Recycling is what we do when we’re out of options to avoid, repair, or reuse the products first. Firstly: Reduce. Don’t buy what you don’t need. Repair: Fix stuff that still has life in it. Reuse: share. Then only when you’ve exhausted those options, recycle. — Annie Leonard, filmmaker “The Story of Stuff”
Often when you think you’re at the end of something you’re at the beginning of something else. — Fred Rogers, T.V. personality
Transforming objects into something else is a rare art form. While recycling paper, plastic, cans and the sort is useful in many ways there are more options. Sam enjoys making one thing into another not so much for aesthetics but for function. The old treadmill wasn’t working. Off came the metal framing where it was fashioned into bracing over the tractor. A cheap blue tarp was stretched over the framing providing an overhead sunshade. Other parts from the treadmill were added to the fishing boat’s “Live Scope” as an armrest. The solar panel from a broken gate was affixed to the fishing boat battery for extra power. The Sony projection T.V. died so the black plastic backing with SONY stamped on it became an awning over the garage door.
There was the old upright piano. We tried selling it for use or parts but had no takers. The piano must have weighed a thousand pounds. One day we rolled it to the side porch where it tumbled head over heel and splintered on the ground. I saved the piano bench and placed it by the door where we sit to take our shoes on and off. The rest of the piano became a headboard and a fireplace mantle.
Once there was a child’s swing set in the yard complete with wooden fort eventually forlorn and abandoned. That was when the wooden fort with its attached ladder was transported to the edge of the woods and turned into a viewing stand for deer and assorted wildlife. We enjoyed the viewing stand for a number of years until great winds came and tumbled it over and into the woods. Not to be undone it was transformed into a garbage can corral.
Later we were offered a shooting house that was no longer useful. When we arrived to check it out a sapling was growing through the center, the house itself had collapsed and one of the metal legs was bent at a ninety-degree angle. Though I was a little skeptical, Sam was gracious and loaded it into the pickup. Within a few days Sam had evened all the metal posts by cutting about two feet off the long posts, secured the structure, built a new floor, and made sliding plexiglass windows. A shelf was built to hold a camera, binoculars, and coffee thermos. Two folding chairs were added. The “new” hunting house was painted, placed and secured.
For a couple of months now we’ve been trying to drain the big lake to rid the lake of some unwanted vegetation and also to dig it deeper. It’s been a rather slow process with all the rains. A friend asked why not use a four-inch pipe to drain faster? Sam answered, “Because I already had two-inch pipe.” A little imagination, innovation, and transformation can go a long way.
Shannon Bardwell is a writer living quietly in the Prairie. Email reaches her at [email protected]
