Off my rocker

In junking, sometimes just being in the right place at the right time results in a great find. Friday’s trash-to-treasure find was one of those cases.

Of course, it always pays to pay attention to possibilities.

When I went to work, I saw a rocking chair standing outside the door, in the area where items destined for the landfill are placed. I asked if this chair was intended for the dump.

Yes, it was. “And if someone wants to remove that chair at the end of the hall, take it away. I think the chair still has life.”

I don’t need to be told twice to take away something useful, since useful items do not go to the landfill when this girl is present.

One chair has some cracked slats. I will study how to mend them. The other one has no problems so far as I can tell. It had just been replaced by a new chair and was no longer wanted.

These chairs are destined for our front porch.

A few days ago, I went to work and saw another rocking chair by the Dumpsters. This chair (not pictured because it is now in storage) was very pretty with beautiful spindles for the back. Unfortunately, one of the rocker runners had broken off just behind one of the legs, rendering the chair dangerous to use. Still, those beautiful spindles called to me. I put it into the back of my pickup.

If I couldn’t use the chair as a rocker, perhaps I could use it or its parts for something else. I didn’t know what else, but generally items that call to me are just waiting to tell me what to do with them.

“By the pricking of my thumbs, something useful this way comes!”

Before I could get it out of the truck, Hubby asked, “What are you doing with (X’s) chair?”

I didn’t know that had been his chair, but, sure enough, his name was engraved on the back.

This man had recently died. Our friend Tonya was quite close to him. I will try to get replacement rocker runners for the chair and we will give it to her in his memory.

Creative yard art

Earlier this summer, we noticed this beautiful home in another town. The homeowner had used her creativity to greatly improve her home’s curb appeal.

Homeowner was not home, so we did not get a chance to talk to her about her beautiful windows.

Neighbor said that windows originally graced homeowner’s grandmother’s church. When the church was demolished, homeowner bought the windows.

Since the homeowner was not present, we did not feel comfortable examining how the windows were hung. We can get vicious hailstorms here and we wondered how the windows were protected — if at all — from inclement weather.

We were very fortunate in our timing. The sun was setting at the time we looked at this home and its light filtered through the beautiful windows.

Homeowner also had an unusual gate. Instead of the standard gate, she had hung an old door. If we ever build a fence, I want a gate like that. The street signs shown in that picture were in the yard as well. I had wanted a street sign for our driveway before, but I really want one after seeing this.

Ideas exist to be adapted and used.

Just another brick on the ground

If you’ve read this blog for very long, you know that I love bricks. Red and yellow bricks are all over our yard as edging and pavers.

Monday I did a project I’ve wanted to do for some time. Apparently, our back door (just visible at upper left) was originally south of its current location. The sidewalk is just south of where the door currently opens, which means we must stand on the lawn to enter the door. Therefore, that patch is chronically bare. I hated the way it looked. I hated the mud and dust we tracked in because we had to stand on bare ground.

I took a stack of spare bricks and laid them out in that ugly place. As I anticipated, I didn't have enough spares. So I pulled the nails out of the fence posts I had rescued from the landfill. I removed the bricks I was using for edging the flower garden next to the back door and replaced them with the fence posts, now landscape timbers (shown at top in above picture). Those repurposed bricks weren’t enough, so I removed bricks from a straightway in other garden, replacing them with another fence post turned landscape timber.

The bricks sit up a bit too high. I am running a sprinkler on the newly-laid bricks. I hope I can saturate the ground enough that walking on them will push them into the ground. If that doesn’t work, I’ll dig out some of the dirt so they will sit more level with the ground.

I don’t like the pattern yet, so will tinker with it later.

Sunday, I added more bricks to the sidewalk running from the street to the back door. I didn’t like the pattern I’d originally used. I changed it and added more bricks. I’d like to add more bricks, but I’ve run out.

Unfortunately, I never run out of ways to use bricks. No stockpile is ever enough for all I have in mind. I’ll just have to keep my eyes open for more of them.

Rub-a-dub-dub, a fountain in the tub

This clawfoot bathtub is an outstanding example of junking. Somebody turned trash into a true treasure with a pump and some pipe. The stream comes out of copper tubing. I wish I would have taken better pictures.

If I can figure out how to do this and can find a suitable junk bathtub, I want to have a fountain like this by next spring.

