We up-cycle stuff. A trendy word for recycling, re-using, taking donations, trading, what have you..we do it. No shame, it is the reality of starting up a homestead, a farm, a business. It is the way it goes. Start ups always have Large expense and limited to no income. You must keep costs low if you plan to stay out of the red. You can not spend a fortune on a new coop if you then have no money available to put chickens in it, right?! That is like buying a new house and having no money to furnish it..you are house poor.
Here is the last project we up-cycled the materials for last fall. Our newest building on the homestead; the big chicken coop. Maybe we should name it..thoughts?
We weren't out asking everyone on the street for their stuff or anything weird like that. We just payed attention to what people wanted to get rid of, and if we could use it, we did. Anders works construction and I sent him off each day with me in the back of his head telling him to look for materials they would throw out that we could use. He began coming home with our old Volvo station wagon stuffed with old plywood (which had strategically placed square holes cut out of it), wood and other supplies that they typically just throw out. Then I asked him to spend some of his free time on Craigslist searching for other materials that we could use. Next thing you know, we are in Minneapolis with our trailer picking up tons of 2x4s from someones house; they were remodeling. The catch? The 2x4's were full of nails.
Was that the easiest thing for Anders? No, but they were free and that is what we needed. He spent the time to pull those nails out and to patch up the holes in the plywood with other wood scraps. We were even able to get that wooden gate to the left of the coop for free, in town from someone who was done with it. It is rather ridiculous how excited we were about that one! We really needed a gate for the fence we were putting up over there, and just weren't sure what that was going to look like yet.
By the time we were done with finding supplies, I think we bought some linoleum for the floor inside (this makes for easy cleaning), a few shingles, and a few long 2x6s. We even used an old door from our house as the coop door, and a few up-cycled windows from an old home. In the end, I think we decided we spent a few hundred dollars to build that perfectly functional chicken coop above. I think that is pretty darn impressive. My husband built that from nothing but the measurements we wanted (how many chickens it would fit) and worked with the supplies we had. I think he did marvelously. I must note, when we met he had built nothing but a computer himself....now he is getting rather accomplished. I love it! Is that coop the prettiest thing you have ever seen? Um, noo. Do the chickens care that we mixed four paints together to get that groovy green? No, they feel it's warmth just the same. Did we get exactly what we wanted within a budget that was were we wanted it? YES!
So, why do we Up-cycle? Because it is necessary for us to do it while feeding our family of five the kind of food we believe is healthy, to enjoy the freedom of homeschooling and doing the traveling for learning that can go along with it, adding more to the homestead than one expensive item a year, and all the other things that life brings us. Who wants to be "chicken coop poor"? I think we also do it now because there is kind-of a sense of adventure to it.
Look what comes to us when we need it, and look what we can do with it!
We are currently in the process of gathering donated windows for the green house Anders will be making this summer. I think that will be so exciting!
Would you like to see the First thing we ever Up-cycled on the homestead?
Just for fun...here it is... I bet you'll never guess what it is...(this is a hint)....
Our very first, little, chicken coop.
Some really great family friends donated this to us, we just had to find a trailer to fit it, and we had to drive to Pine River MN to get it.
We have a bit of a hill we had to contend with...I really wanted the chickens to have that beautiful tree to lounge under.
I have to tell you this was a rather interesting thing to partake in. Adding a building to a property that you are not building on that spot can be tricky! The placement was tough, and then helping to tip it back upright, was hilarious!!! I was thinking, "Oh my, we have just hauled this thing for hours and broken it after 10 minutes", (insert weep here).
But in the end, it worked out well. Here it is now about three days ago. We have our future roasters (meat birds) in this coop (which is insulated and has a run attached now), which is now our brooder. I am so excited to see what our other up-cycles bring us. This one has already housed many flocks. I just feel like they have so much character, charm, and of course-functionality; but for me probably the most, sentimentality. We worked hard for these buildings; we worked to find them, we worked to re-coop them, we labored to incorporate them, and really, I love them!
I have really come to appreciate up-cycling in a way I never thought I would have. I thought it was a cheap thing, a penny pincher type of mindset..but I see it differently now. Many of these things, most especially the large coop items, weren't in great shape, it took a lot of time to pull the nails and patch the boards..but look what all that "trash" made! I realized that we didn't have to go this route, we could have spent the money, but we didn't have to do that because this was a better option. We were able to keep the lifestyle we wanted AND were able to build the coop just as we wanted too. It took a bit more time and some hauling, but we got exactly what we wanted. We just asked and manifested it. I think that is great. I am so excited for the future for us. I am glad you all are along for the ride.
Do you have a favorite project you up-cycled some, or all of the materials for? We would love to hear about them! Please share below!
Here is the last project we up-cycled the materials for last fall. Our newest building on the homestead; the big chicken coop. Maybe we should name it..thoughts?
