PEP Badge: Oddball

Below is my submission. Sorry for the repeat. Originally I didn't see the submit button and thought one just posted a reply. I can't edit it out now though.

I didn't think a lot that I do would qualify for PEP given that I'm on a small urban lot. But finding this category maybe opens the door? I'm submitting here because it uses an adhesive. It didn't look like it would qualify in the metalworking PEP. If this is more appropriate somewhere else I can move it where needed.

I submit making steel garden arbors from repurposed carpet racks.

I wanted to maximize growing space on our small lot. I'd been wondering what I'd use for going vertical in the garden. I tried some bits and bobs over the last few years but most just rotted away or had to be contantly repaired. That seemed like wasted labor to me so I had in my mind to do something more lasting.  

A local store went out of business in early February. There was a huge rug rack that operated much the same way the old poster displays in department stores worked...like the pages of a book. I was talking to the manager the week before final closing. I asked what was going to happen to the rug rack and he said they paid a lot for it but it wasn't selling at the deep going out of business discount. He asked why I'd consider it and I said I was looking at ways to grow plants vertically and would use the "page" frame portions to make arbors between the beds (over the paths). He told me to come back Monday and anything in the store would be free. I did, and it was. The "pages" are steel circle and square stock. The overall frame that held all of the pages was far too heavy and beastly to use. It did not disassemble and was a HEAVY steel square stock. I'm not sure what happened to it but suspect it was given to the metal scrappers.

The large "page frames were rectangular, about 70" x 95".
The smaller ones were triangular, and the long side was about 66".

Some ends had a few inches of longer pegs or extensions.

I took two of the triangles to make a top for each arbor by using a heavy grade exterior adhesive and then screwed the pieces together. I then affixed them to the long side ones by the same methods to form the arbor frams. I tested them this year and they expanded my ability to grow by maximizing actual bed space for more plants and allowing me to grow up and over the arbors. I went pretty well though I may look at adding a few horizontal "rungs" in order to aid plants especially in wind. I did use jute twine this last season to help vines go up (as with tomatoes, cukes, cucamelons, etc) and it worked ok...but seems to lack true support for plants that way and gets me back to the same problem of having to redo them each year...thus time spent redoing something I could be using on other tasks.

The almost 8 foot high structures are movable. I still have more racks that will to be used to aid tall plants along the Northern fence. I'll be installing those in about a month as I'm awaiting final leaf drop so I can make sure I'm placing the structures so as not to interrupt perennial plant emergence. If I have anything left over, there may be one or two more structures.

Not only can they be used as arbors, but we hang plants and bird feeders from them and they are used as bird perches by a fair number of birds daily. The birds enrich the beds as well since they spend so much tiome roosting on the structures.

I'm pretty happy with the score and they will be used for years until they rust away.

On the manufacture side:

1  rug racks - free
2) two tubes of exterior grade heavy construction adhesive - $6.00 each = $12.00
3) bolts, screws, & washers - roughly $14.00

Delivery of the racks was free thanks to someone on the scene. I only live about a mile from the store.

I already had the drill and saws. I did mangle 4 drill bits but they were all from the quarter bin at the restore last year so $1.00.

I did have to saw off solid core stock projections (about 1/2") in order to be able to join them and the yellowish colored bent pieces (round stock) from the big racks in order to use the remaining portions as legs to sink in the ground.

Cleaned all of the steel so there would be a dirt-free surface for the adhesive.

A friend just gave me some odds and ends paint cans and caulk from a cleanup he did. I think there is enough black to paint the adhesive that shows but I'm going to use some leftover caulk to seal any cracks between racks before painting. Free.

I think that makes the total approximately $27.00. I already got that out of them from use this season so the rest is gravy. Diverted from the metal recycling or waste stream were metal racks, paint, & caulk.

Now if I could just salvage some big cattle panels for trying to grow gourds and squashes over the compost area and up to the fire escape...

Since there is no BB for spring tapping. Here is my submission for oddball.

We found a spring in a forest. Here are two short videos. First is showing us working:



The second showing the water coming out of pipe:


 
Update (Trying to complete requirements) :

PEP is about showing how you have built these skills for yourself, we can't approve it.

