After a decade of renting one small, crappy apartment after the next, my wife Jane and I decided it was time to take a risk and make a change. We saved up every penny we had available and went to a local property auction. Our goal was not to find a “dream home” but to find a home we could afford, and then change it into our dream home! The only place in our price range that showed enough promise was a double wide trailer house on 6 acres of land. The trailer itself was a mess, but the land was really nice, so we bought it! The trailer itself was in poor shape, but we now had enough land we could build whatever we wanted. Jane was clearing out beneath the trailer when she found thousands of dollars worth of rebar, wire ties, and forming wire. My first thought was to find a local contractor who would want to buy all this stuff, but Jane wanted to use the forming wire and the rebar to make a chicken coop. With a strong chicken coop to protect birds against predators and the elements, we could transform these rebar rods and wire ties into something truly valuable. With enough chickens we could have eggs to sell, and of course birds to sell when we had too many, so Jane was basically converted rebar rods and wire ties in a sideline income for us! After she got it done, there were still several tie wire coils left over, which I managed to sell to a contractor.