Craigslist and Sustainable Design Project

Here it go's my first blog post.  Over and over I have used money to purchase building materials for various projects, but I never realized there is tons of free building materials getting thrown away every day in America. Why spend money on new materials when people are willing to give you their trash just to get it off their property. Here is a few things I have done with materials I got for free.

This was the first free posting I responded to. I saw it late on the night after thanksgiving and said "Why not ? I'll try my luck for some pallets." 

When I got there they were all just sitting there it was late at night around 10 O'clock and kind of creepy driving into the parking lot so late at night.   I loaded them up and had to make the risky decision to stack them two high in my pickup. This place was a ten minute drive from my house and I was afraid if I only took two at a time, then I would loose out on some of the others. I strapped them down real good and drove home with no issues. 

 I ended up driving back to get the other two and I ended up scaring the crap out of another cragslister braking apart one of the pallets with a hammer.  I asked him if I could get two of the crates since he was using the pallets and he said sure. I didn't tell him I took the first four but I was a man on a mission, a mission to build, so I don't feel bad. Plus he was in a mini van and there was no way he was fitting a crate in the back of it. And he was kinda creepy swinging his hammer in the back of a parking lot in the middle of the night. You can bet I was moving quick to get those other two crates and get out of there lol.

I got them home that night and I got most of them unloaded in the back yard, but I have to admit I wasn't strong enough to get them all, I had to wait til morning to get the last two in my back yard, my arms felt like jello.  

Then I was so excited about my first set of building materials I just wanted more!!

In the following days I got two truck loads of different pallets.  They were 1 $ a piece 

As one could imagine loading all of these up myself and unloading them, was a workout. See ... Not only am I using sustainable practices to get building materials but I'm also getting a free workout! That's the ole two birds one stone trick, it's what sustainability is all about. 

Now we had to be real careful braking down all these pallets as not to mess up our materials. But in my opinion it was worth saving the money on the cost of new materials. Plus it helps the environment, stops the need to cut down more trees. We all know what happens when all the trees get cut down, Easter Island. No thanks I like to think we could learn from past society's failures.  Sustainability is the only way. 

This was the first rough design for my generation 1 Chicken Coop. 

It's always nice to have a littler helper. 

With them painting skills you never would have guessed she was just 3. 

I left for five minutes and when I came back she had finished painting and put in a window. I couldn't believe it.  

We used a old jug of killz latex on the project, and we used tons of the old nails from the pallets to hammer everything together. 

She was impressed none the less.

The doors, with a hole for air flow made with old chicken wire. 

With the heating lamp it stays nice and warm on these cold Texas nights. 

 The Little chickens seemed to love their new home. 

I ended up having to add a little portable heater with a temp gauge because I was told if the young chickens got to cold it wouldn't end well. I set it on low and to turn on if it got below 65 , I was worried the first night but the coop stayed around 70 the whole night. With it being getting as low as 30 one night I was glad the heater worked so well. 

Ultimately after 4 Days of the chickens in their new home I realized my design was flawed from the start. The number one issue with any animals is where does the poop go? I begun to see one or two fly's and new instantly what I had to do.  

Get Started on Generation 2

For Generation 2 I remember hearing of a chicken tractor , so with one quick Google Search, I was on my way. 

We needed more materials  and it just so happened that my neighbor had three old fence panels so we used them.  

Unfortunately i didn't take any photos of  the fence panels but I did quickly find some free on craigslist, lol.  

Luckily I had my bro with me to teach me the right way. I mean really where would be be if we didn't have our bro's with us to give us hell when we mess up. This is my pal, he's a fellow Jedi, just workin his craft. 

We decided for Generation 2 to go with chicken wire as a floor that way when the chickens poop they will just poop in the grass. It's kinda insane to pay for grass fertilizer , which massively pollutes our water supply, when an alternative exists that cost nothing and is just as effective. Think about it, chickens require food and water, and they lay eggs, and give free fertilizer. It's the two stone trick again. 

 Here is the inside coming together. 

 Then  the ole chicken tractor needed a roof. 

We used old screws and some old bracket pieces to reinforce some of the weak corners as they were weathered 10 years before I got a hold of them.  

You can really see how its coming together here. 

   

At one point I wanted to use some newer fence on the roof and my buddy convinced me this weathered look was much better. After seeing it finished I would have to agree. 

Some people wouldn't allow their designs to be shown like this, I even had a chicken farmer in another city tell me I couldn't take photos of his coops, because it was his intellectual property. Good thing I have a photographic memory lol. To be honest his looked a lot different then mine it was shorter and  longer , it had a extra side box on the roosting box which would work good to retrieve the eggs. But either way I understand a business need to guard intellectual property. It takes knowledge, skill, time, effort, resources, to figure out how all this stuff fits together. But here's the deal if we don't share our knowledge then it actually hurts us more in the end. .. All I know is if my little chick coop design inspires people to build their own, and all my neighbors get chickens then the world would be a better place. In the end everybody could have free eggs, and that has to be a good thing.  

More shots of the sides. 

 That Texas Sunset!

 Here is what it looks like with the chicken wire all the way around. 

I added a little window on the front for now so the chickens could test out their new home. When they get big enough I will take it off and let them into the full part of their home. 

Will post more of the project in my next posting!!