I watched the video of Sepp Holzer showing how to tap the spring, made by Russian authors  on youtube chanel  Бюро Землематика
I think that titile of video is tapping the spring in Russian.
It is so clearly presented  in less then two minutes 3:10 to  5:0 min. I guess one doesn't have to be geologist to understand the whole process, or to speak German and Russian.
With some understanding - "feeling" for clay and pebbles...



Although it was team effort it was that I had luck to stamble upon the video first and then I showed it to my friends and convinced them that we should do it in this manner.  Which maybe also doesn't qualify, but is fun to write about tapping the spring (: Hope I am not wasting your time.

Staff note (gir bot) : Someone approved this submission.
Note: We're sorry, all BBs are for things you do by yourself (1 person). It appears you did this as a team effort so it doesn't qualify. Great project though!

Thanks for approving the BB.  It was really pleasure to do this  "project".  Just curious, you say it doesn't qualify but it is approved.  

If I understand Paul values, I think community efforts are very appreciated. I must admit I so lucky to have these two friends who share the same values, and wanna do crazy stuff.
So that I don't do stuff alone. Pity they are not on permies yet.
But I guess they would deserve some points too (-:

Inspired by John Michael Greer's book Green Wizardry, which is listed in your permaculture 100 (https://permies.com/w/book-reviews), by the way, I wrapped all of my water pipes with insulation, saw a resultant savings on both water and gas bills, and blogged about it (https://www.catintheflock.com/2021/04/a-small-good-thing-you-can-do-stop-climate-change-without-breaking-your-bank-or-changing-your-diet.html#comment-5330602641). I expected this kind of thing to be a BB under "Nest" or "Homesteading," but it's not... so I guess it goes here? I submit for approval for a PEP BB in the Oddball category...

First, as I point out on the blog, note the huge amount of emissions in the residential building category, so let's see this as an eco-opportunity:



Side-by-side pipes, one wrapped, one not yet:



Both wrapped:



Wrapping in process:



What the wraps look like before you put them on, skinny pool noodles:



Done:

I submit my partially underground debris play shelter.

I am sure experts could do a lot better than I did, but, my kids love it and I learned a lot about natural building in the process. And it's entirely built from stuff on our property (excepting a small amount of twine).

There's a thread about my debris shelter here.

My son really, really wanted an underground house (thanks to Paul, the Ants at Ant Village, and permies telling him about wofatis), so I set out to try to make him something underground.

excavating the hill with 'help' from my kids

Then I put in retaining walls. They were made by sinking cedar posts into the ground, then using those to hold up cedar sticks that would hold the dirt. Interestingly enough, none it it eroded, and even in the wet season, the floor was never muddy, let alone a puddle. That's a bit of a miracle, because almost everything is muddy here!

everything is made of cedar to resist rot. I pealed all the wood myself.

I used curved cedar branches to form the walls, and had them rest on a piece of bamboo. All are tied together with jute twine.

the basic structure, viewed from the side

and viewed from the front

I then, in my spare time, wove more hazel rods and bamboo to kind of wattle the walls for added stability.

some of the weaving

Two days ago, I had a bunch of cedar branches. So I finally gave it debris! My kids had decided the side was a back door, so I left that open. I wattled a bunch more bamboo to hold the branches on top.

the branches are getting laid on--and the kids like it!

Lots more branches got added. The kids liked having little "windows" to slide their toys through at the bottom, so I left those open.

covered with branches!

And here's the view from the front!

the view from the front!

And here's the view inside. I took fresh cedar bark from peeling the tree, and used it to weave the walls more to hold back the branches and add more stability. There's also solar Christmas lights on the ceiling. You can also see that the walls have remained stable  and no erosion has occurred. We dug out the floor a bit more and leveled it sometime last year.

view of the inside!

The kids now have a fun, shaded place to play outside, and I've learned a lot what to do--and not do!--with this sort of structure!

I believe I have finally nickle and dimed myself to 40 Oddball points, enough to earn the Straw badge!

