Recycle, Upcycle, Reuse

 

This is Becky’s feed shed - freshly painted, an original farm outbuilding - NOT!

 Glenn obtained this wooden structure years ago when the Forest Service decided to replace many of these rustic structures with more modern, concrete ones. 

 

Yes, this was an official federal government outhouse - two doors, two stalls, male and female - we removed the informational signs.

 

I remember when Glenn and I went to remove the obsolete structures (we got two) from the government facility - a campground.  Once loaded on our flatbed, we slowly drove the 20 miles homes, stopping for lunch at a small, country store/gas station.

 

We got plenty of looks.

 

We used one of the buildings for years for our cattle feed storage.  Three years ago, we changed our management to grass-fed only…no supplemental grain.  The building stands idle at the corner of our yard, looking like an outhouse.  

 

Recently, Becky added pigs to her farm.  She needed a place to store grain for her pigs.  The transfer between the farms was obvious.  Glenn and Becky loaded one of the ‘outhouses’ (the one hidden in a corner of the pasture, of course) on the flatbed and trucked it to the ’55 farm’.  Again, the sight caught the attention of many. (See blog Oct. 13, 2013 -A Most Unusual Haul)

 

Becky placed the storage structure as close to her pig feeder as possible to make the filling of her feeder easy and yet accessible for a large truck which would supply and fill the structure with bulk feed.  Nestled between the barn and the silo was the most desirable location.

 

Then, Becky did something we had not for all those years the building was in our possession.  She repaired it and, most importantly, she painted it.  Doesn’t’ it look good?

 

And now, the structure is undeniably a farm outbuilding, not a recycled government outhouse.