Getting By On Trash

14 Febuary 07

First , I would like to wish everyone Happy Valentine's Day !

Nearly Free Heat

It took a while, but winter arrived here and it got cold. Fortunatly I had more than a woodshed full of firewood, and stacks next to it, and stacks elseware . I don't cut down live trees , only dead ones .

Nearby there is a Saw Mill that gets Cut Logs and cuts them into boards , timbers , ect . The waste from this operation are called slabs which are cut into managable pieces of wood . They are sold for $10 a truckload or $50 for a dump truck load . These scraps are mostly oak and other hardwoods . Last year I bought enough slabs to nearly get us through the winter . What I spent would be equal to one months worth of natural gas to heat this old house .

There were other resources of free ( excluding gas for the truck ) firewood . My neighbors buddy had timbered a portion of his property . He Timbered it to cut enough boards to build a new house . Before the fall rains made it too muddy , I got about 5 truckloads of 25in diameter log cuts of what would have been waste and probably burned in the feild . My neighbor also got a few loads too .

The Timber crew will often give away ( load it in your truck ) the cuts of logs that are not suitable for the saw mills . This is also waste . Another neighbor has a big flatbed truck which holds 6 to 8 logs measuring 3 to 4 ft in diameter and 6 to 10 ft in length . I received 2 of these loads and donated $30 for gas .

My front yard is half full of cut logs to be split and half full of logs yet to be cut into 24in lengths and split into 8 to 12 peices of firewood . Meanwhile, I get a few cuts split every day or so . Surely before summer I'll get it into the woodshed .

My Woodshed :

The Saw Mill also sells wastewood called Thick and Thins which are roughcut boards of uneven thickness . These run 8ft to 16ft in length and usualy half fill my truck . This year they were $50 . They are used to build or repair sheds , barns , Animal shelters , ect . Two loads of thick and thins built my woodshed , an out building for the generator , and sided a palet building and a chicken coop. It also rebuilt my workshop/shed , including an oak floor , wall , and roof .

Sorry folks but I don't own a digital camera yet . If I still lived in the suburbs I would have allready found one that someone discarded for a newer and better one . Might have even found the software . Who knows ?

I may not approve of some Timbering pratices but I won't hesatate to Recycle what I can to keep my Wife and our cats warm and toasty . The 30 some , year old woodstove came with the house as well as auxilary gas heaters which we seldom use except on warm 40 to 50 degree evenings . At 40 degrees outside , a wood fire is too hot .

What ever your resourses , there are ways of Getting By On Trash ( Recycled Discards ) .
Note : All this saw dust I have has been saved . I will dry it and pour it into old tin pie pans . Then , recycled candles ( mostly from yardsales ) are melted and poured onto / into pans . When it cools I break it into chunks and use them to start a cold stove with fresh firewood . Simular fire starters are for sale at the store .

Timothy T

Getting by on Trash

Thursday 1 Febuary 07

There was a time when I was a janitor in an elementry school . One year I heard some classes were going to grow window plants . You know , the milk carton plants the lower graders grew in thier classroms . Well , I brought my seed catalogs in and showed the teachers hinting at sweet potatoes in styrofoam cups .
When the end of the school year and summer vacation came around , It was my job to discard ( put in the dumpster ) some 56 sweetpotato vines in cups so I could clean the windows and scrub the black stone windowsills . So I took them home and grew them in stacked tires . By mid July I had 3ft high green mounds with flowing vines flourishing . There was a good crop that year .
So you see , trashpicking ( Recycling ) and a little resourcefullness will " get you by " . Oppertunities are all around you . Do you pick a wildflower you like , going to seed , and take it home to plant next season ? I do .
Timothy T