I've saved a whole wack of neat innovative tricks n tips for homesteads over the years and have decided to present them weekly under this title 'Homestead Hacks' I hope you find useful ideas here!
Today we look at all the things we can do with plastic barrels
It's incredible how many uses there are for these. They're relatively easy to source & inexpensive as well.
- Septic Field
To do this we connected two barrels the first with the intake coming in the top, the second with outflow into perforated pipes to seep into the field.
https://www.wikihow.com/Construct-a-Small-Septic-System
- Trough
- Sinks
- Goat Kid Shelter
- Chick Warmer
Pig Feeder that can be filled from outside the pen
- Goat Feeder - There are a number of variations for these
- Swings
- Airplane - this one is epic!
- Train Carts
- Barge
- Aquaponics Growbeds
- Planter
- Food Locker / Root Cellar – A great idea to keep your food safe from weather & critters
- Compost Bin - with the ability to rotate
- Bio-Filter For Fish Pond
- Beehive
- Wind Turbine
Hope you enjoyed this post! Happy Steeming ^_^
I also grow in mine, and have a few collecting rain water. Very sweet post! So glad to have meet you! I cant wait for more tips and tricks!
that ever-handy 55 gal barrel!! haha we have a few too. some of these were really brilliant - like the light for the chicks .. really great re-use of something that is easy to find! love it :)
The one concern of mine is what was stored in them, we get chemical totes for rain water and have them steam cleaned, any other way to make sure they're 100% safe?
Yes you bring up a good point! Depending on the application if using for plants/animals/water particularly you'd definitely want to make sure the ones you get are 'food grade' but they generally are from my experience.
Wow, that is truly impressive. I thought I was pretty handy when it came to improvising and re-purposing for most situations... but I feel like if I were stuck in a survival situation or were we left to our own devises, I would totally want you there. Yep, no doubt about it, haha. Looking forward to seeing more of your tricks. Great post!
I didn't come up with these ideas just found out about them over the years of reading about homesteading and whatnot. A couple new as of today like the airplane hehe. Thankyou though! I think I'm pretty innovative nonetheless. You definitely learn to be handy when in survival situations. ^_^ Thanks for stopping by!!
Awesome post! Barrels are invaluable on the stead that is for sure!!! OMG the kids swing and airplane... Whaaa. that is too cool!! We use them for water catchment, hay feeders, and general storage since we lack a barn or shed!! resteemed!!
Thankyou! Hehe yeah I made a 'Squeee!' noise when I found the airplane. I use them for mostly those purposes as well but I quite fancy trying the barge & turbine. ^_^ Much appreciate for the resteem!!
I love the pig feeder being accessible from outside!! When we were raising American Guinea Hogs, they were pretty mellow, but I didn't want the kids in there feeding them because of those tusks! When we first got our breeding pair, one of the breeders told us about her friend, a fellow AGH breeder, who had great pigs. Friendly & gentle, but one day he jumped into the pen without his boots on. Something caught the boar's attention and when he quickly turned his head, gouged the breeder's leg. He had to get quite a few stitches. Can't be too careful around boar's!
I love the swing idea too! Looks like they used a pool noodle for padding.
And we don't have a golf cart, but we do have a small riding mower with a snow thrower attachment that would work for pulling the kiddos🤣🤣
Me too!! Do some people (or perhaps most) do something to take their tusks away? I googled that type of pig but the photos all showed them without tusks which I thought was odd after reading your story. Definitely would want a feeder accessible from the outside in this situation! I'm glad you enjoyed the post! Thanks for your comment ^_^
Our breeding pair we named Jack & Jill. I could never see Jack's tusks-just the lump under his lip, but we only had him 3 years before we moved. Here's a good post about tusks and it happens to be an AGH. http://antiquityoaks.blogspot.com/2014/12/trimming-boars-tusks.html
Smart little boogers!
And just as the author mentioned. They really are sweet! (And tasty!) :-) We had one litter and the piglets were hilarious! Oh! That gives me an idea for an upcoming post! I have some great footage of these 7 little piglets when they were small enough to go under the electric wire. They would get halfway up the dirt road ( we only had 2 more neighbors past us) and I would clap at them and yell, and they would all turn around and run back! We ended up having to move the catfood up or they would sneak out in the mornings and raid it!
Thanks for the link - oh my beer as a sedative! lol I appreciate the detailed replies, following you now looking forward to piglet videos hehe. <3
I use them for troughs and water catchment - love the pig trough idea - will be using that one :)
Amazing what people come up with! A swing for the kiddies even. lol
You look like a really creative guy, so I have one question; Does the airplane fly? lol
You have a new follower. I love this kind of stuff. Keep'em coming. I hope you make $500 from this post !
