Reusing Our History

When we moved from the farm to up here on this place we left a home full of memories. Everything the wife and I created, even the kids growth chart was still marked on the wall. Almost every detail that took a half a lifetime to build was left. Not by choice, but just because we couldn't take it all.

Last year I started making trips back there and tearing down the old house and I have been able to save a lot of good stuff I can use again, even my old front door.

In it's hay day, the old place was a gem. We built an old west town and park behind our house with a working blacksmith shop, saloon, general store, outdoor kitchen, eating pavilion, park and was starting on a church to hold weddings in. We had pony rides and catered parties when we could. Even the house was going to get remodeled to look like a hotel. But, plans change and life goes on. Sometimes when I look back I wonder why I am not still there and why I am up here. Life was a lot more simpler back on the farm.

My front door came off a horse stable. I cut it down to fit the doorway and the thing was so heavy I had to rebuild my door frame to hold it. I kept the old time locking and latching mechanisms and even the hinges to keep it authentic.
The wife said she wanted to reuse it at our place somehow and after bringing it up, it sat for several months.

I also brought up an old picnic table frame we had in the park area behind the house. This thing is about twenty years old, in bad shape and all the wood has long been rotted off. I was just going scrap it out and use the metal for something or another.

This weekend I added some bracing, new hardware and new wood to sit on for the benches. Then added the door for the top.
After staining the door I reinstalled all the old hinges and handle to keep it looking like a door. I think it turned out good and we will have many more years if use out of it.

It's just a door right, but this old door kept us safe by holding back the wind, the rain and even a critter or two for so many years, it's the least I could do.  

It was the wife's idea all along to use it as a table. I just needed to get tired of looking at it sitting there to make it happen.





Before I go I wanted to say howdy to a couple of new Modern Day Redneck Family members.
Here's a Redneck welcome to PinkyDiva and Ginger In Progress. Thank y'all for being a part of the group. If you need anything just let me know.

That's all I got for now,
MDR

Not My Lights!!!!

Last weekend I was head down and right in the middle of the wife's giant bird house project when she walks in and says that I needed to build her some miniature goat feeders.
Of course I fired off my default answer that you should know by now if you have been reading MDR, "It's not on the list!"
She went on to tell me how fast I could get this done and how I should go ahead and stop what I was doing to complete the newest task she had for me. I requested a detailed diagram thinking that would buy me a day or two. Five seconds later I was a handed a scribbled something or another on a piece of paper.
Looking at the paper that did not resemble anything like a goat feeder I struggled to find another excuse as to why I could not stop and build this thing.

"I don't have any materials for this." I said knowing this statement would end our discussion, but I was wrong.    

"I am sure you have something down in all those piles at the barn." Okay, she was right, I am sure there was something down there in my "organized" junk piles I could use, but I did not have the time to fool with it. So I told her to go take a look and see what she can find. 

Back to work again I kept one eye on the barn to see what she would be dragging back to the shop.  I figured this would either change her mind or at least put this off a few more days.

"NOT MY LIGHTS!" She found my lights that I scavenged off the job. These lights are used to illuminate the large signs you see on the highways. They run about $800.00 dollars new and these were being thrown away so I grabbed them. Just the bulbs are $40.00, I had already hung and wired up two of the eight, but I have not found a place for the rest.

"They would be perfect" she said batting her little eyes. "All you have to do is gut them."

"Gut them? Absolutely not, they are hard to find and cost way too much. Plus I have plans for them."

 So there you have it. A gutted and very expensive former light turned into a goat feeder. Not one, but two were made.

She was right, they are perfect little goat feeders and what the hell, I still have five lights left and now I have a bunch of replacement parts if I need them.   

Reuse, Recycle, Repeat. It will save you money in the long run

"Good God Boy! You have got the junk in here"
That was what my dad said on one of his visits to my barn.

Yes I am, I admit it. I am a pack rat, a hoarder and a junk collector. He told me one time that if I keep going, by the time I get his age I will need fifty acres to hold all my junk.

You have got to have a junk pile or two or three and maybe even four. If not, you have to buy every little thing you need. I don't know how or understand why people throw away the stuff they do. If I throw it away you can bet your bottom dollar it needs to be thrown away. My trash has been used and used well. 

Here is one example why I have junk piles,
A few months ago I bought a greenhouse kit. No I didn't build it, I bought it. I thought it would be better that way by saving me time and money so I just did it. The first big storm blew through and blew out several of the plastic panels to the roof and walls of the new green house. I was only able to find three of the seven that were missing. I knew those cheap clips were not going to hold those panels in place for long with this wind out here, but I tried to have faith that the Engineers knew what they doing when they designed the thing and so I went with it. I should have listened to myself better and screwed them the first time.

I priced some new replacement panels and quickly found they cost more than the original greenhouse as a whole. Talk about a marketing scam, it would have been cheaper if I just bought a whole new greenhouse kit rather than buy the replacement panels. They don't sell just a few panels at a time. You have to buy all of them that came with the kit. I guess the Engineers did know what they were doing when they designed it. They found a way to make more money after the greenhouse was sold.

When I lived in town me and the girls built the wife a small greenhouse off the side of the back porch for Mothers day one year and when we moved I took it apart and saved the lumber and all the clear sheeting it had on it. I almost didn't take it, but like always I thought I might need this stuff sometime down the road so I took it and stored it.

The wife had already planted the fall/winter crops in the green house last week and I thought it was kinda sad she was working in a greenhouse that was missing panels so last night I found those old, used plastic sheeting panels and screwed them in place. It's not pretty but it works. 
The clear sheeting has been sitting for three years and turned a little yellow but it fits, kinda. With a little "Southern Engineering" it is good or better than new now.

By saving the sheeting and storing them all this time saved me $500.00
So I am okay with being a pack rat, hoarder and a junk collector. I have a functional greenhouse again and it didn't cost me a dime.

The moral of the story, think twice before you toss it and if you still want to get rid of it ask someone else if they want it before you trash it.