Something just clicked…..

[Strouty]

I came in this morning to a pond of hydraulic oil, I thought I had the hoses to the tank up, but one of them, the lowest one on the tank fell over and leaked most all the fluid out. Great way to start the morning, I guess it is better than being yelled at by a neighbor.

I am being vindictive this morning. I am going to get my Brothers dump truck and I am hauling off a lot of scrap from my shop. I don't want to handle all of this stuff three times before the snow flies.

 

[dlcwent]

That ***** and not in a good way. Always a good time cleaning up oil.

 

[bimmer1980]

Well, at least it is only oil..... A small problem in the grand scheme of things.... Slop some floor dry (or dirt or saw dust, etc) on it and move on... Let the floor dry do it's work and then sweep and repeat after you wear yourself out on a bigger project.....

I think you've mentioned your excavator a few times, but I haven't seen a good picture of it... can you post one? Where did you find it?

 

[rmalkow2]

Sorry to hear about the oil spill but overall is seems you have set yourself up to have a much better winter season. With the boat and lots of other stuff gone, the organization you've completed in certain areas you should have room to work on some projects inside while the snow flies outside.

 

[drivesitfar]

Strouty: i was also going to mention to keep the hydraulic hose up so that wouldn't happen. seriously though I'm sorry that had to happen to start off your day. you might have something better, but i've been using kitty litter for years for small oil spills. i'm always open to hear of better ways or products if you or anybody else has any though.

good luck with the weather, but if Maine is like Seattle it's a **** shoot. today it's sunny and mid 40's should be the high, but scraping ice off the windows to head out to deliver a gym now.

cheers and hope you have a great Friday and weekend.

 

[Strouty]

I got 7000 pounds of steel to the scrap yard today, there is still more but I ran out of time. I am loading the small boom truck with supplies now, we are leaving a bit after 4 am tomorrow. I will update on Sunday and answer some questions then as well. Did not want you guys to think I was ignoring you.

 

[Richard Cranium]

Wow 3 1/2 ton of scrap, Is most of that from when you purchased the fork lift?

 

[Strouty]

Rich I think you mean the winch, fork lift is not purchased yet not officially. About half is from that the other half was actually from the yard. Today I will be in Massachusetts scrapping more steel from the winch purchase. Then I am hoping to get the rest of the stuff home.

 

[Strouty]

Massachusetts adventure:

First load is off to the scrap yard. I am untangling steel from small trees now. Looks like we may get three trips in. I am glad my Brother is with me, much better than doing this myself.

 

[nine4gmc]

Keep at it, sounds like you guys are movin!

 

[Strouty]

Massachusetts adventure:

Second load off to scrap. I am working on loading the trailer for scrap now. They have a magnet and can unload things easily. First load was 5400 pounds.

 

[Strouty]

Massachusetts adventure:

Second load was 5000 then we had both trucks and a trailer for the final load. After all four loads we moved about 21,000 pounds of steel to the scrap yard. Now we have to load the remaining stuff to bring home.

 

[rmalkow2]

Now that is a good days work!

 

[1/2 Cup]

You wont know yourself with all the room now Strouty.

 

[drivesitfar]

Strouty: I'm guessing your 21,000 pounds of scrap is from the guy's lot in Massachusetts or from your lot? hopefully the guys checking the scrap will be able to use some of the stuff because i know you or the guy in MA were keeping it for a reason.

how's the neck and did you make it to the Chiro?

 

[Richard Cranium]

Well it sounds like a busy day. I know it hurts when you are getting rid of stuff, But it feels so much better when it is done. I cleaned out a bunch of my mother's stuff. She passed away almost 3 yrs ago. The hardest thing for me to throw out was her favorite pair of scissors. They had one blade that was broken and they were in real bad shape, But it took me a lot of effort to just toss them. Rich

 

[Strouty]

Massachusetts adventure:

Finally loaded. Just getting dinner before the 2.5 hour drive home. We got everything, so all I have to do now is unload everything.

