I was recently inspired by the Simple, Green, Frugal Co-op to search through my personal library of old books and find some old frugality tips for the Heirloom Orchardist. Strangely, although the books are full of ideas that you and I would consider frugal, they weren't referenced that way. These how-to tips were presented more as tips for practical living, than frugal living.
I'm sure if I looked further, I'd find words preaching the virtues of a "thrifty, god-fearing, frugal life." Something like that. But to the Heirloom Orchardist, perhaps the phrase "frugal living" sounded a bit silly. Farm life is frugal life, isn't it? Certainly, to the 18th and 19th century farmer it was. You were either frugal or you were wasteful. There was no in-between.
My books are full of ideas on how to properly manage the farm. That includes frugality. I found numerous inquiries on how to re-use various cast-offs that accumulated around the homestead. Does scrap leather make a good manure? How can one scatter spoiled snuff as an insecticide? To what useful purpose may I apply burnt bones? And what can I do with all those darn barrels that keep piling up?
That one's easy. My book of Handy Farm Devices and How to Make Them (by Rolfe Cobleigh, 1912) flatly states: "Barrels, barrel hoops and barrel staves may be worked into many useful things upon a farm."
Rolfe gives plenty of ideas. There's the Chicken Coop, the Barrel Hoop Trellis, or (my favorite) the Weeding Stool. It uses barrel staves to keep the legs of an old stool from sinking into the earth under the weight of an overbearing Heirloom Orchardist.
But I can top all of those. Here's something I assembled from cast-offs just a few weeks ago. I found some old lumber in my garage, and grabbed an old cedar window shutter from the neighbor's trash (I know that's cliche'. But I really did.)
Then I took the wheels and pull-handle off the kids' old red wagon,
and made this:
Hey Rolfe! Add that to your list of Handy Farm Devices!