Marilyn already has a bathtub, which she is currently using as a container garden. She is interested in turning her bathtub into a fountain as well. She’s a step ahead of me since she already has the tub.

I think I’ve seen one near an abandoned building I photographed and I actually remember where that building was. That building isn’t all that far away, either. I’m anxious to see if the tub I think I remember is a suitable one.

I love the fish in the tub as well, but what would I do with them over winter? I’m not sure I want to have a goldfish bowl in the house. Mr. Kitty would probably go fishing, but then he’d likely go fishing in the summer, too.

I found these fountain instructions at wikiHow. Hope they work.

If anyone has ideas how to do this, I’d love to hear them.

Opportunity knocks

Junking, seeking items to turn from trash into treasure, can be intentional or opportunistic. I’ve found wonderful items when I was actually Dumpster diving and I’ve found equally wonderful items when I was doing something else.

For some time, I have desired to put pavers underneath our turkey fryer, which we use as an all-purpose outdoor cooking device. But I didn’t really want to buy the pavers. That’s no fun.

Last week, my boss tore out a bricked, fenced patio. When I saw the contents of the trailer he’d used for demolition, my eyes lit up. He had thrown several old fence posts into trailer, which I immediately saw as landscape timbers. I asked him for those. He said that I could take away any item that was in that trailer.

When I looked at it more closely sometime later, I noticed bricks in there. Nice big, thick, coated bricks. Perfect for getting the fryer’s legs off the ground. I brought both fence posts and bricks home.

Saturday morning I laid those bricks where I had envisioned them and put the fryer on top. I had just enough to do the job.

I put the cover back on and was very pleased with my work.

Hubby also grabbed opportunity recently when he took out some trash. A nice plastic tub was in the Dumpster with the price sticker still attached. He fished it out and covered the tiller’s engine with it. We have no place to store the tiller, so the tub will protect the engine from rain and dirt.

Keep your eyes peeled!

Rhubarb leaf bird bath

I play with wet concrete and a rhubarb leaf.

Last summer, our Bible study group made rhubarb leaf bird baths. The basic idea was to take a rhubarb or other large leaf (hollyhock leaves would probably work, too), press it into a dome of concrete and make an impression.

Marilyn (front), Iris and I (back) mold our concrete into our leaves. Note the concrete bucket next to Marilyn.

Everyone else made theirs into a bowl as they were supposed to. I don't know how it happened, but mine turned out flat.

Six concrete blobs in a row. Note how rounded they are. All of them except mine (at the far end).

Once the shapes were made, we painted them. I went for a naturalistic look and carefully painted in the major rhubarb leaf veins. Others were more impressionistic. Once painted, we sealed them.

I didn't quite know what to do with my flattened leaf. It doesn’t hold water, so it was worthless as a bird bath. Then I remembered how butterflies need to warm themselves. OK, so I intended to make a bird bath, but ended up with a butterfly warmer. I can deal with it. But I didn't know where to put this warming stand.

I said something about my dilemma to Hubby's father. He said that he had found a bird bath stand without a bowl. It was too nice to get rid of, but he had no use for it. I certainly had a use for it.

Now my rhubarb leaf butterfly warmer stands on top of a bird bath pedestal. Ironic, isn’t it?

Having a father-in-law who shares my taste for turning trash to treasure is a pleasure.

The finished product awaits butterflies’ arrival.

iHanna's Creative Space has more complete instructions on making a rhubarb leaf bird bath.

Chaising the lounge

In a previous post, I told you about our oft-repaired chaise lounges. saw wood rot on one leg, but couldn’t tell how much was rotten.

The wood rot on the leg was so bad that Hubby finally amputated them both. This drastic solution is not one that we can repeat, but drastic problems do require drastic measures.


The chair looked very sad without either of its front legs.

We also took the opportunity to add backer boards to strengthen the frame. We also wanted to add a piece to the front of the chair to both lengthen it and give it more stability. Previous front piece was so rotten that it nearly fell off in my hand. Since it was between the side frame boards, I thought that perhaps the lack of airflow might have hastened the rot. Hopefully leaving the ends exposed to air will prevent or slow rot in future.

Hubby cut the scrap wood to size. We had salvaged some boards from a construction site, including some 2x4s that had been screwed together. That gave me an idea. I decided to screw together two boards for the legs, giving them more stability.

