Need some ideas....

[katwill]

Hey All,

brand new to the forum. Love it. I found out about this forum at hearth.com. I Just bought a very efficient woodstove that will keep my entire house warm. 2700 square feet. I live in Dutches county NY so i get a lot of free wood. Will save a lot this year in heating bills. Plan to use the money I save this winter to buy solar panels and have them installed on the roof.My wife is very frugal so she loves the idea not to mention that the house will be a lot hotter this winter.

katwill

 

[FarmerDenise]

katwill,

Dutches county sounds familiar to me. Where is it in relation to a major city? I grew up in Schoharie county.

 

[Farmfresh]

Glad you found us!

 

[Denim Deb]

I'm fairly new here, myself, but I'm loving this site. It's already become my favorite forum.

 

[i_am2bz]

I lived for a few years in Dutchess Co... Wappingers Falls to be specific. (about 90 miles north of NYC)

 

[Beekissed]

You guys! I think you forgot the most important thing of all!

Dumpster diving!

Reuse, repurpose, recyle instead of buying new. Your coop could have cost you nearly nothing if you had searched for reusable construction materials.

Heat with wood, cool with fans, plant vines to shade sunny sides of the house, use the deep litter method for your coop so as to have good fertilizer for your gardens, plant cover crops and mulch your garden to save money on watering and time on weeding.

Turn your lawn into garden or pasture for raising foods and save on lawn and mower maintenance.

Buy your car with cash saved, get rid of loan and interest payments.

Invest in or make down comforters instead of electric blankets.

Learn to hunt and harvest government beef...lean, cheap and easy to process at home.

Be ready to make your chicken flock really pay for themselves, cull vigorously for laying production, let your broodies raise your replacement layers and extra roos for meat.

Repurpose your pet dogs into LGDs so that you won't have to build and maintain Ft. Knox or suffer predation losses.

I'm sure I'll think of more but my mind is drawing a blank.

 

[BarredBuff]

Your coop could have cost you nearly nothing if you had searched for reusable construction materials.
Be ready to make your chicken flock really pay for themselves, cull vigorously for laying production, let your broodies raise your replacement layers and extra roos for meat.

AMEN.
If I had it to do over, I would have built all of my animal houses out of free stuff. I am going to cull my flock this year, Bee what time of year do you do your culling?

 

[Denim Deb]

Depending on where you live, dumpster diving isn't that easy. I know around here, you can get into trouble for trash picking. That's because they don't want people going around and grabbing all the stuff that people have out for recycling. Plus, you can only put large stuff out at certain times of the month, and need to call the township to arrange for pickup. And, in other areas, people are required to take their trash to a central location. If you don't live in the area, or have a friend in the area, you cannot get anything from there either. :/

I know my township has a place where you can take branches, leaves, etc. Anything I can't burn or use I'll take there, which is rare. Last time I was there, someone had dumped a whole bunch of logs. I asked if I could have them, but was not allowed to take them. Someone else came in at the same time w/a whole truck load of maple. Rather than dumping all of it, they put the big stuff in the back of my pickup. The township couldn't say a thing about it.

 

[Blackbird]

Shhhh...

That's why you do it a night!

But you didn't hear that from me, you know...

 

[Beekissed]

Denim, how sad! I can't imagine living in a place that won't let people recycle unwanted items. I have gotten so many very nice..and very free..items out of the trash. Around here, folks just put it out to the curb any old day and put a FREE sign on it....such things never last long.

The county next to me has a free day at the dump when people can bring free items that are too large to put out in regular trash. There is a line of pickup trucks all willing and waiting for these items....I went one day and was amazed to see the new tubs, commodes, shower units, construction leftovers, etc. that was being thrown away.

I never hesitate to stop at construction sites and inquire if they have scraps they will be throwing away....they are usually quite amused to see a woman in a pickup gleaning such things, so they are more than willing to see that I drive away with good things.

I have gleaned just like new formica countertops, fencing, lumber, topsoil, concrete blocks, etc.

I've also volunteered to tear down old sheds for the lumber and often come away from such places with old tools, fencing, T post, etc. All for a few days of labor and the gas to haul it all home.