Saturday, July 02, 2011

Landfill Rescue #1

Hi from North Carolina where it is very hot currently 95 degrees here. Hope you don't mind, I'm starting a series of posts about landfill rescues. Today I found this top quality 75 foot garden hose in the dumpster at our local convenience site. All it needed was a female end replaced. This hose I just bought one like it for $50 +. People are so wasteful it disturbs me sometimes.

Here is all that was wrong with the hose, ran over by a car or truck on the female end.
It took all of 5 minutes and a $7 female hose end to fix it. Not it was hard to slide on, I found connecting to the other end of the hose made it much easier to slide on. Some people might add a little soap to make it slide on easier if they are not very strong. I have done this many times for my handyman customers. You can buy less expensive hose repair fitting, the plastic ones. I use the good brass ones because I'll remove it and use it again when this hose is at to end of it's life.
Her it is repaired. I just placed the collar on it and tightened down the screws. I tested the hose in the back garden and it worked great. It had a few kinks, so I uncurled it and the kinks were gone.
 Meg did a little landfill rescue from Randy's landfill pile. I have been remodeling a bathroom and took out a shower curtain ring and tossed it in my pile. The next day I saw Meg holding it and smiling. Her daughter just build an outdoor shower and was going to purchase a shower curtain ring for it. Meg took it to her on Thursday and likely helped her install it.

Here is our bee hive late this afternoon. Lots of bees hanging out. I could not replace the syrup feeder as the bees were all over the sides and I'd kill several of them if I replaced it.

One of the best purple coneflowers were have ever grown!
Two sweet peppers in the garden. Funny I bought some just like these at the Durham Farmers Market on Wednesday.
This morning I went over to Jan's, these are his hives! We put together 10 new frames for my hive, I'll be adding a new brood box on Monday.

The rain chains are in! I love them, Meg has been away so she has not seen them yet! I hope to install the drain system for them tomorrow, that way if it rains we'll have a rain tote filling up! So stay tuned the rain chains will be my next post!!!

17 comments:

NotSoAngryRedHead said...

Radical landfill find! My husband and I got our front loader washer from the side of a road, and it only needed a very minor repair. We've since replaced the springs holding the drum in place, but that's been all. Absolutely bananas what people toss. I would have rescued that hose if only to use as tree hangers - I'm including a link in case that doesn't make any sense.

The peppers and coneflower are lovely! And there's something lovely about bee hives.

Can't wait to see the chains!

FlowerLady Lorraine said...

DH and I have found lots of perfectly useable or money making things curbside, or in dumpsters or landfills. It is amazing how much 'waste' happens in this country. We are hooked on 'freebies'.

Have a great holiday weekend.

FlowerLady

tina said...

Awesome find at the landfill! Looking forward to seeing your rainchain post but I will be off the computer for a while so I may just have to look back at it.

Southern Lady said...

I can't stand wasteful people. Good for you for repairing the hose. It is amazing at what people throw away. Carla

greggo said...

are the chains ornamental. used to see antique ones in san antonio.

Randy Emmitt said...

NSAR,
Getting a washer like that is a great find. Our gas stove was bound for the landfill at a customers. they gave it to me when the new one arrived.
Flowerlady,
Freebies are a great thing aren't they. We have a free shed at the landfill convenience site, drop off what you do not need others take it home.

Tina, Have fun but don't stay away too long.
Carla, We recycle items about ever week. Remember the little tin man?
Greggo,
Yes the rain chains are decorative and functional. You will see soon enough. That is if it ever rains here.

Gardener on Sherlock Street said...

Great find. That hose has a lot of life left.

ann said...

Great find a the landfill.

L. Ambler said...

Like you, my handyman husband has rescued a lot of "stuff" from roadsides and dumpsters, repaired them and put them to use. I think it's a great way to help keep the environment cleaner.

Karen said...

Well, I hear you loud & clear, Randy, we are constantly trying to make something from nothing and if we found that hose in a dumpster, we'd have brought it home too. Carl is forever rescuing things. It is amazing what people throw away, and so sad. I was just cleaning the old light shade pan fountain yesterday and thinking how it would have been in the dump twenty years ago already. As a society we are so wasteful.

The bees are really something to see and look forward to the rain chain/barrel updates.

Curbstone Valley Farm said...

We've had to do a few of those repairs. The UPS truck driver, I swear, went out of his way recently to run over not one, but TWO of our hoses. ;)

Our bees often crowd the boardman base. I usually have to go and prune or water something for a few minutes while they clear it out to have any hope of replacing feeders. I'm trying to get motivated with the warm weather to head out for hive inspections this morning before the sun gets any hotter! A bee-suit in summer is not my favorite attire! :P I like Jan's hive stands, are the posts set in concrete?

Janet, The Queen of Seaford said...

Good save on the hose.
A brood box? You are going gangbusters with your hives. Think this is so cool. Coneflowers are super all season long!

Rock rose said...

I would have to admit that I have picked up several things from trash day on the road. A large polystyrene fish cooler that I intend to hypertufa some day and some wooden wine boxes. Some large metal stakes too. Always look with the garden in mind. One man's trash really is another man's treasure. Those bee hives are awesome. Do you have the full kit?

Lisa said...

Good for you for snagging that hose.

We're having an exceptionally good purple coneflower year, too. The rainy spring was probably helpful!

Just wish we'd have a few thunderstorms now.

Lisa

P.S. Your bee hives look great.

Victoria Williams said...

That's so nice that you picked up that broken hose and fixed it!
It's great to take advantage of stuff like that, good for you.

Q said...

I am so excited about your bee keeping!
My husband and have talked about becoming keepers for years. Being in the city I am not sure....
So fun!
sherry

Corner Gardener Sue said...

Sometimes things that are clearly easy for us to do are not to others. I wouldn't have known how to repair the hose. I don't know if Larry would or not.

I had actually had that thought when Larry's brother, who used to install underground sprinklers for a living, and actually installed the one here for his dad, thought we would know how to cap off the broken sprinkler head. I had thought he was going to do it for us. After all, Larry has computer skills that are easy to him, but not to others, and is called very often by folks, including this brother. Well, he came over to borrow something from Larry, and I had him right down what I needed to buy for him to cap it off. Larry and I ended up figuring out how to do it, and I was very proud that we did that.

Please excuse the bit of a vent. I'm glad you got the hose and fixed it.