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Post by steev on Jul 13, 2014 21:59:26 GMT -5
Found a mill that generates large quantities of redwood sawdust which they were offering on craigslist, the kicker being that they have it in huge, bulk-material-bags that are moved by forklift. It being free, with a bag-deposit, of course I checked it out. A bag, ~600#, fit into the truck with ~1" clearance of the lumber-rack; cool! So I went and loaded up the sacks of bunny-bedding, flats of sweet-potato transplants, etc, and off to the farm.
Unloaded the bunny-sacks and tackled the sawdust problem: decided that since there was a sleeve-hole at the bag's top, through which I'd have to shovel, it would be better to drive out to the mid-line fence, where I could rope the bag's top-loops to the cemented gate-post and, leaving the truck's tailgate down, drive away enough to turn the bag 90*, then drive back to the garden area and shovel out.
Turned out that the bag was too far back, so it didn't stop at 90*, but went 270*, hitting the ground. Took ~4 hours of shoveling into 15gal pots (four loads) to get it to where I wanted it. It's lovely mulch and soil amendment, though; always a learning opportunity.
I'm going to try tying the bottom chute of the bag to the truck so it can't roll out, next time, before they lower the bag entirely, although I think I need to build a structure such that I can get the bag out of the truck but have it suspended high enough to dump the sawdust into a wheelbarrow, through the bottom sleeve. Yeah, I think I should go directly there; it's not like I haven't got enough grunt work already.
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Post by steev on Jul 16, 2014 20:32:38 GMT -5
The more I think on this, the more confident I am that I can handle a 600# sack of sawdust, single-handed, with no more danger to my aged self, than is posed by home-canned jar-bread. Ha! I scoff at such minimal danger! Well, maybe I'll keep my cell-phone handy, in case I need to call the Medivac.
I think my next off-season project (provided I can arrange an off-season), given my new-found engineering confidence (one prays it isn't hubris), will be STEEV-HENGE! Don't know where I can get those megaliths; they don't show up on craigslist, much.
A huge advantage that I see in this sawdust is that, even fresh, it won't wrap Sukie's tines like fresh bunny-bedding does, so since I have a copious supply of MAP, I can work this in before Fall plantings, rather than just spreading it for Winter rotting. If early rains aren't good, I can still prepare for when rain does come well, and be ready to go full-tilt.
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Post by steev on Jul 20, 2014 23:03:40 GMT -5
Friday morning, going up to load bunny-bedding-bags from my trailer to the truck, passed the second tile store, scoring another 150 square foot or so; got to the arborist's lot, where they let me park my trailer (I recommend them to my clients for tree-work that's beyond my expertise, toolage, or inclination; I've less enthusiasm for falling from heights than I used to have; cracked ribs take all the fun out of it), to find plenty of fresh-cut oak to top off the load, free to a good home.
On down the road, when I've gotten a one-ton truck with a dump-bed, and a splitter for Sukie, I might become seriously involved with the firewood biz; everybody in the valley heats with wood and this is a source of very good wood: oak, blue euc, black acacia, plum, and always pine, cedar, and redwood. It's a schlep to the farm, but if I'm hauling materials there and hauling produce back, it's all deductable, so the sale price of wood there is good, even though it's half the price in the Bay Area, where they're trying to discourage wood-burning anyway.
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Post by steev on Jul 27, 2014 22:24:02 GMT -5
Got a second 600# sack of sawdust, tying its bottom-chute to the truck, which did indeed keep it from rolling out, but it was still a lot of shoveling. Clearly I need to set up a frame that I can back the truck under, chain the sack, and lift it out with a block-and-tackle so I can fill the barrow without shoveling, much less time and labor.
As I am finding repeatedly, these guys are so happy that somebody will take stuff that they'd otherwise have to pay to dispose of. "One Man's trash, etc"; so true, so true!
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Post by steev on Aug 25, 2014 0:44:11 GMT -5
Third bag, the rope broke, letting the bag tumble out, again; I shoveled into trash-bags (they come free with bunny-bedding) supported in a 15 gallon pot; took ~3 hours to spread it.
Fourth bag, new rope; bag stayed in the truck; drove back to the corral; shoveled into the barrow and spread, ~1 3/4 hours.
When I get that frame built (when I can dig holes for the posts in the concrete that currently passes for soil on the farm), I think I'll be able to unload and spread that 600# of sawdust in ~1 hour.
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Post by mskrieger on Sept 8, 2014 13:53:21 GMT -5
Please keep us updated on the sawdust saga. It's riveting.