6 points playpit pergola       https://permies.com/wiki/pep-badge-oddball#928123
5 points goose coop            https://permies.com/wiki/20/97787/pep-oddball/PEP-Badge-Oddball#973565
2 points herb spiral             https://permies.com/wiki/20/97787/pep-oddball/PEP-Badge-Oddball#973706
.5 points spatula handle      https://permies.com/wiki/20/97787/pep-oddball/PEP-Badge-Oddball#980719
3 points duck trampoline     https://permies.com/wiki/30/97787/pep-oddball/PEP-Badge-Oddball#996373
1 points hacky sack             https://permies.com/wiki/30/97787/pep-oddball/PEP-Badge-Oddball#1001274
2 points watchband             https://permies.com/wiki/30/97787/pep-oddball/PEP-Badge-Oddball#1003355
.5 points niddy noddy          https://permies.com/wiki/30/97787/pep-oddball/PEP-Badge-Oddball#1016960
4 points castle                    https://permies.com/wiki/40/97787/pep-oddball/PEP-Badge-Oddball#1041838
.5 points compost bin          https://permies.com/wiki/40/97787/pep-oddball/PEP-Badge-Oddball#1048563
1 point knit doll dress          https://permies.com/wiki/40/97787/pep-oddball/PEP-Badge-Oddball#1056407
2.5 points candle making     https://permies.com/wiki/40/97787/pep-oddball/PEP-Badge-Oddball#1059828
.5 points rocket stove          https://permies.com/wiki/60/97787/pep-oddball/PEP-Badge-Oddball#1107393
1 point short bow                https://permies.com/wiki/120/97787/pep-oddball/PEP-Badge-Oddball#1180363
1 point sewn doll dress        https://permies.com/wiki/130/97787/pep-oddball/PEP-Badge-Oddball#1190715
1 point hair twine               https://permies.com/wiki/160/97787/pep-oddball/PEP-Badge-Oddball#1230974
3 points cross bow              https://permies.com/wiki/160/97787/pep-oddball/PEP-Badge-Oddball#1231794
3 points natural stain           https://permies.com/wiki/160/97787/pep-oddball/PEP-Badge-Oddball#1236399
2.5 point debris play shelter    https://permies.com/wiki/170/97787/pep-oddball/PEP-Badge-Oddball#1250679

Total=40 points!

I built an adjustable height shelf for my seedlings so as they continue to grow I can lower the position of the shelf. I used some old leftover wood from a fence that we took down and used the salvaged screws as well. I thought about different fancy ways to make it adjustable then realized I could just use blocks of wood and stack/remove them to adjust the height. It's 4' x 20" and the blocks are 4" x 4" x 4". Took about an hour to complete.

The description happened to include "tiny home", so here's mine! My wife and I have been building out a skoolie (school bus conversion) since June 2020. We moved in December 2020 and are finished with all but the shower, which is 90% complete. I've put in about 1,000 hours doing flooring, framing, plumbing, electrical, carpentry, lighting, and cold metalworking. I have about a zillion photos of the build, but I'm just going to include a few before and afters. This is my first badge posting, so let me know if you need to see anything else!

Very nice project Logan!  Before the evaluators give it a score, could you provide a bit more info?  Which parts of the build did you do yourself and which did your wife or other people help with?  They'd like to see a bunch more pictures of the construction process.  Plus, could we get a single picture of the wood stove with the door open and a spoon or fork sitting on the stove?  Sorry but that's to verify you didn't swipe the pictures from someone else

Also, you likely did a bunch of other BBs as you built this.  So you might want to check out the Electrical, Plumbing, Dimensional Woodworking and Metalworking badges for other BBs you'd want to also apply for.  If you do want to claim those BBs, you don't get double credit here in Oddball.   So, for instance, if you want to get the plumbing BB for putting in the sink, here in Oddball you'd specify that installing the sink isn't part of this submission.  Those BBs all have photo requirements that you might not have captured at the time so it's likely that many of those BBs can't be applied for and this Oddball submission is the place for that stuff.

Does that make sense?  I'll undo your BB submission above so you can do a fresh one below.  Or edit that one and resubmit.

Thanks!

Thank you, Mike! Go ahead and undo the submission. I'll break out the project into other BBs and then come back and submit for an Oddball if it makes sense.

Thanks!
Logan