Zahn's Salvage Zone

We're open for business! The salvage business, that is. These photos show the items we've trash-picked or collected from neighbors or businesses this week alone. No, we don't do this all the time; this being the start of garden season was an exceptional week. Sometimes I think we must have "sure, we'll take it" signs on our backs, though. People are always offering to give us stuff, or I'll find it on the side of the road or, in the case of the tires and 55 gallon barrels, I seek it out. Free stuff. Stuff that would otherwise go in the landfill for the next 500 years. George and I are great at envisioning uses for things, and often the things meet a need we have. For example, the tires are going to be used for potato growing. I found this idea in the latest issue of Backwoods Home magazine, and from this gardening article here. First I'll plant two-three potatoes in the bottom tire, laying down newspaper to kill the weeds and compost to enrich the soil and be the potato "starter" medium. As the potatoes grow, or about every 8 inches, I'll add another tire and fill it with more soil leaving just a couple inches of potato greens sticking out. The potatoes will grow more, and then I'll add the third tire and so on to the fourth tire tall. We'll have maybe 25 pounds of potatoes in our waist-high stack if things go as they should. And the best thing is, we won't have to dig the pototoes! Just remove the tires and "fish around" for the potatoes as we go. And boy, was the auto repair guy delighted to give me these tires. I saved him eight bucks in disposal fees!The two 55-gallon barrels I found after much searching. A neighbor gave me a tip to call the hospital nearby. I got these from the laundry there, and since they held laundry detergent they needed to be rinsed very very thoroughly. But, now George will fashion them with a faucet and a downspout from the gutters and they'll give us free water for years and years. The garden plants will love the rainwater, too.

Okay, on to the next item. Fencing posts, rails and boards. These will make a small fence to enclose a little bit of our backyard that currently has no fence. Our neighbor tore this down yesterday and asked if we wanted it. After some thinking about possible uses, we said "sure!" Some of these posts may make a chicken coop, or birdhouses, or some such other things.

And the hose reel-y thing? Very suburban, eh? When Rose and I drove Eli to school orchestra practice the other day, we noticed the city of Waite Park (where their school is located) was having city-wide garbage pickup days. So, we drove down a few streets and alleys looking for good stuff--and we found this. There's one little piece broken off it, but it won't affect the hose reel-y thing-y so I said "I'll take it!" (I have an ulterior motive for this one, too. The other thing we could use this for would be to make a composting toilet. Just remove the insides, put a 5--gal. bucket in it. Cut a hole in the top and put a toilet seat on. If the water ever goes out, you can use this for a potty and just have some peat, shredded leaves or wood shavings and you'll have no smell. Click here for the plans from Mother Earth News magazine...Now you can't say I'm not prepared for anything! Can you?

Our city doesn't have the city-wide trash day thing, but we got used to it in the town we lived in in Iowa ten years ago. Down there the city would tell residents that they must have their "big" trash out one week before the pickup date. This was in addition to the normal garbage pickup each week, and happened once a summer. Well, they did it this way on purpose. During that week, all kinds of people would drive around town looking for useful stuff. At many homes, huge piles of trash would be reduced to almost nothing by the time it was pickup day. And think of how much that saved the landfill! I found some really good stuff that way--a beautiful antique table, to name one.

Now, I'm not going to go so far as being a "Freegan", trash-picking everything I consume. "Freegans" even get their food from dumpsters, and I'm sorry I won't be doing this unless I'm absolutely destitute. "Freeganism" was featured on Oprah, however, so you gotta respect what they're doing.

We'll get many uses out of the things we've gathered this week. But yes, before you even have to ask, I do feel like a total nutcase driving around picking this stuff up!