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PEP Badge: Oddball

BB oddball - sand badge
 
pollinator
Posts: 2968
Location: Meppel (Drenthe, the Netherlands)
959
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Hi Rebekah. Very interesting to see how you tan hides and the bag you made of the elk leather!
Sorry I do not 'approve' BBs in Oddball, I find it too difficult to give points. If it weren't PEP but PEI (Permaculture Experience according to Inge) I would certainly approve this and give the highest amount of points possible.

 
pollinator
Posts: 649
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Inge Leonora-den Ouden wrote:Hi Rebekah. Very interesting to see how you tan hides and the bag you made of the elk leather!
Sorry I do not 'approve' BBs in Oddball, I find it too difficult to give points. If it weren't PEP but PEI (Permaculture Experience according to Inge) I would certainly approve this and give the highest amount of points possible.



Thanks, Inge!
 
master steward
Posts: 11844
Location: Pacific Wet Coast
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Approved submission
I wish we had a regular thread this project fit, but alas, I will just see if anyone is willing to give me a few points here! It took me 6 hours, because when I'm designing and building something I've never done before, I struggle. Bamboo is neat stuff, but it has its challenges. Being difficult to clamp being a biggie!

The goal: a lightweight, portable perch that will fit into a portable shelter that needs to house 7 laying hens.
For more details, please read the post here: https://permies.com/t/259272/portable-perch-easy-sounds

I used material on hand: bamboo I grew, a piece of HT pallet I salvaged (cut in two for the two ends) and a piece of cedar lath from an abandoned project. Living on the wet coast and using this for chickens, I chose to harvest from our selection of Stainless hardware.

The only part of the job I got any help with was cutting 2 pieces of threaded rod. My hands are not physically large enough to safely hold Hubby's grinder with the abrasive disc. The saws I can safely use DO NOT LIKE stainless rod - it breaks their teeth. Safety is important.





Most important - the happy customers! (actually, that includes me - it is light to move even though it's over 7 ft long.)

Staff note (gir bot) :

Someone approved this submission.
Note: I certify this badge bit complete and award 2 points.

 
Posts: 158
Location: Boise, ID
74
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Approved submission

The Bridge to Waterbethia, and what else I did with all those pallets.

In 2020 I got chickens. A cluckin good move for a cooped up soul, wanting to spread his wings and fly into some animal husbandry.

The pullets were content in the mobile hoop coop, but I knew they would soon need more room to roam.

While driving to the store, my only allowable outing at the time, I noticed an enormous pile of pallets. After calling the owners of the bathroom remodeling company in front of which they sat, I learned they were for shower pans, and destined for the local recycler unless someone else stepped in.

Hearing the call, I dutifully answered, stacked them on my trailer, hauled them home, and went back for more.

These pallets were not your average 3x4 pine construction. I was immensely fortunate, these single use pallets were almost 9 feet long, 5.5 feet wide, and made of solid oak.
Once cut in half, they, along with some salvaged 2x4” welded wire fence, became the basis for the containment system I designed and built for the chicken run.

I come from a family which values reusing and upcycling materials and I’m cut from the same cloth.
Reused pallets, reused T-posts, reused wire fence, salvaged hinges for the gate; about the only thing new were the fasteners - screws to join the pallets together and staples to keep the wire on the pallets.

I don’t recall exactly how long this took, but by judging the movement of the coop, and the date on the photos, at least a week of afternoons.

This fence served me well. It largely kept the birds in, dogs out, and, for significantly less than $100, the price was right.

Eventually though, the time came to harvest the birds, and with that task complete, the fence was obsolete. On the other hand, the material was not.

I took the welded wire off the pallets, rolled that up and stored it. I unscrewed the pallets from each other, shuffled and stacked them. I dismantled and removed everything else in the run, including the coop itself - https://permies.com/p/2352355 - leaving me with a treasure trove of treats to toy with.

“But you said something about a bridge and some of those things are badge bits in their own right”
You’re not wrong, but don’t let a good story ruffle your feathers.

I couldn’t let the offal from the butchering go to waste, and while I’d’ve loved to feed it to hogs, I have a distinct lack of pigs, and a distasteful set of community bylaws. Instead, I composted everything that didn’t go into my freezer, along with most of the bedding and deep mulch upon which they lived.

What would be the walls for the compost bins? Why, the very pallets used as the fence, of course.

It took a little work, but the shakier of the pallets were dismantled and the boards reassembled onto the stoutest fellows, creating solid walls.  

Despite the effort, it was a great success in my mind. This time, after keeping the screws, I spent zero dollars and brought on no new material for this project.

