Cheap building supplies are out there!

[Foxinthehenhouse]

No problem! Many folks don't realize that this kind of stuff exists out there and is otherwise wasted.

Reduce, reuse, recycle, and re-purpose helps everyone.

Wish everyone would be like you! The world be in better shape!
Thanks!

 

[Foxinthehenhouse]

I’m so impressed with what you do! We need more people in the world like you!

 

[Berrycute]

Here is a photo of my latest haul.

My coop was built with the wood from these disassembled crates (everything except for the shingled roof and pressure treated 4x4s and floor joists).

The 3rd pic is of my son's playhouse that i intentionally made to look like an old outhouse. All the framing is from the crates. The siding was scrap wood from an old pig sty that i tore down on the property to scavenge wood to be used on our fireplace and the roof is left over shingles from the coop build.

The goat house is at the far end of the property. I will see if i can remember to snap a pic of it later today.

All the furniture has been made for others and i never realized that I didn't photograph any of it. I'll see if they will send me some pix too.

The rest are just small little projects or Christmas presents. I built 2 "christmas tree" shaped corner shelves for my mom to display Christmas decorations, a countertop wine bottle holder, countless photo frames both rustic and refined, and the 2 rectangle boxes were lined with tanned deer hide (i did myself) and were containers used to hold personalized hand made hunting knives (not made by me) to be given to my father and uncle for christmas

These are beautiful pieces. You are talented. Thank you for sharing. I don’t know if I can find anything like those crates here in Texas. Unless I travel far we don’t have saw mills either. So I get pallets and reuse those when I find them free or cheap. Thank you for sharing.

 

[aart]

I wonder about the cost of raising a hog compared to the meat if you buy the sales. I just don't buy bacon, now, except special occasions. Seems to me there's no reason for the high prices except the commercial programming to get people to "value" bacon. Just bought several pounds of pork shoulder butt for $1/lb.

Well, it is the tastiest part, after the tenderloin(whether roasted or smoked for Canadian bacon), and not as much volume of it considering the whole hog.
So it makes sense.

I've already decided raising chickens for meat is no good, as there are regular sales of thighs and legs for $1/lb.

Yeah, and you can buy grocery eggs for less than a buck in most places.
Most folks don't raise chickens for food because it's less expensive,
it's more about the quality of life for the animals.

 

[kodster]

Our local mills are getting in on the action now....unfortunately. Kiln dried 2x4s are still cheaper at $6 but thats still 3x the price they were 18mos ago. Rough sawn is always cheaper and green wood (unseasoned) is cheaper yet but comes with its own set of issues.
I plan to build our future horse shelter (not barn) / goat birthing barn from trees I cut on our own property. The wood will be green but so are many log homes built today. Plan for the shrinkage and it should work.

Portable saw mills can be purchased or rented or chainsaw mills are even cheaper (require larger CC chainsaws than those typically used for cutting firewood) to cut the beams and boards.

Until (IF EVER) prices return to "normal" its time to think outside the box.

Our local Wally World has bacon at almost $10/lb. At that rate I'll be raising hogs next year for slaughter on top of everything else.

Which explains why piglets (feeder pigs, livestock breeders, et al) are so hard to find this year. Like the chickens last year, after the egg shortages, people are snagging them up quick, and realizing those of us who homestead, prep, return back to the ways of our grandparents who lived through the Great Depression era (my parents lived through it as children, and thusly, passed their knowledge and skills on down to me as a way of life), etc., were not nutso after all.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Which explains why piglets (feeder pigs, livestock breeders, et al) are so hard to find this year. Like the chickens last year, after the egg shortages, people are snagging them up quick, and realizing those of us who homestead, prep, return back to the ways of our grandparents who lived through the Great Depression era (my parents lived through it as children, and thusly, passed their knowledge and skills on down to me as a way of life), etc., were not nutso after all.

A second factor, not making the news - swine fever has run rampant thru China's pig population. We *think* its been decimated, but as ever, its hard to get good info out of China if it reflects badly upon them. Officially, tens of millions of pigs were put down last year, and a second wave of a new variant is officially responsible for millions more deaths this year. In any event, China's purchases of pork products on the open market is up significantly, affecting prices globally.

 

[kodster]

Well, it is the tastiest part, after the tenderloin(whether roasted or smoked for Canadian bacon), and not as much volume of it considering the whole hog.
So it makes sense.


Yeah, and you can buy grocery eggs for less than a buck in most places.
Most folks don't raise chickens for food because it's less expensive,
it's more about the quality of life for the animals.

And knowing what your food consumed while alive. Whatever it eats, gets passed down the food chain to you. If antibiotics, hormones, soy, etc., are given to it, all that ends up in you and your children, if they're consuming it as well. That's why we've had early onset of puberty in our children explode exponentially in the last 60 years.

 

[aart]

antibiotics, hormones

Yes, that too, tho both of those are forbidden in chickens.

 

[blackswanstables]

FYI - i just went to my local big box store today and loaded another 12ft trailer 8ft tall with lawn mower crates for free! Ive been doing this for the last 6 yrs and have build my coop, goat houses, well houses, and some very nice corner hutches and other furniture from the wood. It takes some work to take them apart but when 2x4s are $9 a piece, free lumber is never a bad idea.

Big box stores pay to have these shipping crates hauled away for recycling, or worse, hauled to a landfill. Buy re-purposing the wood they save money and so do you. The best part is the wood may be cheap pine or nicer woods such as birch, poplar, oak, and maple and all are free!

Just passing the word to help save yall a buck or two.

 

[blackswanstables]

Here is a photo of my latest haul.

My coop was built with the wood from these disassembled crates (everything except for the shingled roof and pressure treated 4x4s and floor joists).

The 3rd pic is of my son's playhouse that i intentionally made to look like an old outhouse. All the framing is from the crates. The siding was scrap wood from an old pig sty that i tore down on the property to scavenge wood to be used on our fireplace and the roof is left over shingles from the coop build.

The goat house is at the far end of the property. I will see if i can remember to snap a pic of it later today.

All the furniture has been made for others and i never realized that I didn't photograph any of it. I'll see if they will send me some pix too.

The rest are just small little projects or Christmas presents. I built 2 "christmas tree" shaped corner shelves for my mom to display Christmas decorations, a countertop wine bottle holder, countless photo frames both rustic and refined, and the 2 rectangle boxes were lined with tanned deer hide (i did myself) and were containers used to hold personalized hand made hunting knives (not made by me) to be given to my father and uncle for christmas

I'd hire you if you were close by!