Old fashioned ingenuity is now 'en vogue'

Three generations ago, during the hard times of the Great Depression, I'm told my great grandfather would walk the streets of his neighborhood and drag home odds-and-ends that had been discarded by others. Once home, he generally was able to give these cast-asides new purpose. In his own way, reusing or repurposing items was just part of being prudent, this decades before terms such as "recycle" or "green" became part of the venacular.

Well, the spirit of Betros lives proudly in hubby, who like my ancestor, can't pass an abandoned piece of wood without seeing it be repurposed in some yet-to-be dreamed up project here at the farm. Case in point, our recently completed chicken coop/chicken house.

The A-frame coop used to be part of the roof of an old hay building. The door to the coop is an old chain-link fence gate. The roof was a discard from Amery, Wis. In the chicken house (which was an unused shed found on the property) the window came from a client demolition project, the wire-covered walls were lying on the side of the road during "clean-up" week, as was the formica shelf that will hold the nesting boxes. The hinges on the door also came from a client demoltion. And, most of the nails were reused from some older project.

Betros would have been proud.
The chickens are pretty excited too.