Every time I light the burn barrel, I think about how valuable it is to us, especially in light of how little it cost to create it. I figure I have less than $60 invested — and it was that much only ’cause this is our first barrel.
The used 55-gallon steel drum itself was 15 bucks through a local seller we found on Facebook Marketplace. A 24×24 sheet of expanded-metal mesh was $25, and two four-inch concrete blocks cost $5. Two stepped drill bits were $10. The screen and the blocks will outlast the barrel, and the bits are useful for countless other tasks.
The flat rocks (hearth) were free, of course. An unmolested $15 drum sits behind the shed, ready to drill and deploy the day this one burns out.
When I finished making a pile of combustible trash disappear this morning, I took the Ranger down the road to see how repairs turned out. The telecom company that maintains a pole on our property (via an easement in the deed) brought in some gravel, and that helped a lot. So did the tractor work done by Deb’s cousin and another neighbor.
A good stretch of the road is in better shape now than it was before. A couple of sections, due to washouts, have narrowed considerably, which makes for a jarring passage when, say, UPS comes calling.
“I think I lost a filling,” our driver quipped yesterday.
From our perspective, just awful is just fine with us. Our vehicles have adequate ground clearance and proper tires. It’s no big deal.
I also took the opportunity today to run up the trail toward the summit, again to see how much damage rain and runoff had done. Nothing I found surprised me — it’s a much rougher ride with a lot more rock exposed, and enough soil washed down the cut to fill the ditch at the road. (I’ll have to deal with that before the next heavy rain.)
I picked up a handful of limbs that had fallen onto the trail, and I used a hand saw to cut back a small tree that uprooted and intruded.
So yeah, my little detour was productive. But the best part was time spent sitting upslope from Dancing Tree, wrapped in the peace of the woods.
Both Deb and I arrived at our Ohio storage units last week armed with actual lists of stuff we wanted to bring back to Arkansas. Having that structure helped us stay disciplined and avoid the kinds of distractions that were bound to come up.
“Awww… I remember this….”
Naturally, the exercise became something of a scavenger hunt. Some things were easy to find. Others were obvious but (given limited time) impossible to reach. Still others remained hidden.
There were surprises, takeaways not on our lists. Like a small cache of backpacking meals. Or a pair of handheld radios, still new-in-box, that now have been banned by the FCC. I made sure to grab both the freeze-dried food and the forbidden walkie-talkies.
Leaned against a wall of the larger storage unit, along with two dozen other yard-and-garden tools, was a forgotten pair of bypass loppers. Even though we had loppers on The Mountain already, I added these to the pile of tools I wanted to bring Home. They wouldn’t take up much room in the truck.
I pulled them out of the shed this morning to work on them.
Two features make these loppers different from the Fiskars we’ve been using. First, the handles are adjustable, extending reach by a foot. And second, the action is compound, rather than a simple pivot, which increases leverage and power for The Tough Stuff.
With a flat file, I worked the bevel of the cutting blade until I’d raised a wire on the opposite side, then knocked that off with a single stroke. I used WD-40 and a wire brush to remove rust and caked-on sap. Finally, I tightened the compound action’s four pivot bolts.
It’s as good as new. Nice to have another tool in the arsenal.
I know, it’s a small thing. Making these loppers right took very little time and effort. But taking care of small stuff, every day, even if it’s just one little thing every single day, pays off big.
With that in mind, this afternoon I drove to Harbor Freight in Mountain Home and bought The World’s Cheapest Angle Grinder ($9.99) and two wire wheels ($1.78 each).
Most of the shovels and such rescued from storage are in rough shape, rusty and neglected. Each of those tools will get the “one little thing every single day” treatment with the motorized wire wheel.
Once they’re cleaned up and (reasonably) sharp, I’ll fill a five-gallon bucket with sand, pour in some waste oil, and set it inside the door of the shed. Every tool will get dunked in that oily sand after it’s been used.
Just like I used to do.
As I came off The Mountain today, by the way, I had to stop to wait for a dump truck depositing a load of gravel next to our road. It was ordered by the telecom company to finish work begun earlier in the week.
A few of the neighborhood whitetails have been foraging closer to the homestead lately. This doe played peek-a-boo with Deb from behind our pokeweed forest last night.
Take care of yourselves, Patriots. Stay calm. Stay sharp. Stay free.
#WiseUp #LibertyOrDeath #Ungovernable
#LetsGoBrandon #FJB