Remember I told you I met a woman that will deliver free horse crap to me? I know another woman that will deliver free wooden pallets. Free horse poop + free pallets = free compost. I love that action! Here are the art-exhibit-worthy, utilitarian wooden pallet compost bins I built.
That’s a total of 8 pallets. I built two bins, one pallet down the middle, and stripped boards off the 8th pallet to hold it all together. I’ve bought compost before, it’s expensive. This compost will cost me nothing. Well … to the left of the pick you see a pile of screened loam. I did buy that to mix a little in as I hear that adds precious microbes (or something like that) that help kick start the compost action. A little bit of loam is about as high-tech as my composting gets, though. I know some people like to get professional about it by measuring it’s temperature, keeping it damp, etc., but that’s not my approach.
This is my approach to composting – throw kitchen scraps, some grass clippings, manure, Satan’s Straw, little screened loam, leaves and other misc. “brown” material like small twigs, rotting wood, etc. Then I leave it. I’ll turn the compost in those bins probably 3 times next year, once in the spring, mid-summer and again next fall. Then I’ll use it in Garden 2012. This isn’t the fastest approach, but my time is needed on 8,259,344 other projects (like updating this blog) that the longer-term, less effort approach works for me. Some people might find pallet compost bins like those, sitting next to horse shit, to be unsightly in a backyard. I friggin’ love it.
Pallets are awesome. They’re free and can be used for all sorts of things. People have gotten really creative with them. Did I mention they’re free?
Scroll down this post to see all kinds of sheds people have built with pallets. It’s all hardwood, so people good in the wood shop have made attractive furniture from them, bird houses, fences, the list goes on and on. I know some folks that live near the poverty line. The old man has access to stacks upon stacks of used pallets that he can get delivered. He chunks them all up for his wood stove as a free heat source. They burn hot, so you have to be careful with burning too many at once in a wood stove, but a lot of people do it to save money.
Free compost bins and free wood heat – are there other survival-oriented uses for wooden pallets?
– Ranger Man
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5 comments
Here’s a few: 1) Use it for what it was designed and place any Bug Out gear that you need to store (such as tents, tools, ropes, etc.) in the garage. That way if you have to retreat (God Forbid), it’s all in one place and you’re not scrambling around and Yelling at the Missus “Honey, where did I put the Tent?”. 2) Put them on your basement floor and put your Water Supply on them, or any other bulky Food Stuff that could rot or rust if it comes in contact with the concrete. 3) For some reason, Electrical batteries tend to drain if you place them on the ground, so if you are running a backup Power supply (Solar/Wind/Generator) that uses a large amount of heavy batteries, put a skid down first. 4) Jim D. at his Bison site made an underground shelter on his Junk Land in Nevada using Skids, but even he admits it’s a case of better than nothing if he loses his trailer. But if you are Dirt Poor, and can’t afford something else…..5) Defensive Perimeter walls (also known as “Above Ground Flower Planters”). Take your Compost Fencing that you made, rotate the same amount you used 90 degrees, attach to each other. Build a second wall about 2 feet behind it. After making sure it heavily staked into the ground, fill with Dirt and plant Flowers/ Herbs/ Veggies in the top 6 inches. Useful as a Bullet Stopper on your property for those areas such as Front Doors, the Barn, etc. I wouldn’t surround the entire property, but it could be useful at strategic sites on your land. 6) There’s some drawings on making a an emergency Fallout shelter using skids in some of the old Civil Defense Manuals, but I’d think the time one would have to spend building it would take too long before the Radiation hits. Hope this helps.
Rangermandood:
Speaking of horse manure…
As a long-time user of the horse manure from my local horse boarding stable I have the following bits of trivial knowledge…
All horse manure is NOT the same…
Horse manure is generally richer in potential nutrients because horses are not ruminants, cows redigest their food, thus removing more nutrients than horses do. Also, a horses digestive system is based on bulk movement – especially in winter months – to maintain warmth, thus as long as a horse has hay to eat, it stays warm in pretty bitter weather. This also means that the hay is less well-digested in winter months.
Knowing what a horse eats can affect the quality of the manure also. Some horses are fed alfalfa hay, some are fed timothy grass hay – if they are fed grass then they are USUALLY also fed grains. Pasture horses generally have poorer quality manure.
If you’re getting manure that has been cleaned out of a stall you’ll have three possible quality types, bare earth, straw or wood shavings. The highest quality would be manure taken from wood shavings used as bedding, some of the shavings get into the manure and add a very good amount of fibrous material to the mix, which helps oxygen penetrate the pile and breaks down nicely into a good soil amendment (like peat moss) Stray can be problematic as it does not break down as readily as wood shavings. Bare earth manure is OK, but will usually have local soil in it, not necessarily a bad thing, but it decomposes more slowly.
The best “stuff” is winter fed barn (stalls) manure where they use wood shavings for bedding, and the horses are fed a diet of timothy grass and grains. This composts VERY fast and you’ll find few weeds as a result of using it.
Nuf said.
Ayuh, nice to see a fellow Maina out there!
After reading this article I’ve decided to build a small house for my generator to help keep the noise down when I run the thing. I should be able to fill the pallets with some kind of insulating material for the nosie. I live in a real quiet area up near the Midcoast and when I run it you can hear it for miles.
Great site!
My compost is made from pallets. I used a long pallet(8ft), nailed a regular pallet on each end and another in the middle. I left the front open because it’s easier to get stuff in and out of there with the shovel. Mine is also a 2 year process, but I don’t stir it more than once or twice a year. I pee in it once in a while too. It seems to help it fling and I don’t track the mud into the house.
As far as other uses, I used one as a workbench top. I just put a half sheet of plywood on top to give it a smooth surface. I saw z book at Mr Paperback recently that was all about using pallets fir different things. Some people even use them for fencing. Just stand them next to each other and nail them together. Great fir mist poultry and even some larger livestock. I just wouldn’t fence the back 40 with them.
Cool; We built a floating duck blind out of pallet once and it woked out very well. Pallets are very hardy and strong and when you put them together, you can build all sorts of cool stuff and most places GIVE them away to get rid of them!