Farming with Free Stuff, Take Three

Frugal, cheap, environmentally conscious--whatever you want to call us, the fact is that we're hopeless dumpster divers who revel finding new life for what others consider useless junk. Living near Shippensburg University, every semester there's always plenty of 'stuff' sitting curbside as students move out. When I saw a couple frat boys carrying a cheap-o metal futon frame to the curb, I whipped right over and told them to just load it on up into the truck.

"Lady, you don't want this. It's broken," one of the boys said.

"That's ok. It's going to be dismantled and turn it into a hay rack," I replied. It never hit the ground.

Ralph is the master when it comes to building useful farm implements out of salvaged materials. So it came as no surprise when he turned the broken futon frame into not one, but two useful items.
The first was a hay rack. The spacing on the frame is perfect for a fence line hay rack.
Not one to turn down free plastic 55-gallon barrels, there is always a few extra stashed away for much needed waterers. So it wasn't a stretch to stabilize two inside the frame ends to keep the goats and calves from rolling them around.
In addition to his practical side, Ralph has a playful nature. I noticed this on the side of the barn the other day. When I asked him about it, he admitted, "I swept the barn floor and that's what I found."