Along the lines of the Self Reliance thread, what free or easily acquired materials can you think of to solve any of the problems people mentioned on the Self Reliance threads? For example, several folks mentioned building their raised beds or gardens and having to use lots of leaves or sand or other things, but nobody mentioned horse manure and stable bedding. I used to muck out 15 10x10 box stalls at a stable up the road from me and I built two 300'x20'X15'high piles of manure along the upper sides of two of my little fields. I called them "The Great DooDoo Mountains" (apologies to Burl Ives). Almost any town has a few stables run by rich folks too lazy to clean out their own stalls who will be glad to give you all the manure and bedding you want.

I've been building up a fleet of chicken tractors made from pallets. I have several businesses downtown who give me all their discarded shipping pallets and by carefully disassembling them I get the wood for my tractor frames.

What sort of things have you found that are easy to come by and what uses have you found for them?

-- Rags in Alabama (RaggedReb@aol.com), February 16, 2002

Answers

Whenever you see construction trucks around an shopping mall than get your butt in there ! They will scrap anything in a remodel. We hauled home two trucks of 16 foot 2x4's with only dry wall nails in the better part of them. The gold mine was the 4x8' triple glass panels surrounded by aluminum frames that are now our greenhouse. I'll tell you there is Gold out there-if you'll just pan the stream !

-- Joel Rosen (JoelnBecky@webtv.net), February 16, 2002.

We built our ENTIRE barn from "recycled" lumber and pallet wood. We have approximately $200 into it for roofing and fasteners. All our buildings, raised beds etc. have been made from free, recycled lumber.

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), February 16, 2002.

Pallets are the best thing going in the free department. If you have time to dismantle old buildings that is great aas well. I've salvaged tin and wood for small buildings, lumber from dumpsters, free bricks, plumbing supplies and fence posts. For mulch I just use leaves from my woods, or the shredded peanut hulls which are not free, but fabulous.

-- Doreen (bisquit@here.com), February 16, 2002.

I have a complete solar hot water system, 10 panels with pumps, controls and heat exchangers---all for less than nothing. This is a tip folks.

When solar systems were all the rage, about twenty years ago, they were popping up all over the place. Now, twenty years later, people have gone back to sleep, their roofs need to be reshingled and they often have to remove the solar systems to accomodate the roofers. When that happens they don't want the systems back up.

I was paid $200 to take the system I have down and to haul it away. Contact roofers and contractors and offer to remove the solar systems for no charge if you can have the materials. Happy hunting!

-- john (natlivent@pcpros.net), February 16, 2002.

Oh how I miss going to the municipal dump! When we lived in Mass., there was a local dump where we could find everything we needed in the way of building...folks toss out the most usable things! perfectly good windows, lumber, wheels, bike parts, light fixtures, supposedly "dead" tools which just need a little part here and there, etc....I have to tell you a story about it...the township hired a guy to maintain the dump..he drove a good-sized front loader thing and his job was to bury the junk left by the townspeople. Of course he loved his "perks" which were first grabs at the good stuff before he buried the rest. When folks such as we started coming to the dump and making off with the free goodies, he went a tad ballistic....you had to look for him and his machine before you got out of your truck because if he was nearby, he would put that thing into high gear and come roaring up to whatever pit you were "shopping" near and start to toss dirt down on you..in those days I could run..it became like a good bullfight...one day I found a great vacuum cleaner, picked it up and headed for the truck...I heard the front loader coming, ran like the dickens with the vacuum and go to the truck about three seconds ahead of crazy man..he waved a symbolic gesture at me. I was so impressed with this guy I wrote to Steven King suggesting he travel on down to Hingham, Mass. to check him out..there's got to be a good novel there!

-- lesley (martchas@bellsouth.net), February 16, 2002.

Oh lesley.........what a wonderful story. Did you ever hear back from King?? We have the wonderful perk from where my husband works as maintanance man to a rather rich gated recreational community, of usually having "first grabs" at stuff in the dumpster that is out by the maintanance building. We have an old guy who now goes out at the crack of dawn to get there before him. We just crack up. We figure that that is probably where he gets his money to afford to stay there or something. I look about my house at the "conveniences" and most of them were cast offs. Got to love it.

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), February 16, 2002.

Nope, never heard from him...I attended the same college at the same time as he and his wife (then girlfriend) did...I'd love to say we were good buddies, but I do not recall ever meeting either of them!

-- lesley (martchas@bellsouth.net), February 16, 2002.

This is a subject near and dear to my heart! I love freebies. Dunpster diving at industrial places is a great start. Especially if they are adding on. Tools, lumber, doors, windows, you name it. It's cheaper for them to toss it so they do. All the framing for my chicken house and my sons "Doghouse" came from a dumpster. All the doors and windows from a glass company that installs replacement windows.

My buddy Doug and I have found a 28' fiberglass extension ladder, Milwaukee Hole Hog drill w/ a set of forster bits, loads of lumber, 2x4 2x6 etc. One place that makes car parts tosses the bad ones out. There made of aluminum. We've gotten 6-7 truckloads for recycling $$.

Chicken feed, bird seed & stock feed from the Farm and Fleet dumpster. I'm gonna miss them. Grocery store dumpsters have all sorts of greens & stuff for the chickens too.

Local power company here will give away the old poles. My barn is made from them. The trusses came from a truss builder that made them the wrong size. $100.00 for the whole bunch. That's a 64' long barn. We built it to match the width of the trusses (28'). Siding came from a big comercial contractor. The barn is kinda colorful. Most of the missmatched stuff went on the roof in the back tho so you can't see it. Nice, heavy gauge steel. Less than a nickle a square foot.

I sometimes cruise the alleys in town the night before garbage pickup. Specially in spring. Folks will be throwing out all kind of good stuff soon.

New construction (commercial mainly) will give you the leftover concrete block. That's what I'm going to use for my new garden beds. I need some more yet, but know where a bunch are stacked at a farm. I'm going to stop and offer 'em 5 bucks or so for the whole pile.

Pallets are great. The fence around the garden at the other house was a nice looking picket style made from pallets. Again, when a big industrial place is adding machinery, that all comes on BIG pallets w/ BIG framing. I got a bunch of 8' square beams 12' and 16' that way.

Don't be shy. Stop and talk to people. Several folks now save their grass clippings for me instead of sending them to the landfill. Same w/ leaves in the fall. They'll call you w/ other stuff too once they know your a scrounge. Take it even if you don't want it. That insures you'll get the next call.

Tree trimmers will give you chips and Firewood if you want. They have to pay to dump it. Great mulch for the paths, flower beds, etc.

There's so much out there for free.

-- John in S. IN (jdoofus@hotmail.com), February 18, 2002.