You may notice in the pictures, these pallets had an extra lip on top to make sure the shower pan stayed in place. More solid oak for the taking.

While compost was composting, spring had sprang, water would soon be coming down the ditch and I was tired of having to jump over it to get to the other side. It made using a wheelbarrow out that way nearly impossible.

I’d always wanted a bridge and, with no obligation from the flock, it was time.

I scrounged a 4x4 the prior owners had left from my materials storage pile. I rough cut the angles ~45° to approximate the pitch of the ditch, brought those back to the shop, and took the oak lip boards and used them as the deck for the bridge.

Why, oh why, did I bring them to the shop. It seemed the right thing to do and construction was easier.
But have you ever tried to carry fifteen 42” long oak boards screwed into 4x4s? Yikes. A lifetime of backpacking prepared me for the dog fight.

Yet, being the odd one I am, I found the ordeal quite a ball. I even paused to take some pictures.
Finally I heaved it into place and my Bridge to Waterbethia was officially instantiated.

It’s proved a great value, making my life significantly easier and taking the edge off several chores. And it looks good to boot.

From single use shower pan holder, to being paraded across town on a trailer, to fence, compost bin, to garden gates, even to a toilet-paper-roll-holder-support-and-shelf… these “throw aways” have had a memorable journey.

I wonder what else I’ll build with them.

Things which might sound like BBs, but don’t count:
Salvaging fence, I measured. 90ish feet not 100.
Butchering birds, I had help and did not dispatch them myself.

Negative PEX factor:
Fairly sure the welded wire is galvanized.
Definitely sure the 4x4 was pressure treated. Despite that, I could neither throw it away nor use it for anything … until I found a use where it wouldn’t be in contact with soil or water, was out of the sun, and was ripe for the taking.

I hope you squawked with delight at my bad jokes and I appreciate you reading this novelette.  Thank you :)
62190636882__A21E27FA-66E2-4389-A342-905AC53419BA.jpeg
Load one of several
Load one of several
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A serious stack of pallets
A serious stack of pallets
IMG_4195.jpeg
Building the fence and playing with dogs
Building the fence and playing with dogs
IMG_4239.jpeg
Lookin good
Lookin good
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Adding welded wire
Adding welded wire
68157082215__1B13FED6-A0DC-490C-9981-765854A1E2CF.jpeg
In use, bonus shot of birds eating cabbage
In use, bonus shot of birds eating cabbage
4BCBA0B7-1AC8-4ABD-8A13-9A29EE072E2E.gif
3+ years later all dismantled
3+ years later all dismantled
IMG_6668.jpeg
harvested oak boards near compost pile
harvested oak boards near compost pile
IMG_7122.jpeg
Making the bridge
Making the bridge
IMG_7124.jpeg
Squaring them up and screwing them down
Squaring them up and screwing them down
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Construction complete
Construction complete
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Dry ditch I used to jump over
Dry ditch I used to jump over
IMG_7127.jpeg
All fun and games over here
All fun and games over here
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Installed!
Installed!
IMG_7130.jpeg
Bridging the gap
Bridging the gap
IMG_5855.jpeg
Devastated dog behind garden fence (made with some of the broken slats)
Devastated dog behind garden fence (made with some of the broken slats)
72102839810__A7D56005-3DC9-419D-8BB8-BAA70F5EFE7A.jpeg
Toilet roll holder holder made from another one of the slats
Toilet roll holder holder made from another one of the slats
IMG_5044.jpeg
Cleans up pretty nice I’d say
Cleans up pretty nice I’d say
Staff note (gir bot) :

Rebekah Harmon approved this submission.
Note: I mean WOW! That fence is so pretty! I would have had a hard time tearing it down. But then the other things you made are more useful when it's the right time, eh? Nice novella. I would give you 3 points for the fencing, 2 for the bridge and 1 for the tp holder.  I'm not really sure how to mark your points? But I would say 6 points.

 
Clay McGowen
Posts: 158
Location: Boise, ID
74
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Thank you so much for your kind words! Especially after hearing certain members of my family call the fence an eyesore, I really appreciate the validation; I guess should have posted it here a while ago.

Oh my, 6 points!
Does this mean I earned my Oddball Sand Badge??
 
steward
Posts: 15369
Location: Northern WI (zone 4)
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Clay, if you click on the SAND BADGE header on the top post, it takes you to the place where you can submit to get the badge
 
Evildoers! Eat my justice! And this tiny ad's justice too!
Sepper Program: Theme Weeks
https://permies.com/wiki/249013/Sepper-Program-Theme-Weeks
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