How to Recycle a FreeCycle

About two years ago, our family scored a wooden play set via our local FreeCycle* group. After careful examination though, we decided that the 20-year old play set was not in the kind of shape we trusted for our kids' safety for the next 5-10 years.

I'd been wanting to start composting kitchen scraps for some time too, so my super-smart husband and father came up with a plan to turn the play set into a giant compost bin for me.

This is the clubhouse and sandbox portion of the play set...

... being remade into an air-circulating compost container.

Leaves, grass clippings, kitchen scraps, dead headed flowers, coffee grounds, veggies overlooked in the garden and left on the vine too long... it all goes into a lovely pile of decomposing goodness.


That spring I was excited to plant a few things and began lasagna gardening in cardboard boxes. (You know what happens to cardboard when it gets wet and rained on?)
So with the leftover swing and support beams from the FreeCycled play set, hubby built frames for my vegetable garden. This is about halfway through the build process.


Laying out the square divisions.
Yay for no more soggy box gardens!
(I will have to snap a few photos of these things this year, because it looks really different and much nicer, now that everything has had a while to settle in.)

I use these gardening and naturalist books a lot.


And if you wonder lately where Erin has gone to...

look no further.

*Not familiar with FreeCycle? I'm about to sound like a paid advertisement.
It's a great way to become a better steward of your possessions, finances and the environment.
Basic principle: Do you have something, anything, you want to get rid of? Post it on your local FreeCycle Yahoo group and see if there is anyone in your area who could use it.
Looking for something that someone else might have and not want anymore? Post a request on your local FreeCycle group and see if someone can meet your need.
FreeCycle helps to keep perfectly good items out of the landfills by connecting people who want to get rid of things to people who actually need/want/can use those very same things. Bricks, cars, makeup, household goods, clothing, roosters, kittens, windows, books, furniture, video games, sports equipment, plants, appliances, moving boxes, holiday decorations... there are very few things I haven't seen on my FreeCycle board.
Search the Yahoo Groups directory to see if there's a FreeCycle group in your area.

News Flash (es)

This just in folks,
Rhonda's giving away a copy of the 3.1.6. Journal over on SoulPerBlog. Git yer hiney over there and join the ranks of name-tossers-in-the-hatters. You've got until Monday evening!!

*******
This also coming across the news desk,
My youngest sister's wedding was a lovely affair.
We all had our underwear present and accounted for.
Mommy didn't forget to pack one. single. solitary. thing.
You may now throw ME a ticker tape parade!! :) (This is quite an accomplishment, for those of you who don't know.)

*******
From our garden correspondent,
There are approximately 60 tomatoes plumping up in my garden. The grapevines are growing madly, although the Japanese beetles seem to be keeping pace, grrrr! Morning glories greet me every morning, and the cosmos and zinnias are popping open their blooms. My cucumber, squash, zucchini and watermelon plants are r e a c h i n g hither and yon to wrap their tendrils around anything and everything that will offer them support. "Spilling over" is the phrase that comes to mind as I look at them all over the place.
My, my, it's a beautiful green out there!

Back to you at the news desk.