a pic when he fires it up next time.

 

[Beekissed]

Found these old ladders in the trash in town and used them for pumpkin and squash trellises in the garden....

All the lumber standing up in the pic below was found in one really great dumpster dive, along with the old ladder in the background. Just needed to take a bunch of screws out of it...the screws and the lumber have been used in multiple projects since then.

The pic below that one shows the lumber out of bunkbeds my brother took apart and didn't know what to do with all the wood...he lives in town and has no storage, so he was relieved to get rid of it. I've been using that in multiple projects as well...like the broody pen tweak where I used the old screen doors. If you are wondering what the red is...yes..that's blood. We stopped on the way home and picked up a fresh road kill yearling deer and fed it to the dogs....they had it completely gone in 4 days. The chickens helped. Now THAT'S recycling for ya!

And these old screen doors into doors for my spare/broody pen I tweaked this spring...the door on the left in the pic is on a closet door track, so it slides open and closed. Both doors can be removed easily and used to top cold frames for the winter months when covered in plastic.

This little bedside stand wasn't in the trash but I bought it at a yard sale for $4, added some scrap lumber to it and turned it into a beehive....

 

[Beekissed]

This whole playhouse was built from recycled/free wood, tin, and even the slide was recovered off the curb where it was left out in the trash. The other items inside came from Goodwill...the kitchenette was $10 , pots and pans, curtains, apron, chair, baskets, etc. were all $1-$2 items from GW.

I just completed this project today.

The reaction to it? Priceless!!!!