 

[Strouty]

Just got home, long, long day. I may unload one truck tomorrow, but I think I am going to wait until Monday, I am beat and my back is junk.

Since I did not have time to post pictures earlier, here is a refresher. This is what we started with (the steel is all in Massachusetts, I bought it with some equipment):










Here is the first load taken to scrap, my Brother drove it there while I moved and loaded other stuff.




Second Trip:



Third trip, I went with the other truck and trailer too.








At this point the yard was getting clean, I wanted to get it all done today so I did not have to make another 5 hour round trip to get more.





Best picture I could take of the empty yard and this was not a very good one.




Everything loaded and ready to go, this is when we stopped for dinner (at 11PM).

 

[Strouty]

So we took about 21000 pounds to the scrap yard, almost all of it was loaded by hand. Then we loaded another 10 to 15k pounds to get the entire yard cleaned out. We started the day at 4:30 AM and got home at 3:00 AM the next day.

It was an adventure, my Brother bought the trailer at 2:00 PM and we had it loaded by 8:00 PM. We had some issues with the lights, probably spent an hour and a half messing with them and finally gave up. We installed some temporary magnetic lights and headed out. When we went to get dinner there were only a few places open, we picked The 99, boy was that a mistake. The waitress was an airhead and pretty much ignored us the entire time while she talked with another table for about 45 minutes. We definitely got TMI and her tip reflected it.

I am headed to bed, I feel a bit worn out.

 

[nine4gmc]

That was a major load man, congrats!


Sent from my iThingy using Tapatalk

 

[Strouty]

It is a big relief to have it done. I thought I was going to have to do some more after Thanksgiving. Now I have to unload all of it.

 

[rmalkow2]

A huge job well done! and now you have a cleaner yard at your shop and a nice outdoor steel rack to organize your materials for future jobs. The end result of all this labor is gonna be an improvement for your business I think.

 

[dlcwent]

I'll bet you are happy about that. Glad for you Strouty. A good days work for sure. And nines thought a 700 lb. coke deal was good.

 

[Richard Cranium]

I am glad you got it all cleaned up, I saw at least 4 small towers on the trailer. I was a little upset until I saw the next picture with the steal rack. I am glad you saved that, It is worth so much to be able to organize your material, As you well know by now..Rich

 

[Strouty]

Rich, I think the pieces you are talking about are the gin pole sections, those are home with me. The last two pictures were everything I am keeping.

RM, technically I am bringing more junk too my shop, but at least I didn't bring everything home with me. The racks will definitely help with organizing. I still have another load of scrap to bring and that will be form my yard/shop, so that is definitely going to help.

I am going to unload on Monday, I am just too beat to do it today.

The guys that took the dirt still have one small pile and the machine here, when that leaves, I will start clearing out the scrub trees and making more room for the snow that is bound to be here sometime (still 50 degrees today). I had the oil tank filled, I had the dumpster emptied, I need to pull out the office air conditioner. Things are moving forward and I like it. Hope everyone has a good day, I may try and answer everyone's questions later, I am going to unstrap the load so the straps don't get all soaked, it is just starting to rain.

 

[drivesitfar]

Strouty: nicely done.

 

[dittle fart around]

Just consider the retail value of all that steel. It would take years to sell it off. Does the scrap yard sell reclaimed steel?
Here's one that sells all it brings in, it's in Petaluma California the chicken plucking capitol of the world.

 

[Strouty]

There was easily $250k worth of retail parts and steel in the yard, but some of it is no longer used and other stuff was just not worth trucking back. If I was still really into tower construction I could have easily made $50k selling the steel to customers over a few years. To me it is not worth all the aggravation and it would probably take 20 years to sell it all. I kept some of the best and most usable stuff. Really the skid winch, gin pole, and the two racks were all I wanted. The price was right and the deal worked out well. Next week I am going to take one more load from my shop to the scrap yard, I scoped things out and I know what I want gone before it snows too much.