Anders and I had been talking about our need for a bigger coop for a while, but it was going to be a fairly big project, and life is life....busy. Well, and budgeting in a coop when your home needs siding and we needed other things, is a tough sell. I was adamant, we WERE selling more eggs and meat birds next year, it was a divine message I received (sounds more convincing this way, no?)... and we were going to manifest it; no more waiting around, we do it Now. Anders was not such a fan, how in the world are we going to budget a 50 bird coop? Anders priced out what he thought it would cost to build that 50 bird coop you are looking at...and can you believe that his estimate was 1,200.00-$1,300.00! That just wasn't something we were willing to budget in for a coop to put the chickens in. So, crafty me, I get a thinkin', because when I want something, I make it happen. I had another divine inspiration my husband hates to love; we were going to Up-Cycle it. We were going to get as much of the materials for free as we could.
We weren't out asking everyone on the street for their stuff or anything weird like that. We just payed attention to what people wanted to get rid of, and if we could use it, we did. Anders works construction and I sent him off each day with me in the back of his head telling him to look for materials they would throw out that we could use. He began coming home with our old Volvo station wagon stuffed with old plywood (which had strategically placed square holes cut out of it), wood and other supplies that they typically just throw out. Then I asked him to spend some of his free time on Craigslist searching for other materials that we could use. Next thing you know, we are in Minneapolis with our trailer picking up tons of 2x4s from someones house; they were remodeling. The catch? The 2x4's were full of nails.
Was that the easiest thing for Anders? No, but they were free and that is what we needed. He spent the time to pull those nails out and to patch up the holes in the plywood with other wood scraps. We were even able to get that wooden gate to the left of the coop for free, in town from someone who was done with it. It is rather ridiculous how excited we were about that one! We really needed a gate for the fence we were putting up over there, and just weren't sure what that was going to look like yet.
By the time we were done with finding supplies, I think we bought some linoleum for the floor inside (this makes for easy cleaning), a few shingles, and a few long 2x6s. We even used an old door from our house as the coop door, and a few up-cycled windows from an old home. In the end, I think we decided we spent a few hundred dollars to build that perfectly functional chicken coop above. I think that is pretty darn impressive. My husband built that from nothing but the measurements we wanted (how many chickens it would fit) and worked with the supplies we had. I think he did marvelously. I must note, when we met he had built nothing but a computer himself....now he is getting rather accomplished. I love it! Is that coop the prettiest thing you have ever seen? Um, noo. Do the chickens care that we mixed four paints together to get that groovy green? No, they feel it's warmth just the same. Did we get exactly what we wanted within a budget that was were we wanted it? YES!
So, why do we Up-cycle? Because it is necessary for us to do it while feeding our family of five the kind of food we believe is healthy, to enjoy the freedom of homeschooling and doing the traveling for learning that can go along with it, adding more to the homestead than one expensive item a year, and all the other things that life brings us. Who wants to be "chicken coop poor"? I think we also do it now because there is kind-of a sense of adventure to it.
Look what comes to us when we need it, and look what we can do with it!
We are currently in the process of gathering donated windows for the green house Anders will be making this summer. I think that will be so exciting!
Would you like to see the First thing we ever Up-cycled on the homestead?
Just for fun...here it is... I bet you'll never guess what it is...(this is a hint)....
Our very first, little, chicken coop.
Some really great family friends donated this to us, we just had to find a trailer to fit it, and we had to drive to Pine River MN to get it.
We have a bit of a hill we had to contend with...I really wanted the chickens to have that beautiful tree to lounge under.
I have to tell you this was a rather interesting thing to partake in. Adding a building to a property that you are not building on that spot can be tricky! The placement was tough, and then helping to tip it back upright, was hilarious!!! I was thinking, "Oh my, we have just hauled this thing for hours and broken it after 10 minutes", (insert weep here).
But in the end, it worked out well. Here it is now about three days ago. We have our future roasters (meat birds) in this coop (which is insulated and has a run attached now), which is now our brooder. I am so excited to see what our other up-cycles bring us. This one has already housed many flocks. I just feel like they have so much character, charm, and of course-functionality; but for me probably the most, sentimentality. We worked hard for these buildings; we worked to find them, we worked to re-coop them, we labored to incorporate them, and really, I love them!
I have really come to appreciate up-cycling in a way I never thought I would have. I thought it was a cheap thing, a penny pincher type of mindset..but I see it differently now. Many of these things, most especially the large coop items, weren't in great shape, it took a lot of time to pull the nails and patch the boards..but look what all that "trash" made! I realized that we didn't have to go this route, we could have spent the money, but we didn't have to do that because this was a better option. We were able to keep the lifestyle we wanted AND were able to build the coop just as we wanted too. It took a bit more time and some hauling, but we got exactly what we wanted. We just asked and manifested it. I think that is great. I am so excited for the future for us. I am glad you all are along for the ride.
Do you have a favorite project you up-cycled some, or all of the materials for? We would love to hear about them! Please share below!
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