Selfsufficientish.com

How many of you have recycled someone elses discards , trash picking , dumpster diving , or recycled for cash or trade .

In six monthes I trashpicked enough stuff to move into my new home . And I mean everything including tools and hardware to fix up this old house . There is alot of waste in our country and many otheres I'm sure .

I started out as a boy , rebuilding thrown away bicycles and selling them . Been doing so ever since .

Mike

That`s so impressive Mike!
It`s similar to the `make-do and mend` philosophy of the WW2 years isn`t it? Or what my OH calls my `Stig of the Dump` mentality.
I use the `Freecycle` community to offer and request stuff that might otherwise go into landfill.

Merry wrote:That`s so impressive Mike!
It`s similar to the `make-do and mend` philosophy of the WW2 years isn`t it?

I like to think of it a bit differently: 'making do' seems to imply a philosophy of poverty. Another way of looking at it is that it's the realisation that we actually have an embarrassment of riches. It's making the best of the resources we have.

I don't do much skip diving these days, but I was once a bit of an urban forager. I'm of the opinion that whatever it is that you want, someone somewhere is throwing one away (actually, that's a pretty poor reflection upon the rest of society, isn't it?).

[quote Muddypause]

. I'm of the opinion that whatever it is that you want, someone somewhere is throwing one away (actually, that's a pretty poor reflection upon the rest of society, isn't it?).[/quote]

So true - the whole premise of the Freecycle community.
I probably posted about this when it happened, but when we first lost all our allotment stuff to a thief a neighbour gave us a petrol mower that`s in really good working order. When I thanked him he said,
"No problem, I was literally loading it into the van to take it to the tip when I heard about your break-in!"

Yes ! As a mater of fact , my father and mother served in WWII and I was born shortly thereafter . Grandma was born in England ( Yorkshire ) in the 1800's and had been through two Depressions . I learned " Frugal " at an early age . Made my own toys , learned to garden , sew , cook , and bake .

Making do was what I was tought . Never minded being poor but always proud of being smart and able to provide the family with its' needs .

I became very good at trash picking right at the curb . When looked at with discust by well to do folks I would would say ; Mam or Sir , for every ton of trash I revove from the streets I save your town ( taxes for trash removal ) hundreded of dollars . They would say l Oh ! do you want any scrap alluminum ( $.65 a lb ) or some such ?

I've found Dimond rings , antique furniture , to running cars . All for free . Yes it was against the law , specialy in towns that collected or sold thier scrap metals and papers to Qualify for state grants . But in other towns I thought it was pretty stupid to not allow 20 some people to remove tons of garbage for free .

I also learned alot about nearly everything used or old by selling ( wholesale , allowing 300% profit to buyer) every weekend at the flea markets what I got for free .

Gradma always said " Waste not . Want not " ! And I didn't .

Yes I belong to the local Freecycle comunity . Have given away bamboo and received lots of wood burning tools , wood storage box , ect . Even made a cane for a lady who needed one .

Mike

Yes - I`ve been thinking about the concept of `poverty` and `make do and mend` whilst lying awake listening to the gale outside!
and I realised that
- sewing a neat patch on jeans or darning a hole in a sweater,
- saving bits of fabric to make a patchwork quilt,
- fixing a new handle to a broken tool,
- boiling up the chicken carcase to make soup,
- using up the dry bread in a nice pudding,
- mending the fence when the gale blows it down!!

doesn`t make me feel `poor`, it gives me pleasure!

`Poor` would be not having jeans, sweater, tools, chicken, bread, fence, ---or the opportunity to get them!

I do this a lot too, my pea trellis is a bunch of misc. pieces of bed heads

that I got through Freecycle, some of my bean poles are old clothes racks,

I have what I call my comic garden out front which has a wheelbarrow

that wore out, a dead propane stove from a trailer,a tub from a washer,

dead propane barbecue, and some other odds and ends, I put flower

seeds in pots and set them on the stove burners and have a big bowl of

flowers on the oven door, I've got 3 bathroom basins and a toilet too, I

just have to put the two sections of the toilet back together so I can plant

the tank and the bowl.

Lois

PS-Merry-Make ,Do,Mend was originally a Puritan thing from what I read.

Hi : I like the idea of using various objects / containers to plant flowers and herbs . My raised bed gardens are surounded with red Terra Cotta blocks salvaged from the foundation of a previous house left on my property .

I just finished my hen house made from discarded pallets and a discarded fiberglass truck cap ( sometimes called a camper ). The pallets were covered in discarded chicken wire and discarded plastic mattress covers ( the kind that new mattresses come wrapped in) . Then I got some hardwood " thick and thin " boards ( imperfect ) from a local mill to cover the exterior and make hinged awning like windows. The south side has saftey glass windows salvaged from a local Drug Store that was getting new ones .Just got some 2x4 in wire fencing ( dog wire from a yard sale ) to finish a run for the rooster and the girls . The chickens get the run of the property a few hours a day to eat grass ,hunt worms , slugs , and grubs . No big production but pleanty of huge eggs . Timothy T/ Mountain Mist

He he he he. I just recycled my redundant recycle bin (the council gave us new ones last month) into a garlic bed.

I do a lot more skip diving now that I've joined Ssish. I got a nice galvanised planter and some fire wood a month or so ago. The planter has holes in it but that just adds to the drainage.

I tend to give away rather than receive on Freecycle (I'm never quick enough) but I did get a small table for the conservatory at the weekend.

My ex was a dreadful horder. He was also an odd job man so kept coming back from jobs with this and that. I'm slowly working my way through it all, finding uses for the various bits and bobs he left when he moved out or swapping what I can't use. Talking of which, does anyone want a dozen spent flourescent light bulbs?

Cheers
Zoe

Thomzo
We call it dumpster diving here but all the same , a good find is a good find if you can put it to use . If your x left any copper pipes , brass fittings , aluminum , or lead , you could probably sell them . Around here scrap metals are as good as cash , if you have the need . FreeCycle is good to give back to the comunity . Giving away stuff is good too . It makes room for the good things to follow . In my neighborhood we recycle favors / a helping hand . I hoard something a neighbor needs and they often have hoarded something I needed . We've been doing this for a while , yet we haven't run out of those somethings yet
Mike

I love making do and mending!

I'd love to live as my grandparents did in the war (obviously without the threat of death...or *shudders* the air raid sirens).

I like the idea of making as much as you can from one thing. I've got a patchwork quilt going at the moment made from 4 pairs of trousers that i've cut up - i'm going to use the seams to make a rag rug out of too.

Hurray for you Fee, I haven't started my quilt yet-had a bit of a bug this week and let Rick do all the gardening.

I'm hoping to snap out of this bug soon and get going in more planting myself.

I see you posted that you got a sliver at the allotment the other day-Rick picks up at least 1 a day around here or working, because nearly all he does is gardening-and he walloped his finger with a hammer when he was fencing-Farming stuff can be dangerous too!

I have to get my tetanus shot. I'm overdue for it.

Take care, keep going on that quilt, I'll catch up one of these days!
Lois

How about saying it as 'make, do and mend' rather than 'make-do and mend'? Bit more positive maybe...