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Groan…..

August 20th, 2015

Last night I was way too tired to write my blog post. Yesterday, I spent the day salvaging bricks from a friend’s house. They lost their home to a fire ten days ago, a complete loss. It’s very sad, but they didn’t want things to go to waste, so a friend and I got plants and landscaping materials from their gardens.
Bricks
I removed bricks from their patio and walkway, loaded as many as I could carry in my little car, then came home and unloaded them. I made three trips yesterday, the last batch of bricks is still in the car since I arrived home after dark. There are still around 250 bricks in my stack at her house waiting for me to bring home. We are hoping that these lovely pavers will make up the floor of the greenhouse we’re planning at the moment. In total I should end up with enough bricks for the floor of the 8×12 building. My back is feeling the work this morning, I groaned heavily before getting out of bed. It’s nice to get things for free and to keep something perfectly usable from going to a landfill. No doubt, my friend will be happy that her garden pathways will live on in my garden.

Do you salvage items for the garden? What’s the best thing you’ve managed to find?

6 Comments to “Groan…..”
  1. Jill on August 20, 2015 at 9:21 am

    I’m so sorry to hear that they lost their home. I’m sure having friends work alongside them is helping them cope, and knowing the pavers will be a thing of beauty in another yard must be a comfort.

    Reply to Jill's comment

  2. Cindy on August 20, 2015 at 9:32 am

    That is so sad they lost their home. I hope the insurance takes care of it. I love that you are repurposing what they lost though, what kind of plants did you take with?

    Reply to Cindy's comment

    • Susy on August 25, 2015 at 7:20 pm

      I got a few hydrangeas and ornamental grasses.

      Reply to Susy's comment

  3. Chris on August 20, 2015 at 11:23 am

    Oh, that is so sad about your friend’s home burning down. Will they re-build, move away? At least when they come to visit someday they will see bits of their old home and hopefully that will be of some comfort to them.

    Reply to Chris's comment

  4. Nebraska Dave on August 20, 2015 at 7:52 pm

    Susy, my best finds are free pallets for building fences and future storage structures. My neighborhood is filled with lime stone rock walls. On occasion I see home owners removing the stone and replacing them with concrete retaining wall blocks. The look is much nicer but the rocks are perfect for outlining raised beds. It’s a lot of work up front but it’s permanent. I’ve got enough for about three beds so far and another wall that’s coming out this fall will give me more to work with. Slowly the garden is coming together.

    Have a great brick laying day.

    Reply to Nebraska Dave's comment

  5. Chris Tindall on August 20, 2015 at 8:11 pm

    Oh man, that’s really rough – I cannot IMAGINE going through that… it is, however, extremely cool to freecycle (as it were) and get materials that way. I have been working on our greenhouse, raised beds, planter boxes, a couple of sheds… all from salvaged materials.

    And my heart did a little flip to learn you’re going to be building a greenhouse, because I SO want to know all the details… how are you planning on using it? Is it going to have a heat source, and if so how will you retain heat through the colder springs that you guys have up there, as I’m assuming you’re finally going to be able to move all your seed starting stuff that direction…? How are you going to handle irrigation? Have you considered trying to make it large enough to do some hot house year round growing? I know you’re very much an “eat what’s in season” gal, but does it interest you to try something like that?

    Oh man, I just cannot WAIT to see what you guys do! :)

    I’m sorry you’re sore, but I’ll bet it’s that ever spoken about “GOOD” sore… :)

    Reply to Chris Tindall's comment

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This is a daily journal of my efforts to cultivate a more simple life, through local eating, gardening and so many other things. We used to live in a small suburban neighborhood Ohio but moved to 153 acres in Liberty, Maine in 2012.

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