I painted and primed all the boards. Original builder only painted and primed the surfaces that showed. I hope that priming and painting every surface will at least slow the rot.

I had nearly finished painting when I ran out of paint. The paint company had changed the paint color to something more like blood red instead of our signature brick red. Even though the color difference does show, I just didn’t feel like repainting everything. I am very meticulous, but sometimes a person has to decide what amount of effort is just too much.

Original builder had used carriage bolts to attach the legs, which proved impossible to remove. The nuts merely spun around instead of coming off. We used 6-inch long socket screws instead. We attached the replacement slats and the end piece with deck screws.

After all that work, we surely did enjoy lounging in front of our fire pit! Enjoying our outdoor living room again (below) is such a pleasure.

How to be a frugal gardener

This is Marilyn’s reworking of Hubby’s idea. We replaced our grill, so planted a garden in the old one. She saw what we’d done and did it herself. Hers looks better.

I owe this list to Nature Moms Blog.

1. Grow Your Own Plants from Seed — Seeds are cheaper than nursery-grown seedlings so growing your own will save you some green. Local seed exchange programs and community gardens might also provide you with free seeds.

We overdid on seed starting last year and were overwhelmed with eggplants, something I don’t even like that well! We didn’t get around to starting any tomatoes and peppers this year, but I intend to try again next year, just with a more reasonable amount.

2. Don’t buy peat pots when you can use your leftover toilet paper rolls, eggshells, or newspapers for free.

I don’t use peat pots. We throw our eggshells in the garden for fertilizer. As I’ve written before, newspaper makes wonderful mulch. We generally burn our toilet paper rolls in our fire pit. Toilet paper isn’t romantic, but the fire is.

Marilyn remodeled her kitchen last summer and used the old sink as another container. In her yard, container gardening even includes the kitchen sink!

3. Instead of buying containers for container gardening, why not recycle household stuff like old boots, buckets, baskets, metal tins, old toys, apple barrels, wheelbarrows, broken plastic tubs, etc. A few years back, I took two old wheelbarrows and stacked them on top of each other in my front yard and planted in them. The result was so gorgeous that a picture of it ended up in a small local newspaper.

I’ve never gotten my planter’s picture in the newspaper, but I have used all sorts of objects as planters. Someone in town has put a bike in their garden, lined its basket with moss and planted annuals in it. I love that. However, the work of continually watering containers in our semiarid climate wore me out last year. I’m taking a break from most container gardening this year.

4. Make your own pinwheels. I use pinwheels in my garden to deter critters and while they are not that expensive (usually only $1 a piece at the store) I can save $10 or so and have a nice time crafting with my kids by making my own — and they aren’t plastic, which is a plus. I just love the look of pinwheels blowing around in the garden; it is lovely. Ribbon attached to a stake works well too.

The link above shows how to make paper pinwheels. I wonder how well these would hold up in our lovely High Plains winds. They do look fun.

5. Look for open bags of soil at your local gardening center and seedlings that are past their prime. You can usually get some steep discounts on those items. Ask the cashier if they can cut you a deal.

We recycle our potting soil, dumping it into a metal trash can we salvaged. And we shop end-of-season garden sales.

6. Re-purpose broken watering cans by using them as planters or by cutting off the spout and using them as refill containers for bird feeders.

I never thought of using a watering can to refill bird feeders.

7. Do you or any of your neighbors have fish tanks? When it comes time to clean the tanks use the water to give your plants a tonic they will love.

No fish tanks here, but it’s a great idea for those who have access to one.

8. Use a plastic garbage can to collect rain water by putting it under a drainage pipe. Then just scoop out water as needed instead of reaching for the hose to water plants.

Rain water? What rain water? I keep a dish under the spigot to catch the water that inevitably drips from it. Mr. Kitty loves to drink that water.

9. Use kitchen scraps to make your own compost and put banana peels under your roses to give them a potassium boost.

We also throw our coffee grounds in our rose bushes. Vegetable kitchen scraps go straight into our garden.

10. Cut down on fanciful flowers and plant some drought-tolerant plants instead, like one of my personal favorites, hens-and-chicks.

I could definitely do a better job of this.

11. Grow food and you won’t have to buy as much at the grocery store! You can even grow your beauty products.

Last year we made our own salsa and spaghetti sauce. This year I want to make both of those again, plus our own pesto. I did a poor job of bean picking last year and intend to remedy that this year. I feel virtuous when I look at jars full of our own produce.

