Unconventional Recycling

 

Nature relies heavily on recycling the old to produce the new.  Just think about composting manure or the cycle of water from ground to cloud then back to the ground again.  I even learned the other day that there are vultures in Africa called Lammergeiers that eat bones.  Nature wastes nothing!  While we’ve got the manure thing covered with our myriads of animals, recycling for us typically goes beyond just returning our tin cans or stringing together our milk jugs to take to the nearest recycling station.
We have a once stately old barn that was beyond our ability to repair when we bought our house.  The small holes in the roof became gaping holes in the roof and it ruined the wood beneath as rain and snow leaked in.  Still, it would have been a shame to waste such beautiful wood.  So we didn’t.

Then it made a lovely bench for an impromptu photo of Jack and our daughters.

My point is that there are tons of ways to reduce, reuse and recycle.  Granted it may take more time or energy on our part but more often than not, it saves on money and waste.  We still do some conventional-type recycling (Iowa is one of the states that pays per can to recycle which is pretty good motivation to at least take your cans back!) but most of our “recycling” is of a different nature.  Waste not, want not, right?!