# What can I do with a damaged ice chest?



## Texas.girl (Dec 20, 2011)

I am looking for ideas from crafty minded folks. Last month my ice chest was picked up andthrown by the wind during a damaging storm. The lid no longer fits securely and so it doesn't do well for keepingfood cold anymore. I am sure it can beturned into something useful, but what? It is 14 inches deep, 15 inches wide, and about 35 inches long.


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## Dayna (Aug 16, 2012)

Planter!

Goat toy!


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## HamiltonAcresBoers (May 9, 2012)

You could always use it as a hay feeder or water trough!


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## ThreeHavens (Oct 20, 2011)

Goat toy

feeder

possibly water

kidding kit

Bed for baby goats that have to be pulled


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## KW Farms (Jun 21, 2008)

You could store goat supplies in it. Or a feeder might work. Mineral storage?


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## sweetgoats (Oct 18, 2007)

Oh heavens, If I kept all those to use, my hubby would kill me. But I do like the idea of a water bucket thing, It would be easy to clean and drain.


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## liz (Oct 5, 2007)

I vote for a baby goat "nest"...it's insulated and you can secure the lid with duct tape...of course only 3/4 the lid, you'd need to take a 1/4 of it off to make a nice warm house for kids.


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## sweetgoats (Oct 18, 2007)

liz said:


> I vote for a baby goat "nest"...it's insulated and you can secure the lid with duct tape...of course only 3/4 the lid, you'd need to take a 1/4 of it off to make a nice warm house for kids.


 I have never used a warmer, is that big enough? That is a good idea.


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## Texas.girl (Dec 20, 2011)

sweetgoats said:


> I have never used a warmer, is that big enough? That is a good idea.


I ccurrently have a set of abadoned twins who are aprox. 3 weeks old today (if rancher is correct on birthdate but he was guessing). Yesterday they each weighed about 9 pounds and they have grown a lot since we brought them home. They would even fit today with room to spare. So it would be easy to fill the chest with blankets and put newborns in it. In fact, the rancher who brought us the goats had both in a small cat carrier. Just purchased a new ice chest (120 quart) at Wal-mart which appears to be slightly larger the old one.

I love everyone's ideas. We will have to think about the best use for it.


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## Arkie (Sep 25, 2012)

*beer!! *


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## Arkie (Sep 25, 2012)

Use a strong enough tarp strap and you can keep the lid on well enough to keep the beer cold!!

Bob


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## milkmaid (Sep 15, 2010)

LOL, I used one of those for months as a water trough for my goats! It still had the lid, so I fixed it partly open and the chickens couldn't jump on the edge and dirty the water! It was awesome!


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## 8566 (Jul 18, 2012)

haha like the BEER one.

Does it cold where you're at in Texas? If so you can use it to insulate your water buckets so they won't freeze. Works the other way too - you can use it to keep your water buckets cooler in the heat.


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## Texas.girl (Dec 20, 2011)

Just to let you know I needed some place to put a bale of alfalfa for storage so I decided to see if the ice chest will work. I was really hoping the hay would fit inside the ice chest and that we could place the ice chest in the got kennel with our 6 week old twins who are being bottle fed for them to jump off of but it didn't work out. It is wide enough but not long or tall enough. We had to put a portion of the hay in a metal garbage can and a tarp over the entire chest in hopes of keeping the hay good.


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## Trickyroo (Sep 26, 2012)

I like the water trough idea , lol. Its sooo easy to clean


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## Squires (Sep 14, 2010)

Poultry Processing Bath 
You can use it as an insulated water bath for plucking poultry. When processing poultry, they need to be dunked in warm or hot water (but not too hot or they cook) before plucking. After plucking, while waiting to be cleaned and cut up, they need to sit in an ice water bath. After cleaning, most people want their birds to sit in ice water again (possibly after putting them in plastic bags to cool them for traveling or before freezing. Those insulated water baths can be expensive! OK, it is a small water or ice bath, but would be great for home-processing of just a few birds.


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## Arkie (Sep 25, 2012)

THAT would be an excellent idea for any chicken-pluckers !!!! 

Bob


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## MOgoatlady (Oct 23, 2012)

LilBleatsFarm said:


> haha like the BEER one.
> 
> Does it cold where you're at in Texas? If so you can use it to insulate your water buckets so they won't freeze. Works the other way too - you can use it to keep your water buckets cooler in the heat.


How would it work to keep the water from freezing? I have several old coolers I could use. Right now I am watering them in 5-gallon buckets. I've been taking warm water out to the barn twice a day and would love to cut that down to once a day!


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## goatgirl132 (Oct 18, 2012)

MOgoatlady said:


> How would it work to keep the water from freezing? I have several old coolers I could use. Right now I am watering them in 5-gallon buckets. I've been taking warm water out to the barn twice a day and would love to cut that down to once a day!


If you have a trough then they have things that you can insert into the trough (in shure they have it for buckets too though if you use those) and.they will heat your trough and keep water warm


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## CrazyCabrito (Dec 31, 2012)

Did you know that you can buy replacement hinges for ice chests? Most sporting goods stores have them in the camping area. We have Academy here in our area and they carry them, as well as Wal-Mart. 
I dated a guy in college who wold pick up broken coolers of the side of the road, spend a few dollars on parts and a little time cleaning them up and would resell them. He made decent money at it, especially off those huge white hunting chests that cost a bundle.


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## Texas.girl (Dec 20, 2011)

We would have bought new hinges and fixed it except the lid is warped, it cannot be closed properly. So it will not work to keep things cold.


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## seren (Jan 28, 2012)

http://lumberjocks.com/projects/34415
Hope this link works I found it on pinterest! I want to build one for by our pool! The hinges need to be off to build this so it should work!


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## Texas.girl (Dec 20, 2011)

I was storing a few leaves of alfalfa in the ice chest but no more. We had some rain this past week and even though the lid was on--water got into the chest ruining the leaf of alfalfa. The ice chest lid is just warped.


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## Arkie (Sep 25, 2012)

seren, most of us have to come up with a POOL first!

Bob


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## seren (Jan 28, 2012)

Arkie said:


> seren, most of us have to come up with a POOL first!
> 
> Bob


We just got one this year! With 3 kids and summers with 100+ temps. we needed it, and thankfully we were able to achieve that goal!


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