12. Put old saucer or plates under your pots to collect water run-off.

Unfortunately, these old saucers catch just enough water to breed mosquitoes. Nasty things.

13. Line your pots or containers with 6-8 sheets of newspaper to help them retain moisture so they won’t need to be watered as much.

I had never thought of this. I do lay down a heavy mulch blanket over my containers. When I started doing that last year, I was amazed how much watering I saved.

14. When it rains, scoop up your indoor plants and set them outside for a little while to get a drink.

Rain has wonderful nutrients that tap water doesn’t have. Definitely give those poor indoor plants a drink.

15. Shop for gardening tools, containers, and lawn and patio furniture at yard sales, garage sales, and barn sales.

Or fish them out of the trash!

When other people's trash talks

Hubby is an amateur chef who loves to cook outside. Food tastes great and heat stays out of the house! But we really needed more work space out there.

One morning last year, Marilyn and I were driving alleys. We saw a battered wooden cupboard that was obviously headed for the landfill.



















Even though the cupboard didn’t look very promising, I immediately knew I had to have it. It was telling me that it wanted to be part of our outdoor kitchen. When other people's trash talks to me, I know I’ve found a treasure.

We loaded into Marilyn’s truck and took it home. Sometimes Hubby does not see what I see in other people's junk, but he knew immediately what this piece was saying. It must have been yelling. He was excited.

We replaced the rotten wood with sound wood — all scraps of course —, primed and painted it to cover the icky crayon marks on the front.



I didn’t quite know what to do about the top. It was made from two boards and had a gap between them. Gaps are not good in an outdoor cupboard. I got some free large tiles that a home center didn’t want, but I hated the way they looked. Another friend suggested that we use black and white tiles in a pattern. I loved the idea. I already had the tiles, which were left over from someone else's project. She cut the tiles and helped me grout them. I later sealed them.

Hubby was delighted with the final results and started using the cupboard as soon as it was finished.

I was delighted that he was delighted.

Recycling all over again

The Frugal Gardener is always looking for something to rescue from the landfill. Our landfill doesn't allow recycling, so the Frugal Gardener has to grab items before they ever get there. Previously, this garden's boundaries were marked with red bricks taken from an abandoned school building that had been knocked down. The red bricks kept falling into the street. The Frugal Gardener got tired of picking them up.

Last year, Hubby and I were visiting his aunt and uncle when their neighbor began carting off wood. The Frugal Gardener was appalled at this potential waste. We rescued the wood for our purposes, some for firewood and some for landscaping. Most of the rescued landscape timbers had already been put to use. Our stockpile did not have enough landscape timbers to completely frame this flower garden. But we had salvaged fence posts from other places.



Weeds had taken over this garden. I dug the worst so Hubby can till in here. Our tulips have about died down and the hibiscus has yet to leaf out, so it looks pretty bad. Once he tills, we'll plant more flowers in here.

After digging, I picked up all the bricks and placed the boards where I wanted them. Unfortunately, they are just a bit short, so I had to leave a few of them in place. But I'll keep looking for more boards. Buying some just seems like cheating! Turning other people's trash into our treasures is much more rewarding than buying something.



Previous owners planted cedars rather too close to the sidewalk, forcing us to walk on the grass. Not much grows here because we continually walk on it and several trees take up most of the water this patch receives. So instead of patchy grass, I took the replaced bricks and began a red brick walk. We'll truly be Walking the Red Brick Road once it's finished.

Trash to treasure

I love to turn an object headed for the dump into something useful. We found this ammunition box while we were out walking with our friend Kevin. We later returned and picked up the box while Kevin distracted the neighbors.

Unfortunately, I did not record the box's original appearance. I brushed several coats of exterior-grade varnish on the box, which unfortunately covers some of the wonderful stamped words on it.

I had found a very sturdy pallet not long before we found the ammo box. I thought the pallet would make a wonderful replacement top.



We cut the pallet to size.



I bought some remnant vinyl and foam from the local sign shop. I glued the foam to the pallet and stapled the vinyl to the top. We attached hinges with the help of another friend.



The ammo box makes excellent storage as well as additional table space.



I found a fellow blogger who changes Trash to Treasure and also shares my faith: Check her out.

Maggie Grace Creates repurposed an ammo box as well.