And incidentally, when you get around to building Steev-henge, I've got a whole lot of megaliths for you here in New England, free for the taking. I'm sure your super powers will be developed enough then that you'll be able to sprint across country with them on your back.
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Post by steev on Sept 8, 2014 14:41:42 GMT -5
My super-powers have waned in direct proportion to the disappearance of phone-booths.
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Post by oldmobie on Sept 8, 2014 18:54:40 GMT -5
My super-powers have waned in direct proportion to the disappearance of phone-booths. Can't change into spandex on a celphone? |
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Post by steev on Sept 8, 2014 20:49:34 GMT -5
I could, but it's prolly not as attractive a spectacle as it once was. People have such nervous, wussy little "dogs" these days, I might give them the phantods, wim-wams, or even the dread col' robbies.
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Post by 12540dumont on Sept 8, 2014 21:21:44 GMT -5
Steev, I saw this cool item for wee trucks, it's a rolling bed liner. I thought it would be vunderbar for compost.
Next time you're at my place, take a look at my bean house, I think we could load one of these up in your truck. You could set it up at the farm, run a chain over it, attach the bag and do a drive through dump. Currently we've got re-bar pounded into the ground and then the posts sit over these. We can move them, swing them, etc.
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Post by steev on Sept 8, 2014 22:01:12 GMT -5
August 31st, my 25-year-old light p'up blew its last transmission, so I've been out of commission; tomorrow I expect to buy another.
These days, when I think of unloading loads of bulk material, I'm thinking of a larger truck and a dump-bed; I could get them to dump a bag of sawdust into the truck, for that matter. I like the idea of a "gibbet" from which I could hang a bag of sawdust, a deer, an elk, a sheep, a pig, or a neighbor or casual passerby; protein is so important to the maintenance of good health.
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Post by kazedwards on Sept 9, 2014 1:15:44 GMT -5
protein is so important to the maintenance of good health. And superpowers! |
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Post by steev on Sept 15, 2014 21:17:08 GMT -5
Last week-end, I hauled the first bag of sawdust in my new p'up (plus bunny-beans and cut oak); took a little thought, as the tie-downs aren't the same as in my old truck, but I doped it out, and it only cost 1 1/4 hour to unload and spread. Damn, I'm good! Still think I want that gibbet, though.
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Post by steev on Sept 16, 2014 21:54:12 GMT -5
NPR had a discussion with a Doctoral candidate at Cal (Go Bears!) whose study is "Freeganism/Freeconomics", basically quantifying the useful products/resources that are deemed better discarded/destroyed than donated to those who need them, but can't afford to buy. He noted the growth of the practice of compacting and/or locking businesses' dumpsters. I lettered in dumpster-diving while at Cal; I could do a double half-gainer and come up with several half-pints of fruit yogurt (just out-dated), a case of dish-soap (only dropped once; two bottles broken), and half a dozen potted plants (in need of a good home and TLC).
He especially noted "Trader Joe", as an example of a large corporation that promotes its socially-conscious, green cred, while discarding huge quantities of usable food and zealously preventing/prosecuting those who would scavenge their trash.
A few years ago, my sweetheart and I went out for a walk; parking, we saw we were near a TJ dumpster, which was full of past-bloom potted orchids; we could hear their plaintive cry, "steeeev! steeeev!", so we started rescuing them; an employee came out to tell us we couldn't take their trash. My sweetheart, quick-thinker that she is (that's what attracts me, aside from her uncommonly shapely butt), asked to speak to the manager, so they went off, while I stayed behind to fill the trunk. It's not like we were taking their discarded credit-card statements, just their unsalable plants, to a reserve where they could live out their days in dignity, like an aged horse or lion, only more flowery. So many sweet memories of petty criminalitude; this dog-in-the-manger-it's-my-trash-and-you-can't-have-it bullshit is ridiculous.
But enough nostalgia, today, one of "my" tile stores discarded ~30 boxes of white tile, 2"x4" to 6"x6", both "field" and rounded on one edge. I think I have more than enough stockpiled to tile the farm bathroom, floor and walls; just think of the acoustics! I shall end my days as moving as Caruso, though he fled San Francisco when the Earth moved under him; wuss!
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Post by templeton on Sept 16, 2014 23:52:57 GMT -5
I've been making regular visits to my carpet store, searching the dumpsters for that great old fibre carpet underlay - not the not quite so old stuff with the plastic threads through it, but the good ole pure stuff. Makes great biodegradable weedmat. The employee was really happy for me to take it away - saves on their dumping bill.
T
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