Up-cycle, recycle, reuse

Try "Freecycle.org" -you can join a group in your area. I've seen lots of building materials on my Freecycle.....

I almost never find what I'm looking for now.
Example: I was looking for an old bike to power a grain mill. I ask around, look around for many months. Finally I bought one for $10. After chopping it up and starting I change my plans yet again. 2 days later I see not one but 2 bikes being thrown out in the trash and scooped one.
Sometimes you just have to wait.
Lots of stuff I see and grab for "future consideration" like when the guy next door was demolishing his sun room. Fantastic double walled clear plastic panels. Tripped over them for years, but now they're performing very well as cold frames.

I almost never find what I'm looking for now.
Example: I was looking for an old bike to power a grain mill. I ask around, look around for many months. Finally I bought one for $10. After chopping it up and starting I change my plans yet again. 2 days later I see not one but 2 bikes being thrown out in the trash and scooped one.
Sometimes you just have to wait.
Lots of stuff I see and grab for "future consideration" like when the guy next door was demolishing his sun room. Fantastic double walled clear plastic panels. Tripped over them for years, but now they're performing very well as cold frames.

great idea

I used to dumpster dive and pick up stuff in Oakville when they have the bulk pickup days. No longer have a truck I can do that with.

Awww yes,
I like curb side shopping as well. Try to make friends with some local 'Sheeny men' the Junk Gypsies and the Metal Hounds,
tell them what your looking for and you will float them some coin, they will make extra, they will keep an eye out for you.
just what I do ~WildE

Our local tip (refuse station, reclaimed goods etc) has a wonderful little shop attached to it. I found a rusty wheelbarrow with predrilled holes for $5.00 (painted it white and its wonderful for growing lettuce), 2 x bench garden seats for $5.00, rusty garden tools for $1.00 each (now cleaned up and oiled), an old mower for $3.00 (still going). Garage sales & farmers markets seem to be the thing here - but you can get some good stuff (many people don't want stuff that is old, rusty or broken - but they don't think of other uses for this stuff).

I built the roof for my cabin out of old signs painted on 1 inch thick plywood and the tin i got for free from an old barn. when I renovated my cottage i used the old windows and front door and much of the old wood to make my fish hut. i use the old tanks that hold the coolig stuff from the back of old refridgerators (stainless steel) and make small wood stoves. i have one in my hut and one bolted to a sleah i pull behind my sled, keeps you worm waiting for the fish to bite. I also make them out of old 20lb propane tanks they work good too!

Those old propane tanks are too nice to toss. I refill them a few times after they expire(from a non-expired one) but some are too old for that. This year I'm planning to make a garden trailer for my ATV that the porcupines can't chew the tires off. Use 2 bottles on an axle for wheels.

stupid question here about the propane tanks....how can you reuse old tanks? Isn't there a chance they will explode?

Oldschool, it's not a stupid question - I'd like to know how as well!

Bring them to a guy who has a licence and he will empty it out and take the valae off. they are harmless. i do it my self but if you have never done anything like that then take it to a professional, wont cost much. They make great wood stoves cause they are good and thick. im making a couple to use as potbelly stoves in the cabin im building this summer.

I won't recommend this to anyone. You are supposed to have the valve replaced and tank pressure tested every 10 years.
If yours are outside and rusting then do that. Many of mine have been indoors for 10 years and never used. Of course they are out of date and nobody will refill them.
If one had an empty bottle and a full bottle one could transfer the contents of the full to the empty easily. The empty is on the ground upright. The full is inverted and higher. They are connected with a flexible hose.
With both valves open the liquid propane will very slowly move to the lower tank. If you were to change the temperature of one bottle it would make things go much faster. Pour cold water over either bottle(not both). As they equalize in temperate the liquid will flow into the lower bottle, the gas into the higher. Hot water works too.

Oldschool, it's not a stupid question - I'd like to know how as well!

Chicks!

Carbon04.....(now sticking tongue out and blowing raspberry)

Oldschool, it's not a stupid question - I'd like to know how as well!

Chicks!

It wasn't a stupid question, what would have been stupid would have been if I had tried to do it without an answer.