After all the talk of taking the day off, my Brother called and said he could come over and help me unload everything. So we did, just finished unloading, kind of a mess, but I expected it to be that way until I get the racks set up. I am going to go home and chill out for the evening.

 

[barks]

dittle, isn't Petaluma also the 'Arm Wrestling Capital of the World"?

 

[bczygan]

I'll bet Strouty got all the exercise he needs for this week.

 

[dittle fart around]

dittle, isn't Petaluma also the 'Arm Wrestling Capital of the World"?

I grew up in Oxford Michigan once know as the Gravel Pit Capital of the World. They filmed car commercials in the gravel pits cause it looked like a desert. We just called Oxford the Arm Pit of the World.

 

[drivesitfar]

Strouty: nice to hear you were able to get things accomplished even though you hadn't planned on anything getting done. good for you.

BTW those huge galvanized racks are not cheap as you know. i've been looking for some and have found ones that are one sided and not two for almost $1,000 each used.

have a great evening and hope the snow holds off for another week so you can get more outside work done.

cheers

 

[Strouty]

Drives, about two months ago I bid on some galvanized racking at an auction, but it went for about $1000 and I did not want to spend that much. When this deal came up, I was very happy with the price I paid for everything. It was a lot of work, but I feel it was worth it, I could cash out and make a great profit, but I am looking at long term returns versus short term.

Another thing that has happened is I have been motivated to get rid of a lot of junk, maybe it was seeing the guys leftover junk and realizing that I could be like that, except it would be a much larger scale. As far as the snow, it looks like temps will be fairly warm so I have my fingers crossed.

 

[drivesitfar]

Strouty: you are going down the right path of less is more theory. more time to think about other things, more room for things you actually need now, and more money in your pocket for things you are not using.

nice work and maybe hang on the inversion in the morning and evening for a few days until your back feels better. are you able to hang for 5 minutes at a time at a full 100% hanging yet.

 

[Strouty]

About 3 minutes and my ankles decide that I should stop

 

[drivesitfar]

Strouty: i have the same issues if i stop using it for a while. after i get back to using it 3 to 7 days a week no ankle pain.

my 81 year old mom came over for a month to use mine when an MRI couldn't find out why her back was more painful than her migrane headaches. her back felt great after a couple weeks and she hasn't needed my inversion table since and that was about a year ago now. just mentioning her because her ankle pain was such that she brought over some 2 inch thick foam cut about 4 x 6 inches that i would put in on both sides of her ankles before strapping her in. she didn't have pain with the foam in so maybe that might work for you if you have any or can buy a few pieces.

even 3 minutes is good, but if you can do 5 minutes at a time i bet you'll get even better results.

good luck

 

[Strouty]

The pain is from my skateboarding years. My ankles have been destroyed more than a few times.

 

[drivesitfar]

Strouty: I guess if you can do 3 minutes then 3 minutes it is and maybe do 3 times a day if the back or neck is an issue. i bet if you use the inversion table daily the ankle pain hopefully will go away.

did i mention that i read or play Sudoku while I'm hanging upside down for 5 minutes? it makes the 5 minutes pass quickly.

have a great day and happy to hear your weight is still moving in the right direction. you'll have to buy new clothes soon if you keep that up. congrats.

 

[Richard Cranium]

Congrats on loosing weight. I should start a weight loss program the first of the year. Maybe Drives will start some thing again for the first of the year....Rich

 

[drivesitfar]

Rich: it isn't going to stop even if i meet my weight because once i get there maintaining it is the other part of the battle. join in anytime you like and no big huge commitment if you just want to try and need some support. some of the guys are really doing great and DLC joined as just support since he doesn't have any weight issues and after a month decided he would quit smoking. not a little thing since he's smoked for 40 years, but now he hasn't lit one up for maybe 3 months and still going strong.

about the only thing we don't address on that thread is women, but we do help guys that pop in and want help losing a few pounds healthier if they are going through a divorce.

cheers

BTW Strouty has lost close to 20 pounds so far so the shop isn't the only thing he is cleaning up.