I did not make all these, just featuring them in a collective to share the ideas (source links are under photos) Also I'm a girl :P But the guy in the first picture is quite the inventor of ideas. Can't wait til he starts blogging on here! I like to think I'm pretty creative nonetheless, living offgrid you kinda have to be! Glad you enjoyed the post and to have you as a follower ^_^ Thanks for stopping by!!!
Well, a good collection then. lol You may be a girl, but I'm sure you could have made them, had you wanted to. ;-) If you're living off the grid, yeah, I'd have to believe that you're very creative, and capable!
These are really awesome uses for rain barrels! What is the best way to cut the plastic and fasten the wire in your experience @wiswoof
Love your idea if weekly homestead hacks 👍💜
Thankyou! It helps encourage me to keep posting too, I'm kind of critical about my content, I want it to be awesome and not just whatever so I don't post as much because of that. I use a small hand saw to cut and made holes to run wire through and over (like twist it with pliers) not sure why I'm struggling to describe this lol but I'm sure you get what I mean! <3
I can totally get what you mean by your description! I appreciate your reply and just want to say....girl! Please! Give yourself a break 💜💛 the content that i have enjoyed of yours is top notch, first class all the way!! Seriously! You're so good at it! Love you, and your contributions to the block chain👍👍💙💚
Thankyou for the uplifting vibes and so glad you enjoy my blog! I've been putting a lot of effort into sharing this wonderful platform with my following on facebook, so lots of minnows joining the school! Loves! <333
Great post!
Thanks for using the ecoTrain tag but please do not use it in future. We use this tag to organise the ecoTrain and it makes it hard for us when others use it.
The ecoTrain tag is meant to indicate membership in the ecotrain group and is not a topic tag for general use.
Thank you !
The ecoTrain Conductor
I am confused. How can you claim a tag as “yours?” I mean, I would love to claim certain ones for my own personal use, too, but I realize this is a free-sharing platform.
Because we created the ecoTrain group and we created the tag, which is a name tag and not a topic tag.
Other groups like @familyprotection or individuals like @quinneaker are also using their own tags as well.
So I would think it is common sense and common courtesy to not use those tags if you are not a member of the group or the individual itself.
But I understand that people might sometimes think ecoTrain is a topic, but it is not, therefore the friendly request to not use the tag, and usually people understand our issue and refrain from using the tag next time.
My apologies, I didn't realize that. However funny enough I was trying to join the group yesterday but the confirmation email link when you click 'confirm' doesn't take me anywhere. I'll get it figured today though ^_^
No worries.
I don´t know about this email thing, this was set up by @eco-alex, what I do know is that right now the train is full anyway, we might take on a new passenger some time in February though.
Ah I guess I'm just trying to join the chat, thanks for the info!
I love this post.
I was looking for a better way to feed my sheep their hay and I think I have found it!
Thank you.
My pleasure! I made one for my goats too haha
My goats are spoiled little babies compared to the sheep.
The all powerful 50 gallon drum! I have seen each and every one of those ideas in use, except the plane and swing. The warming barrel is a lifesaver for goat kids! As a kid, my cousins and I would roll them to the top of a small hill, hop in while they were on their side, and let gravity take over. Good times!
Sounds like good times! I think I'd still do that as an adult xD That's sweet you've seen the turbine & pond filter & beehive!? Those are the ones I may make in the future. I had to do something more elaborate for my goat kid born this winter since I don't have the kind of power required to run heat lamps being offgrid.
I haven't seen the beehive or turbine in person, but second-hand, if that counts :) I saw a similar pond filter in WI. Yeah, those heat lamps use a LOT of power! I am cringing right now at the thought of mine running. We are slowly transitioning to off grid, our barn and garage are on the list to be converted this summer. What do you mean by "something more elaborate"? My current barn plan is to insulate better and install a small wood furnace or stove. But, I'm all ears!
It counts! Was curious how well those 3 work from first-hand account though :P I've always been nervous at the thought of using a stove near rambunctious goats and flammable straw. Managed to make a propane heater work safely though. The shelter I built to keep baby goat & mom warm in the winter I explained in a post last month here:
https://steemit.com/homesteading/@wisewoof/goat-baby-selfies-and-heated-shelter-hoorayy
That looks like it would do the trick! I have plenty of barn space that is not accessible to the goats so I am really leaning towards some sort of wood-fired rocket mass heater system. We have access to plenty of wood on-site, but propane is not so renewable on our property. The flammable straw is definitely a problem though. There have been many barns lost in these parts due to a misplaced or tipped heatlamp coming into contact with straw, so nothing is really foolproof unless the operator practices safe handling and considers all the potential possibilities. Throw goats in there and those possibilities grow exponentially!
I like it. Just goes to show that creativity and thinking out of the barrel knows no bounds...and the homestead is the perfect place to excercise such...
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