Homesteaders Bonanza! (Recycling)

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My loving hubby just called from work to inform me that he had scrounged about 40 sheets of heavy-duty 12ft long steel siding! And there is another 40 that he couldn't fit in the truck, but made plans to pick up in a couple days. This will certainly come in handy for making nice storage & loafing sheds. Just goes to show that if you keep your eyes & mind open you can build your homestead for very little!

-- ellie (elnorams@aol.com), December 19, 2001

Answers

Response to Homesteaders Bonanza!

Merry Christmas!!:)

-- mary (mlg@aol.com), December 19, 2001.

Response to Homesteaders Bonanza!

Deck your walls with free steel siding, falalalala, lalalala!

-- Cheryl in KS (cherylmccoy@rocketmail.com), December 19, 2001.

Ido the sme thing at my place of employment.I pick up alot of steel that gets thrown away. Better than going to the steel shop to buy it.I used pallets and plywood for a pig pen. Must of worked well. We never had a loose pig. We just got back the meat. Sure is GOOD! Merry Christmas Ray chesterville,Me The Farm

-- Ray Chesterville,Me (thecfarm@midmaine.com), December 20, 2001.

it's a good thing I don't have the space or I'd have a full time job collecting discarded materials. This area here in southern California is a huge bonanza. I routinely sees tons of building materials, free mobile homes, even things like free boats and trailers. Not all junked out either. Alot of people here don't seem to want to be bothered with selling used things and just toss them out or look for someone to haul it off. I saw this attitude when I lived in the affluent Mainline Philadelphia area. Apartment complexes, especially around colleges are great places to go scrounging. A dumpster caught my eye a while back. It was full of someones household belongings, some even brand new and still packaged. Even a nearly new tv and some stereo components. Someone was either in a huge hurry to vacate or someone got mad at their roomate and threw all their stuff out. I snagged quite a bit though I ended up selling and passing most of it on. Most construction sites are happy to let you haul off their waste, much of which is in great shape. Lots of businesses find it cheaper to throw out inventory rather that pay for space to keep it.

Typical southern California houses are fronted with a 2 car garage. You don't see many traditional homes out here with a front porch. I don't know who started it and I think a garage is the least attractive part of a home but anyway that's how it's done here. Every day in this part of the country 100s of solid wood garage doors are replaced with more modern versions. This goes on so much that there's actually a garage door recyling industry here. Most of them go across the border to Mexico to build houses. There are villages across the border nearly entirely built with discarded American garage doors.

-- Dave (something@somewhere.com), December 20, 2001.


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