Farm Life: Rusted, Busted, Never Dusted

In the country, nearly everything can be re-purposed.  Organic matter can go into the compost pile, if not fed to some critter in the barn.  Items that can burn, usually go into some type of incinorator (though with some fire and air polution hazard).  Recyclable items require some effort to transport to a location where they can be added to that re-use stream.  Trash can either be hauled away or driven to the dump, though that requires some expense for gas money.  More often, items end up in a pile to the side of the property, awaiting some other use.  We have found more than one re-purposing of various rusted and busted containers around the garden.  Little ends up in the dust bin.

We have used decommissioned toilets, leaking mop buckes, canning pots, watering cans, and ash cans for flower containers.

 

 

Some items are more yard art.  On top of a wash-bucket is a pig made from a freon canister.  Along our driveway are a series of gloves-with-holes-in-the-fingers, leaking lanterns, and wine bottles.  They are suspended on the wire from past-year-election-signs.  One friend considers these more scary than artistic.  If it keeps unwelcome visitors, than it is art with a function.

 

When friends mention that they want to discard this-or-that, we often find uses for the items.  On our deck are the iron works from a fireplace, now defining places for plants in pots.

 

We also have projects waiting to be started.  A friend rebuilt a porch.  We hauled away the iron railings and posts to build an arbor… someday.

Sometimes, flowers themselves end up laying in a pathway.  Why pulverize them with the weed-eater, when they could be cut and displayed?

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