Show Me Your Pallet Projects!

[gtaus]

Thanks for the warning, @gtaus.

If you get cattle panels, and I think they would be great, I would recommend watching some YouTube videos on how to handle the panels both in transporting them and then setting them into an arch. I think if you are aware of the tension in the spring, you will be able to handle them safely.

 

[fuzzi]

They will spring back. I would recommend using the buddy system to control the cattle panels so you don't get hurt. I don't know how much tension they are under when arched, but it will act like a giant spring. 16 feet of spring in the case of a cattle panel.

This

I controlled mine with bungees, BUT I didn't trust the hooks. I used a simple overhand knot where I would have put the hooks. It held well.

 

[fuzzi]

I'm thinking they'll fit in the open trailer we have. I've seen pictures of them arched in the bed of a pickup.

Sorry for all the quesitons, but do they take on the curve when transported that way, or spring back flat? That would be some serious energy released, if they spring back!

We put them curve side first in the pickup truck:

See the bungees by the cab and the gate?

 

[Sally PB]

We put them curve side first in the pickup truck:

I need to remember this! Thank you for the picture.

 

[fuzzi]

I need to remember this! Thank you for the picture.

You're welcome!

I had to get it off my Chicken Journal thread, must have accidentally deleted some photos when I cleaned my phone recently.

 

[fuzzi]

Here's Gardener Scott creating a tomato trellis from a cattle panel:

It was Gardener Scott who first introduced me to Hugelkulture.

 

[gtaus]

I need to remember this! Thank you for the picture.

There are a number of YouTube videos showing how to load cattle panels into a pickup truck bed. Here are a few methods to consider...

I don't have an open bed pickup truck, but I do have a small utility trailer that I could use one of these methods. Depending on what kind of vehicle you have, you could probably enter that into your search, e.g. "How to load cattle panels in a _____" Watching a few videos might help you feel better about transporting cattle panels yourself. I like to watch what works for others.

 

[gtaus]

It was Gardener Scott who first introduced me to Hugelkulture.

I have watched so many videos from Gardener Scott. Great stuff.

Here is a video from Gardener Scott on how to build a pallet compost bin system...

Then you might consider doing Gardener Scott's "Lazy Composting" method with those pallet bins...

FWIW, I have a 5-bin pallet wood setup that I use for Lazy Composting. It takes me over 1 year to fill a bin, then I start on the next. When I finally get the last bin full, the material in that first bin is finished compost without me doing anything at all.

I only use my pallet wood compost bins for things I cannot feed to my chickens, or occasionally just for extra organic stuff I want to get rid of that might not be safe for the chicken run.

Almost all of my active composting goes on in the chicken run where the chickens are constantly turning the litter, breaking it down, and turning it into compost in a few months. They are constantly digging in the litter looking for tasty bugs and juicy worms. If I see an area in the chicken run that needs more work, I'll just toss the daily chicken scratch ration in that area, and the chickens will turn it over as they scratch and peck for the chicken scratch. Chickens love to do what comes naturally to them - scratching and pecking for food.

 

[gtaus]

A quick follow up on my attempts to heat my garage...

I have a double car attached garage to my house. It had electric floor heat in the slab that stopped working years ago. Last week I had an electrician come to the house and he rewired the box so I can get slab heat in the garage again. I have 4 heat lines out in the garage, but 1 line is burned out. Still, I figured 3 out 4 electric heat lines would help.

My goal for the electrical floor slab heat in the garage was to set the temperature at about 45F. That would be enough to melt off the ice and snow on the cars overnight. I am happy to say that the slab heat was maintaining the heat in the garage at 45F for the remainder of last week.

First problem solved. Next, I wanted to use my small 60,000 BTU propane heater to boost the temperature in the garage to about 55F so I could get my old bones out there and work comfortably with a jacket or sweatshirt.

I ran into a hiccup with the propane heater. I hooked up my 20lb BBQ propane tank to the heater. There was probably about 1/3 of the gas left in the BBQ tank. Unfortunatly, the heater ran only for a minute or two and stopped burning the gas and no heat was coming out of the heater. I lifted the tank and there was still a good amount of gas in the tank. So, I was thinking my heater died.

I hit YouTube to find out how to troubleshoot my heater and more specifically the gas regulator on the hose line. In one of the videos I watched, it mentioned that if a BBQ tank is left outside in extreme cold weather, and the tank is not full, that the pressure in the tank will drop to a point where the gas will not flow.

I had a spare BBQ tank outside that was full. So, I took it into the house overnight to let it warm up. The next morning, I hooked it up to my propane heater and everything worked beautifully!

I ran the heater on high, 60,000 BTU rate, for about 10 minutes. The temperature in the garage went from 45F to 56F in only 10 minutes. Then I shut off the heater. I broke down 6 pallets on the first day, then I de-nailed all the pallet wood on day 2. I also spent a good 4 hours cleaning up and organizing stuff in my garage. I was very comfortable with just a sweatshirt on. Anyways, much to my surprise, the garage is holding the heat. After 2 days, the garage is still sitting at 54F! Very nice!

I don't know the burn rate of the propane heater at the high 60,000 BTU setting, but I suspect it cost me less than $1.00 for 10 minutes burn time to get the garage heat up to 56F. That's worth every penny to me.

Of course, part of that success is because the outside the temperatures are getting above freezing in the daytime, and at night they are only going down to about 25F. A few weeks ago, we were hitting those -20F temperatures at night. That cold stretch has passed. Thankfully.

In conclusion, I have been putting hours of pallet project work out in my garage, in January, whereas I normally don't try to do anything in the garage until late March or April. Feels great to get some work done in the dead of winter. Later...

EDIT TO ADD: I found out that the burn rate of my 60,000 BTU propane heater is 7 hours on high for a 20 lb. propane tank. Given that I only ran the heater for 10 minutes, I could get 6 heating sessions per hour, or 42 10-minute heating sessions per tank. A refill on a tank is less than $15.00, but let's take $15.00/42 10-minute heating sessions and you get 25 cents for a 10 minute burn. Or, $1.50 per hour of burn time on the 60,000 BTU high setting. Even better, I had to burn the gas for 10 minutes to go from 45F to 56F. My garage is still sitting at 54F 2 days later, so I suspect it would not take very long to boost the heat a few degrees if I needed it. Maybe only a few minutes at most.

 

[chickengr]

Thanks for the link.

I don't think Dear Wife would let me transport some cattle panels on top of her SUV, but it looks like it would work fine as long as you don't scratch the car.

I bought 5 x 2 meter fencing mesh that is similar to cattle panel. they rolled it and brought it to me. it was very hard so that roll was huge.