one hand washes the other

Not Too Bad a Day Considering

        While perusing through Craigslist under the free section I noticed an ad for a free pine tree log in my area, in fact I thought I had recognized exactly where it was at and I knew who owned it. Well my guess was correct and I was the only one to respond to the ad and boy did I make out. Or at least I will when I manage to get it all home and cut up. I not only was able to get one good sized pine log , but I also was able to get another bigger log , though dead was in good shape to carve. I like carving in the pine although a soft wood does hold an edge good and is easy to cut and carve and shape into the carved pieces everyone enjoys. It is hard to find any pines of any size to do anything with. Around here most people will give them away just to get rid of them. Well these logs are nice if you can just handle them. It doesn’t pay to move the tractor too far to just pick the logs up and I need to limit my trips.

      So when you find them practically in your back yard or front yard as the case may be then it is all good. In fact I will be able to take the wagon and the tractor with the forks and load it all on the wagon and still be able to get the rest of what he gave me. Yes you heard me right as I said the rest of what he gave me. he gave me a hickory log at least 20 feet long and it is in great shape with no imperfections and should make a beautiful log to cut up for flooring for my second floor of my cabin addition. A friend of mine offered me access to his band saw, and I may just take him up on it as I seem to be accumulating logs and saw logs for flooring for my cabin addition quite quickly. faster than I ever thought , and I am really not trying just yet , instead I am just cleaning up around the farm all those tree tops from the black walnut Mom took out last fall.

      Also along with the log will be some white birch to make some end tables out of, along with some hickory branches to make walking sticks I can carve heads into. As we were talking and he was telling me what he was doing and the equipment he accumulated and he said he had a chipper that chips 12 inch logs and that he had just hired a tree guy and that he was going full swing into tree trimming . I had noticed he had a pile of wood chips and I kind of put one and one together and asked if he had wood chips for sale as I was looking for wood chips to mulch my raspberries with. My best red raspberries were grown in the old wood chips I had from where I made a deal with Asplundh tree service to bring me in some chips when they were doing the line clearing.

     Anyhow he goes on to tell me that where he was dumping his chips, that they stopped him from dumping anymore. And again the lights went off in my head as I am not that much farther away from his house and have40 acres he can dump all the chips he ever wants to dump and I will always have a plentiful supply for a variety of projects including my raspberries.  This will help him and help me at same time.  This also works well with another neighbor who provides me with horse manure and I get possibly 2 loads every two months from him. The wood chips and the horse manure will heat up my compost piles like you won’t believe assuring a good pathogen kill and creating great organic compost in very short time. What would normally take anywhere from a year to rot down normally can now be sped up to rot down in as little as 3 months. The hay and wood chips and manure will turn into rich dark compost that I can use to expand my raspberry crops.

      I used to work for a company in Cleveland called Kurtz brothers, and they sold a multitude of products and at the same time they would bring in revenue from services they performed. What they did cost big money and millions of dollars was invested and changed hands yearly with operations as far south as Columbus and with most of it centered in the Cleveland area. One hand would wash the other and out of respect to them and their family I won’t delve into all their secrets and I was in the position to understand how a lot of the family business was run.

 

       They would dig soil out of one property and bring in sand from another waste stream and then mix with a compost product they were paid to produce at another site, helping alleviate a waste stream from filling up a landfill somewhere, and with it they made a synthetic topsoil sold all over northeast Ohio. In fact they were not only the largest topsoil dealer in northeast Ohio selling to landscaping companies and nurseries but they also sold a colored mulch made from recyclable wood , specifically hardwoods pallets, and sold the dickens out of that also. The land where they removed the soil was filled with sand from a foundry operation they were paid to dispose of, and the pallets people would pay them to dispose of, also as well as wood waste that was turned into mulch. The land was sold as commercial property and a multiplex theater sits on top of one fill area in the city of Independence, Oh. . Land I had major part in developing as far as bringing to grade and overseeing the fill operations.

      One hand would wash the other handing back and forth making money at every step as they would turn waste streams into cash. This is something you don’t just fall into but is a deliberate plan designed to make money for the corporation on the whole. It is a nice business plan for anyone. Anytime you can take nothing and make something out of it. This is what I am trying to do, and whether I have enough time in my lifetime to achieve it still stands to be seen.

     At least I have some more logs for my cabin right now. I will take that and go from there.