Empty feed bags

moonwolf · #1 09/04/14, 08:43 PM

What do you all do with your empty white plastic
bags?

handymama · #2 09/04/14, 08:49 PM

They are what I use to kill grass and weeds for new flower beds. I cover them with mulch.
I've also used them to keep the wind out of the barn by nailing them over the gaps between old boards.

sammyd · #3 09/04/14, 09:29 PM

We have used them under mulch in our flower beds as well.
I use them for making garbage bag silage. I put the chopped corn in them before the garbage bag to prevent the stuff from poking through the garbage bags.
We use them to haul shelled corn into the mill to grind a batch of feed.
I use them when I sell cob corn.

Nimrod · #4 09/04/14, 11:12 PM

If they are all the same size and you can save them up for a while.

handymama · #5 09/04/14, 11:15 PM

Cool idea. Off topic, but was that dragonforce playing?

Dixie Bee Acres · #6 09/05/14, 05:21 AM

I use mine as weedblock under mulch as well.

farmer · #7 09/05/14, 06:37 AM

We use them to hold kindling for the woodstove. We also use them to sort our recyclables for the dump!

chickenista · #8 09/05/14, 06:46 AM

We use them at butcher time for the pieces parts and feathers, use them to gather construction type trash for the dump, to gather kindling for the woodstove and we are lucky that our feed mill takes back the uber-clean ones to clean and reuse for a credit!!

Ramblin Wreck · #9 09/05/14, 07:31 AM

I stack them in the barn and look at them on occasion.

geo in mi · #10 09/05/14, 07:44 AM

I used a few for sand tubes for wintertime in my S-10 and for backstops for target practice. My experience has been that they disintegrate in a couple of years of exposure to water and possible UV rays--similar to a cheap plastic tarp. I'm wondering about using them for a house structure.....

geo

rambler · #11 09/05/14, 07:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nimrod

If they are all the same size and you can save them up for a while.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPz61MWn8xw

Well that video raises a lot of questions not related to this thread, but I have to ask, what is the deal with the rocks that keep appearing on top of the walls from time to time? It's not like the full bags need to be weighted down? Don't understand what they are for?

I'd think the sun would destroy those bags over time, or poke holes in them from inside or outside and your walls would melt down like a sand dial, I hope its not 'finished' until some coating goes over the whole thing to lock the walls in place.

Enough, this so the wrong thread for this.... But what are the rocks for?

Paul

FarmboyBill · #12 09/05/14, 08:05 AM

They might be just for insulation purposes, and would be covered inside and out with walls.

FarmboyBill · #13 09/05/14, 08:13 AM

By the looks of the lnd around the house, they likely could have built the house out of rock, and thereby wouldn't have had to move and remove them so many times.

By the time you consider the amount of bags they had to acquire, the amount of dirt they had to get, cause, that dirt in the middle wasn't a tenth of enough UNLESS, they were going to dig up the ground the mound was standing on, and even then, It likely wasn't enough.

Id like to know the time span required to build it.

Nimrod · #14 09/05/14, 09:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rambler

Well that video raises a lot of questions not related to this thread, but I have to ask, what is the deal with the rocks that keep appearing on top of the walls from time to time? It's not like the full bags need to be weighted down? Don't understand what they are for?

I'd think the sun would destroy those bags over time, or poke holes in them from inside or outside and your walls would melt down like a sand dial, I hope its not 'finished' until some coating goes over the whole thing to lock the walls in place.

Enough, this so the wrong thread for this.... But what are the rocks for?

Paul

Sorry the thread is going off on a tangent.

You put a couple of pieces of barbed wire along the top of a row of bags. The rocks are to hold the barbed wire down until the next layer of bags are placed on top. The barbed wire keeps the bags from sliding off. I would also hammer down some rebar through 8 or 9 layers of bags.

Do you want to start a thread on earth bag construction?

Horseyrider · #15 09/05/14, 02:15 PM

Back to the OP's question-- I save them for a local vendor who makes them into totes. She'll give me totes in exchange for a certain number of bags, but since I already have a ton of totes, I just give them to her. She's a small local business with a great sense of style and good prices, so if I can help her out, I'm happy to do so. It beats putting them in the trash.

gweny · #16 09/05/14, 03:58 PM

Im saving mine up to sew into patchwork tarps. They seem to be the same material as tarps so I guess they will have the same uses?
My SS12 made these from feed bags to decorate the back porch...
ImageUploadedByHomesteading Today1409950647.667868.jpg
I'm so proud of him and the frames he made from pallets!

BlueRose · #17 09/05/14, 06:46 PM

I sew them together for small tarps. I also put manure in them and sell them for $5 or $10 depends on how many they take. I fill them until I can bearly tie them close with baling twine.

big rockpile · #18 09/05/14, 06:50 PM

Ok on Earth Bag Home after many years putting Seed in these Bags and Stacking Pallets of Seed and seeing them shift for no reason and falling I think I will pass on building a Home using them.

big rockpile

fishhead · #19 09/05/14, 07:02 PM

I give them away on Freecycle.

am1too · #20 09/05/14, 08:53 PM

I'm thinking of using some for a floor. Put down a tack coat, then the bags and seal it with non yellowing sealer.