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 :)
PEP Badge: Oddball
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