From Garbage to Goods

Junk mail has always been annoying to me. I have often told Dan and Gavin that I could quit my job if I had a dollar for every piece of junk mail that we get.

Well, several months ago I came up with a great thought for this never ending flow of wasteful paper. I had a memory of my mom having garbage bags full of shredded paper that she would use on the farm for bedding. I don’t remember where she got it but I remember that it worked great for bedding. So, I suggested to Gavin that we could try it out in his chicken coop for bedding. Not knowing for sure if it would work out, I called a friend whom has one or two of everything ever invented, to see if she had a paper shredder that we could borrow just to test it out! She did, so we tested it out.

We weren’t sure right away if it was a good idea because the chickens seemed to be eating the pieces of paper! Im sure it was out of curiosity because it was something new. Boredom probably played a role in their paper noshing too since it was the middle of winter when we added it in their house and they stay in their coop during the really cold weather. After a few weeks of adding it in mixed with hay and straw, they finally figured out that it was not food.

So, Gavin decided to invest in his own paper shredder for making chicken bedding!

Now our piles of newspapers, junk mail, magazines and bills feel much more useful since their journey continues on as chicken bedding! It’s such a wonderful feeling to turn “junk” into something useful! It saves Gavin money on bedding and keeps out recycle bins from overflowing with paper!

BRILLIANT!!!