Show Me Your Pallet Projects!

[gtaus]

This is the sifter I made from 1/4" hardware cloth and lumber scraps. The outer flanges around the bottom fit down over the top edge of the trashcan and secure its position. I fill it with whatever I'm sifting, shake the can back and forth in all directions and the sifted material drops into the can.

The 1/4-inch hardware cloth seems to be about the perfect sized screen for seed starting soil. My mini sifter is a bit smaller because I sift the potting soil into a plastic dish pan in the house. But I like the idea of making a frame to fit over a 5-gallon bucket if you are sifting outside and don't mind a little bit of sifted soil from a square frame over a round bucket.

Of course, I invested money in my cement mixer compost sifter for sifting out my chicken run compost outside. I have different sized wire inserts for sifting out compost. I do have a 1/4-inch hardware cloth insert for fine compost for seed starting. I just had a bad bug problem using my chicken run compost inside the house. Too much natural life in my outdoor compost, I imagine.

That cement mixer compost sifter is a great investment if you need to fill lots of raised beds with fresh compost. It takes little time and almost no labor compared to sifting with a wooden frame and mesh.

I do a lot more gardening now than I did years before. I actually work less due to the cement mixer compost sifter making the ready to use compost and growing everything in pallet wood raised beds where I don't have to bend over all day.

That pallet wood base was a great addition to my setup. I got the drum barrel high enough to put my garden wagons underneath it. Also, I used some reclaimed large lag bolts and washers that I took off some industrial pallets to secure the feet of the cement mixer to the pallets. Now it does not bounce or walk all over the place when running. Very nice for me.

 

[Smokerbill]

I saw a steel cement mixer for sale on OfferUp a while back, $50 I think. Should've got it.

 

[gtaus]

I got a deal on cull lumber at Homedepot yesterday. ... The six boards cost me $42. New price would've been around $140.

I always drop into Home Depot when I go to town and check out their culled lumber carts. I picked up full sheets of OSB boards that were in perfect condition, but had been used as shelving, so they were selling them for ~80% off the retail price. I have use those culled OSB boards to make the tops of my modular workbenches. Saved a lot of money.

Sounds like you got a really good deal on the cull lumber. Sometimes the flaw in the lumber might be in a place that you can cut off, or cut out, and use the rest of the board like new. You just save a lot of money.

 

[gtaus]

I saw a steel cement mixer for sale on OfferUp a while back, $50 I think. Should've got it.

I looked for a used cement mixer for almost 2 years before I gave up and bought a new one, on sale, for a little less than $200.00. But I would really have been happy with a used cement mixer.

FWIW, I calculated that I was able to sift out $60 worth of chicken run compost per hour with my cement mixer compost sifter. My investment in my setup paid for itself in the first 4 hours of use! I don't regret buying a new cement mixer, but I would have been just as happy with a used mixer that worked.

Maybe you will see another cement mixer come up for sale. If you manually sift compost right now, and if you spend a lot of time or energy on sifting, a cement mixer compost sifter will take you to another level.

Be warned, since sifting compost is so easy for me now, I have more than doubled my raised bed gardens! And I will probably add another raised bed, or two, this year as well.

 

[fuzzi]

Thanks for the support. At least I can still buy most of what I did not grow. I will have saved some money by starting my own seeds, but my starts did not have the germination rate I expected this year. I think the seeds were too old. I'm tossing out my old seeds after my experience this year.

I am definitely better at building pallet wood raised beds and planters. And my 6-pack veggie packs still save us lots of money on fresh food.

I saw some friends at Menards this past weekend. They have an unheated greenhouse for their plant starts. But they told me that they really had a bad year this year and were in the store buying veggie 6-packs to cover their shortages. Seems like it was too cold too long in the springtime and the seeds just did not take off for them this year.

I wonder...could we feed our expired seeds to our chickens?

 

[Molpet]

I wonder...could we feed our expired seeds to our chickens?

Some seeds are treated