"put your money where your mouth is"

okay - there is enough crap lying around  the manor that i have scavenged from other people`s trash. time to roll up my sleeves and do something with it all, eh?

HAD to throw in that canadian expression ;-)

seriously though, the point of scavenging is to get something you can use or materials for something you can build and use. so here we are - doing both, there's a bonus!

this is the NW corner of the manor - i had planned to put an outdoor kitchen here, but there is sun only in the late afternoon.. we want to wash dishes in the early part of  the day, so this is no good. and it won't be just dishes - we will wash vegetables, tools , etc. so it's really an outdoor wash area we are building here..

notice the rhubarb in pots - my mom rescued them from the  rock garden last year - we will transplant them this week.

so lets get gonzo.. a good circular saw is a must, cordless drill too! and some screws and extension cord running from the basement..

here is an awesome re-use. i did a lot of wiring last fall/winter and went through this spool of 14-2 wire. turns out the empty spool is the best extension cord storage ever - super thin and light metal is perfect - free, yo!!

got this sink in someones large garbage pick a couple of weeks back - free, again!!

this i got last fall from the trash behind Home Hardware - it is the bottom for a shower stall that i guess failed QA or something, who cares? CAN YOU SAY FREE!!! ;-))

odd pieces of pressure treated lumber that were  also in the Home Hardware trash - they can't sell them, but i can use them, yup, free...

i got a bunch if thin shims @ Landry (local hardware store) a while back. they are used to space pressure treated lumber. the legs on these types of plastic sinks tend to be loose and wiggle - to secure them solidly,  i just jammed these shims in between the inserted legs and the plastic slots for the legs and then snapped them off - this ISN'T being scored on presentation .. take a guess... rhymes with bee!

measure lumber & cut accordingly...

use as many 2nd hand/stray screws as you can. i used deck screws for this and had to use a few new ones - ouch... 25 cents  :-( 

oh yeah, there was the electricity for the saw and drill...  another 25 cents - getting ugly here... okay, back to the base... pretty simple, you can see how it's made, it's uh... a bunch of used 2 x s, har har!

 (i got skimpy on the legs and used REALLY crappy scraps... i'll save the pressure treated stuff for something else ;-))

now the clever bit... the fiberglass resin on the bottom of the shower stall is hard as a rock and a bit contoured, so i got a tire sidewall (i have a "collection" of about 200 of these from tire gardening) to dampen the seating of the shower stall base and provide some grip.

i knew this would work out big-time. i have found a number of uses for the sidewalls i cut out, i will post about that later... if you tire garden - you wind up with a LOT of sidewalls - lol!

yup, gratuit!!

here is the final product - and i cheated...the stand on the left in this picture was a quick and dirty i built last year for our rain barrel. the rain barrels are going to be used differently this year and i have some gutter work to do before i set them up, it was built out of CRAP wood a small pallet and nails - all free!

here is the final setup out near the garden and hose for spraying and trenches for draining. we will be able to move it at any time and once a permanent location is determined, i will add a faucet and drain pipes - for now - perfect!!! place to put stuff, place to wash stuff, place to rinse and dry stuff - all on the major cheap AND reducing, reusing and recycling!

all in all - this "project" took 1 hour and cost 50 cents (cdn$). it illustrates nicely the benefits to successful scavenging - cheap, easy and functional. we now have a big cleaning area for the summer which will serve us well!

7:30 @ night - this is what it looks like from the front of the house - the pic doesn't do the lushness justice!!

BONUS!!  kymber planted these radishes 3 days days ago - already big and healthy - YAY! helps to have such a green thumb as the planting queen, thanks to her, we'll be eating real well this year!!

cheers all!