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

[Beekissed]

I love that!!!! I can't get chickens to dust bathe where I would like them to do so...that would be a dream. They only want to do that where it's going to cause a problem.

My son removed an old section of picket fence and small picket gates at his place recently and would have put them in the trash, but I snatched them up, along with the treated 4x4 posts they were on.

Made myself an old/new garden gate with one section but will have to splice together two of the gates to make a gate big enough for my other garden gate. Used a sticker scavenged at Lowe's(FREE...those things are free for the taking! ) to brace this gate. Used an antique drawer pull for the handle....I've got a whole bag full of those I picked up cheap at a flea market some years back, so I've been using them in the odd place here and there.

 

[Beekissed]

My name is Bee and I scrounge also. Scrounged free treated and untreated stickers and 50% off damaged or warped wood from Lowe's yesterday and intend to return there today and scrounge for a full 4x4 rick of stickers if they are willing to let me scoop them up. Pallets too.

I scrounge for things left out in the trash with no shame at all...if they had no shame in throwing out perfectly great things, I have no shame in adopting these rescues and bringing them to a good home.

I've found that most town folk have no storage for things like scrap lumber and such, so will put things out in the trash more easily than country folk. I've found some GREAT things just driving through towns.

 

[sumi]

When we lived in SA, we sometimes employed a wonderful man from Mozambique to help out on the farm with jobs. He was terrible, just terrible, about gathering things and dragging it home. Everything and I mean everything got dragged off. From defunct electric appliances to building junk. Gosh, he used to laugh and shake his head when he saw what we threw away... We asked him about it one day and he told us the most basic items in Mozambique costs the earth, so they learned to value and fix and reuse everything. When I first came here to Ireland and saw all the abandoned houses and cars I often thought of him and joked with my DH, that he'll need a container ship to go home on, should he ever come here…

 

[Beekissed]

Today I repurposed the top portion of an old cat carrier into a tunnel to place on my back coop pop door to keep out my 4 mo. old LGD pup. If this doesn't work, I'll use the bottom portion to extend the tunnel even further.

 

[baymule]

Sumi, when I was a poor single mom years ago, I lived in a shotgun house with wood heat. (and a leaky roof) Because it was faster, I cooked bacon in the microwave between paper towels. I found out that I could lay my wood in the heater, put the bacon grease soaked paper towels in between the logs, light it and the fire would soon be crackling. I saved my bacon grease, swiped it on newspaper and lit the fires with it.

And if you're wondering what is a shotgun house, it was called that because you could kick the front door open, fire a shotgun and hit every room in the house. All the rooms were in line with each other, the houses were narrow, basically one room wide.

 

[Mini Horses]

You can use newspaper to make starter cups for plants...and they are biodegrade Of course, if my grandma got a newspaper it was "out house" bound.

You can also make fire starters with an egg carton -- the gray paper ones -- some wood chips and wax. Chips in the egg spot, add some wax, cool, cut the carton at each egg chunk and light up. Not quite as good as bacon grease but, works. Those starter logs are wood and wax. OOOOPS...see DenimDeb previously posted this use.

 

[NH Homesteader]

I am the least creative about re-purposing things. I am always amazed by what I find and usually I show my husband, who's like yeah... I already thought of that... He's a great re-purposer. I get mad at him because he saves everything, but he always proves me wrong by using random things to save us a ton of money!

 

[Miss Lydia]

Today I gathered all the bits and pieces of cut wood we have used for various projects. Not much to look at but it will be a nice dry area when it's raining or snow is on the ground.
Chickens dust bath area.

Now to clean out the wood stove and add ashes.

 

[NH Homesteader]

It inspired my turkey coop! No fancy metal roofing though. Can't be used in winter really anyway.but all this stuff was hanging around our house too!

Actually just started a second one tonight.

 

[tortoise]

I know! I know!

Cut them in half. Set them on end in your garden. Mulch heavily around them. Plant inside them. The cardboard tubes protect seeds from being smothered by the mulch and they break down later so no clean up.

It worked beautifully for me, I highly recommend it!