P is for .... pallets

so ... hubby has a new fetish ... he is a pallet freak.

in the ethos of trying to recycle and re-use rather than buying new, we have found an endless source of pallets. and of course ...

• pallets = timber
• timber = building projects
• building projects = a happy "permie" family!

so we have our pallets .... what are we gonna do with them????

the great part is that we were able to get good wood ones. a pity that so many these days are built with cork or ply ... which means that using them for any outside projects are an absolute waste.

but these.... these are good! hubby starts imaging how to use them ... what we've discussed as a priority. the cool thing is that intact .... they are free standing walls .... which is really great. so .... first project is .... drum roll ...... a new compost bin! yeah!

way too simple to put together. a back wall made out of corrugated iron that we had, sides out of pallets and the front out of two solids bits of pallets that we managed to get. knock up a simple door frame and voila! you have a compost bin with two stalls! the two stalls allow for easy turning of the compost matter which will help get the decomposition going quickly. note that the two bay doors open out which allows for easy access. i'm going to use the Berkley Method of composting .... which should give me my first batch of good compost in about 3 weeks (i'll report back on that later!).

we are really proud of this project. the only cost to us has been about $5 at the local hardware store for the hinges. and it only took about an hour to put together! can't ask for better than that!

project for next weekend? new chicken coop -- or chicken hilton as it has been code named. come spring i am expecting to at least double my number of chooks ..... let's see how much stuff we'll be able to recycle then!