User:Jeff Higdon

I like building things from scrap. I learned it as a way to survive but now it is a way of life. In the early 90's I was living in a low income housing project with no way out it seemed. I looked in dumpsters and scrounged the materials to build a carpet cleaning machine using a stainless steel beer keg, plexiglass and many other components that came from the trash. I built a wand using PVC pipe. Using that machine, I earned enough to fix up a van that I built from three junk vans. An engine from one, transmission from a second and put both in a third body. This became my carpet cleaning van and family vehicle to carry my family of six (later expanded to 8). We moved out of the projects and slowly climbed up. I went to work for a small manufacturing company building carpet cleaning machines and after a few years became its general manager. Eventually I was using my skills to build truck mounted engine driven carpet cleaning machines to use in my own businesses and repairing janitorial and carpet cleaning equipment for others. Fast forward many years and now I'm living off grid in North Idaho, using those skills to better my life. I'm building a fiberglass yurt as a home for my wife and I using scrap from a local aerospace company. I've documented some things in my blog, happyhigdons.blogspot.com, and I am putting up videos on my youtube channel Scrappy Acres Farm. I currently work doing composite repair in the aerospace industry as well as painting and gel coating. I like to weld, so welding is one of my go to skills when I have to fix something.