Our Recycled Water Trough: an Update and How-To

Good Morning! 
There has been a lot of interest lately in our recyled water trough. 

{our living room 3 years ago}

I first posted about it when I needed help in figuring out where to put it in our home and to showcase what we were showing at the fair. You can see that original post HERE.

Recently, Country Lifestyle featured the photo above from Pinterest. And it has generated a lot of questions and requests for a "How-To". So I am going to attempt to articulate without sounding completely un-knowledgeable about all things tools! And trying to find pictures from 3 years ago was quite a challenge. 

Our son, Wyatt, along with Daddy's guidance, made this as a 4-H project. It's original intention was a tack box for when we show our cattle at the Fair. And we have actually used it down there....I will show pictures of that later in this post. Some of these pictures were taken during the making of it, and others have been taken now with it in our home to show more details and instructions. 

This is the stock tank that we used, it was purchased before we had our automatic waters for our cattle. It had become rusted and not safe to use, so we decided to use it for a totally different purpose! You can purchase a brand new one at Tractor Supply. (It's a 100 gallon for those needing to know the size) 

Using old barn wood that he nailed and glued together, he placed it on top to measure the size of lid needed. He then cut it out with a jigsaw. 

A mama side note: Wyatt looks so young and adorable in this picture! He is wearing safety glasses and was monitored by Dad the whole time! 

 On the back, 2 pieces of barn wood were attached to make a good base for the hinges. (which were also old and recycled...seeing a theme here? haha)

On the front is a used latch we had lying around and spray painted it brown to kind of match the rusty hinges on the back. The paint has kind of chipped and warn off over the years, which I don't mind. I love that this is not perfect. Which makes it perfect!  

Wyatt also likes to wood-burn, so he made a sign to put on the front with our farm name. (this is my favorite part!) He then bolted it to front. 

After cutting holes in the sides with a drill to the size needed, old ropes were used for the handles, which were just zip-tied on the inside. You can see from these current photos that this trunk is now being used as pillow storage in our bedroom! 

The final thing that was added were casters to get this big bad boy around easier, and to me, everything should have casters! 

{at our 4-H County Fair}

{Proud Wyatt with his project}

Can you believe that he just received a blue ribbon for this? Apparently the judge requested that there be a safety closing hinge on it to prevent injuries. Even though it was hurtful that this didn't go on to the State Fair level, we do have to agree that safety comes first. So if you are reading this to make one for yourself, please add a safety hinge! (We still haven't, and haven't had any accidents however)

And to prove that we have loved and abused this.....here are some ways that we have used this workhorse...all of these are from our Instagram page, under the hashtag #ourwatertrough....

At the County Fair as a tack box

In our front room as a Christmas tree holder

 In our living room with our many looks over the last couple years

{a little too tall as a coffee table}

 And in it's current location, at the end of our bed

The funny thing is that it is not, and never really was for long, in the location that it is in the picture that is going around Pinterest, and now Facebook! So I hope this helps those that have asked me to show more details about how this was made. It isn't for everyone to have a recycled item from a farm in your home. But I love objects that make a statement. I love quirky. I love recycled, repurposed, re-used. I love to organize and store things. And most of all, I love my son and ANYTHING he makes! And I'm sure that I will have to fight him for it when he grows up and leaves our nest! 

{our living room 3 years ago}

And if you have one of these water troughs sitting around your yard or farm, and don't want to make a storage piece for your home, you can always use it as a pool like my boys have done. This is another tank we have and I am always dreaming up ideas of how we can use repurpose it! 

Thanks for stopping by my little blog, I hope you come back to follow our journey of our everyday busy life on this hobby farm of ours, and watch as I learn and love making our home into our sanctuary. 

4H County Fair projects

Every year, we tell ourselves that there will not be any last minute projects made for the county fair. And EVERY YEAR, the kids are scrambling to finish all of them and get all their goals written, photos printed to show the process to the judges, etc. 

                    .....oh the joys of motherhood, and procrastination!

Today, I wanted to show you all what they made....and some other projects that I saw in other booths that I found awesome.

Sierra's first project was to dye pillowcases. She did a fold and clamp method that we saw on The White Buffalo Styling Co. You can watch Lindsay's tutorial HERE. Sierra started with 2 plain white pillowcases that we purchased for just pennies at Goodwill! 

                   .........(Have I mentioned how much I love that store???) 

And we bought a few different colors of RIT Liquid Dye to choose from. 

This was a fun, easy-peasy project to do...I have purchased YARDS of white fabric since then to hopefully do some more projects with this method! Sierra's pillowcases turned out pretty cool, huh?

                          ......one blue, one pink

And yes, our volleyball net makes a great clothes line :)

This was the start of Sierra's second project...we are obsessed with everything "tribal" right now, especially dream catchers. She used a giant embroidery hoop and a doily that we already owned, and made this amazing large statement piece dream catcher. 

                     ....already looking beautiful

Using feathers from our farm, the only thing she really had to purchase was the leather straps and some of the wooden beads. This has already moved onto 3 different walls, I love it so much, and move it into whatever room I'm spending most of my time in on that day...

{Sorry for the grainy cellphone picture}

Now my creative little soul, Wyatt. He has so many dreams and plans throughout the year, it's hard to get him to narrow down the projects that are actually do-able for our tight (procrastinating) time-frame.

He started this snowman out of woodblocks at a 4H project meeting, then the club members were to take it home to finish it however they would like. Since it was the heart of summer...here is what he came up with....

You have all seen Frozen, the Disney-animated movie, right? Well this is Olaf. Isn't he cute?

Wyatt has gotten quite good at wood-burning...and loves every excuse to burn wood that he gets.

          ....so, of course he had to have several items to show off his skills!

This piece of wood was a scrap from our pile. It kinda has a mountain range look to it... and you know this mama can't resist mountains! 

             ....or our family name displayed anywhere and everywhere!

And with other wood scraps, my lil wood-burner came up with these....

These are garden markers! And they look so beautiful in our garden.

What I love about making projects for 4H, is that the kids get to use their creativity. They prepare a goal sheet and write (book report style) about the elements of design, costs of the project, etc. I really do "make" them do this on their own...it gives them a sense of pride...

                        .....I hope......

Here are some projects from other children's booths, some of these are really quite amazing! I only hope that the kids actually did these themselves! ;)

Both of these projects were selected to move onto the State Fair, and with good reason.... I would buy these any day! 

 I am so mad at myself for not having my camera to take these, they turned out so blurry, but I wanted to share this bookcase that spells out "Love", what a fun wood project I bet this was to make! And who could resist that little table in front of it? It's a flag pattern made from tops of beer bottles...

                         ......recycling at it's best :)........

And we personally know the girl who made this project, I thought it was a genius idea.... a spot for each family member's drink. This is where you keep it throughout the day, so no confusing who's is whose and no dirtying several cups. I just may have to copy this for our family! 

                          ....ain't nobody got time to do dishes all day!

Oh, how could I forget Wyatt's BIG project? He had been planning this all winter, and couldn't wait to see it done! I showed a peak of it on our Facebook page , but here it is again: The Miniature Garden

This now sits proudly on our back porch! And he is in the planning stages of next year's Miniature Garden... 

         ...... but won't actually DO it until a few days before the Fair I'm sure!