I'm A Happy Camper

For lack of a better word, since I HATE camping (I got enough of it in the Marine Corps...). It's always nice when friends - and people you don't even know - bring you "stuff".

A couple of weeks ago, we had the neighbor bring us by a large, round hay bale because Deb made him and his wife a cherry pie. The cows are still munching on it (it was a LARGE bale...).

A couple days ago, some people we just met a few days before, brought over some crates they had "collected". I was ALMOST surprised when my lovely wife never even batted an eye, or said a word about the new pile. It was 3 days before she asked what I planned on using them for.



I showed her and, that, as they say, was that.

After years of constantly scrounging and dragging home "odds and ends", she has figured out I'm a hillbilly, and I just can't help myself.

What looks like a pile of scrap wood to most folks, to me, looks suspiciously like "loafing sheds" in the making.



Since I need a couple, or three, more, these will come in EXTREMELY handy.

About the same time, I found out that a small building was needing torn down in town. Deb and I happened to drive by as they were taking the shelves and such from the inside, out to the curb.

Naturally, I can't pass up shelves, so we stopped and loaded them up. While we looked around in case there was anything else of interest, I looked up to see what were fairly new looking 2x6's in the roof, and a few good looking 2x4 wall studs.

Now, this building has (had) been around for decades. I remember it being there when I was a kid. It was actually part of a "complex" of three small buildings, each abut 20' x 50', give or take. It used to be where we went to buy feed. The feed store closed a long time ago, and two of the buildings were torn down years ago. The remaining one was used to sell fireworks for years, then stayed empty (for the most part) the rest of the year.

Now, it would join it's two partners and go to the great burn pile in the sky.

Looking around, I saw all the good lumber and other useful materials. Even though they were years old, some looked brand new. The roof had been replaced a few years ago, so that lumber WAS practically new.

So, me being the scrounger that I am, I asked what their plans were for the stuff.

Sometimes it pays to be the early bird, or/and be in the right place at the right time.... I happened to be the first person to ask about the materials. Lucky me - I was about to "inherit" a pile of used lumber. They told me, on one of their trips out to my place, that several people stopped by to ask about what they were doing with the lumber, but stuck by me, since I was the first.

Also - lucky me - I didn't have to work at it, either, they were going to tear the place down, put it on a trailer, and DELIVER it to me! All I have to do is pull a few nails and clean it up.

....and come up with a use for all of the stuff....

Here is a SMALL sample of the kinds of things found in the pile:



I already have ONE project in mind - I have been wanting to make my milk room "Cat Proof", and this will go a long way to that end. The cats won't like it, but they'll get over it, I pamper them too much anyway. It's to the point where they think they need fed more the once a week.....

Stupid cats.

At any rate, I now have more wood to deal with.

I can't wait.