Lover of the Free Stuff

So.....I decided we desperately needed a dog house. Athena hates sleeping inside, as she always has. Protective guard that she is, she wants to be where she has the ability to get to anything that may pose a threat. We have always left Cricket to sleep with her for company and now with Beo, he just joined right in. We usually put them up in the playroom at night with dog beds but after Beo crapping all over it we moved them back into the shop where Athena prefers to be. Then he just crapped all over that. He's still getting used to new dog food and on meds for heartworms so it'll eventually go away. But, nonetheless, Brad was less than thrilled with the gifts we wake to every morning and was not so entirely exuberant with the fact we have a hundred pound pooping dog with diarrhea. Mother, the children and I got out there cleaned it all up, organized and went the extra mile to turn it back into a shop for him. Grayson cleaned up the playroom but it was up to Brad to cut the carpet out of it. But...the point.....they need their own, easy to clean, warm space that they love. They need a place out of the rain for the few times of year it does rain in the middle of the day. Soooo....we have this unused shed in the backyard. It was basically a "keep the dog food out of the sun" shed. Dear stupid dogs do not ever use it to take shelter from the rain. Nope....they just stand out in it or run around wildly getting thoroughly and nastily muddy. I had an idea to turn our outdoor playhouse turned toy storage space into a massive dog house but that meant quite a bit of construction. I have no doubt I could figure it all out and accomplish the vision but it's gonna take awhile....like, maybe a year or two and that's being optimistic. So, I woke the other morning with an idea and figured there was no reason I couldn't act on it that very day and solve our obvious problem. I set out to build a door for the shed. That seemed a little daunting so Grayson had an idea to buy a chain link gate and attach it to the open doorway of the "keep the dog food out of the sun" shed. This would allow plenty of air flow, a way for them to see the outside world at night but still keep them away from drafts and entirely warm under heat lamps.

As Mother, Grayson and I took trash that morning we passed a long since vacant, trashed house. There are many of those in this tiny town of our's. Trash, junk and crap abound. Tired of the junk people never clean up, the abandoned houses with absolute crap everywhere, the people who feel like they can just puke up their life on their property and then take off for other places I decided to recycle in the truest form. So, much to Brad's absolute horror, I began to scavenge. Driving around I found promising houses that showed potential of possessing what needs we might have and then unpiled everybody and went rummaging. Amazingly we were able to come up with yet more chicken feeders and waterers, a free patio table complete with chairs...despite the fact it's a bit crooked, 3 little boy bikes in great shape, and of all things, a chain link gate leaning against a fence buried beneath mounds and mounds of utter junk. It was like finding the hidden treasure. Giddy with success we loaded it up in the bed of the truck and set off to make our dog house. Dear humiliated husband grew more and more irritated with the truckload of seeming "trash"...as he is one that will buy most stuff new though he deeply appreciates my entirely frugal ways. Dear city council member fearing his reputation, this was by all means crossing over the frugal line for him. But the way I figure it, not only are we saving tons of money, we're cleaning up the town, teaching the children community service values, and using up tons of energy on very good projects...both on and off of our property. By the end of my scavenging ways I am quite sure this town will be a better, cleaner place for it. And admittedly, there is quite the thrill in the hunt for "trashed treasures". Mother and I made a quick trip in to get the hinges to mount the gate since all of my rummaging didn't come up with any of those and for 9.97 we had a completely new and perfect dog house. Dear perfectionist husband feared me mounting it completely and totally wrong so he took over my little project by the end of it. I think once I scored the free gate he was a bit more open to my re/freecycling, town cleaning ways. Until the gate showed up he was a little perturbed and a bit cranky about it all. With dog beds put homily within, heat lamps mounted and a water bowl set out we now had the perfect canine home complete with free swinging gate....all for 9.97.

In my "how to accomplish projects for free" thought processes I have decided I'm going to make a kitchen table. I found tons and tons of old wooden doors among all of the crap in this town. So, I'm off to get a few doors.....then to sand, prime and paint along with about a hundred coats of varnish to protect it all from the thousand a day spills. Then I'll hammer some legs onto it and create the perfect, authentic, quite antique table seeing as how every house in this town has to be at least 90 years old and standing at an angle....if they're standing at all. There is no doubt the doors are original to these houses as most of them have just fallen off or are hanging by a screw or two...if that....along with the lovely peeling lead paint that goes along with it. The goal is to find some unpainted doors but I have a feeling we may be digging awhile for that one. I'm sure if I look enough I can find some chairs to put around it too. You gotta love free and creative!!! So, I think I'm gonna go put some of my children to work and start making town rounds. The children have already found a mountain of coke cans they can recycle for some small....and I mean VERY small.....change. But once again....I figure it's cleaning up the town, putting them to work and they get maybe enough money for a coke out of the deal. Oh....the thrill of the hunt. Who knows what else we'll come up with! So...much to Brad's utter dismay and total horror we're off to recycle the town...or at least what we can use of it. The rest we're hauling to the dump. He's of the opinion that "they put it there ,they can clean it up". But I'm of the opinion that they put it there and they'll never clean it up. Soooo...somebody needs to do it...and in the process we can meet a few needs of our own! And, yes...what we are doing is totally legal in every way....not that it'd really matter if it wasn't since there is no apparent law enforcement around here and the people who crapped it all out would never know it's gone given the amount of junk that lies heaped on every corner of their property. But, have no fear....it is entirely legal as long as we stick to the trash heaps and do not break and enter.....which, believe it or not, is kinda tempting.