Living in the country and being an active trading country boy we often score a cheapie or a freebee. How about you guys. I will start with the big pile of used scaffolding boards I got from a friend. The plants have to change them out every few years for safety reasons. These are heavy oak 2 by 12s and have supplied me with all winter of fire wood for our fire pit and it seems they will make it all the way to summer. Here is a few blog pics of this free score. While we talking freebees the fire pit bricks came from a neighbors yard the rebar I had in the shed and the aluminum angle came from my buddy Smokin'Sam for a quart of pickles so pit and wood were all but free. NOW IT'S YALL TURN
That's great! Seeing your pile of boards reminds me of our own 'score' out here in the country. Years ago, our neighbor took the hemlock boards off his paddock and replaced them with electric fence. The boards lay out in his barn yard for a year when I asked him what he was going to do with them. He told me he wasn't sure what to do with them and said I could have them. I wasted no time in bringing them home and pulling the nails, and it was soon decided that we would use the aged silver boards to cover the horrible white siding on the shed. Well the pile of boards went much further than covering the ole shed ... we did the wood shed, the garden shed AND the outhouse! The cut off pieces were stacked in the wood shed and we are still using that as kindling today! Here are the before and after shots I could find ... ( photo / image / picture from Netty's Garden ) ( photo / image / picture from Netty's Garden ) ( photo / image / picture from Netty's Garden ) I can't seem to find one of the outhouse, but you get the idea. Nothing goes to waste around here!
A neighbor down the road had removed a cedar fence, but still had the boards stacked neatly in a shed. When he saw we were cleaning up and mowing down our place shortly after we bought it, he asked if we could use any of the boards. Woo-hoo, boards for the compost bins!
Those are great scores. yall. Last years wood supply was 20 palates my neighbor was throwing away that his roofing came on. they were very heavy wood so I couldn't pull the nails out with out splitting the boards so they got sawed up and used on the old fire pit.
One man's trash is another man's treasure! If that's not the truth! Nice job to you all. It's a darn good feeling when you can make new what was once old. That is why I save almost everything. You have a cozy yard crappy! Betty, what a difference a little natural wood loom makes. Your sheds look great
Great thread Cappy. Netty--I love the re-siding of your shed. The natural wood is beautiful. Incidentally, I find it difficult to garden against a white wall. The white just seems to wash color out of everything.
Great scores everyone. My best scores were a truck load of 10 year old composted horse poo and a truck load of fresh rabbit poo steaming away out back. Enough to last several years.
Oh I am soooo jealous. I must never be in the right place at the right time or something. Those where great scores for you all. Cappy-I hope those boards aren't pressure treated with chemicals. I would not burn them if they were. Donna====I want some of that horse and rabbit poo, boohoo. Since we do not have our goats anymore. I miss the free poo.
Tooty, we have chickens, and we figure with the cost of upgrading the coop and adding an outside run, food, and additional extras like watering stations and food dispensers, our "free poo" is pretty darned expensive, but we wouldn't give it up for anything!
I have trouble with gardening against white also. Unfortunately our huge 36 foot long 12 foot high white metal shop is what I look at constantly. Other than plants, I'm not good a scoring many good things. Mike, on the other hand, scores quite often. He has found a place to get free aged manure each year, a truck load of free wood chips that we have been using for 2 years, and has been given many lawn mowers, snow blowers etc. that won't run that he fixes and sales. The latest one is a riding lawn mower that was given to him. He found a good used motor for $50.00 and will sell it for $350. He did the same with a snow blower last year. He never stops moving and is always busy with something....generally my 'honey do's'!
