useful tools on a farmette

all tarps are not equal. this tarp is like the kind you can buy at the local farm store.

the plastic that is used is actually woven as the tarp.

as you can see here it frays under mild repeated stress. these kind of tarps are not designed to hold up under rugged conditions. in-fact, in less than a year out in the sun they will be of little value. their lifespan will be shortened further if they are exposed to any stress like wind or rain.

i use tarps for everything around here but the kind i use are entirely different and not readily available. they are recycled from billboards and are very heavy at larger sizes. a thirty feet by thirty feet tarp can weigh over seventy five pounds. i got one once that was seventy feet by thirty feet. i couldn't pick it up by myself.

their makeup is vinyl coated rip stop fabric and wont tear except under the most extreme conditions. this tarp has been on my previously very leaky barn for three years.

the wind whips that excess flap. it has finally begun to tear through at the corners.




here i have used them on my chicken tractors as sides and covers.



this is a wind break that i made for the pigs. it flapped and then they started to tear at it by biting it.

this is all the damage they could do to it over the three months that they had it exposed to them.

sometimes i screw boards to them to make them not flap in the wind. this is a shade for the current pigs.


here i have fashioned a tarp and a cattle panel to make a winter pig hutch.



here a zip tie holds it tight. the zip tie will not outlast the tarp.


here we are using them to keep the weeds from the center of our okra rows. they mostly lay flat even during stormy weather because their weight.


this is my square bale feeder. it has a steel roof but directly under the purlines i stretched a tarp as a secondary barrier.



interior walls for a chicken coop?

chickens are dirty and i wanted to be able to hose the walls down occasionally.
the tarp cuts to size with my very sharp pocket knife.

here i just stapled it to my studs.

this is my first chicken tractor. the tarp has been weather exposed for three years and i will take it off and reuse it for something else.


this pile of chat has been on this tarp for two plus years. chat mixed with the grass makes my mower unhappy.


this tarp covers a pile of lumber. it will stay cozy and dry until i can use it.


this is part of a larger tarp that i use for everything.

it is very thick and won't fray even at this raggedly cut edge.