Getting By On Trash

March 10

Sometimes It pays to listen to the voice in your head !

It was late on a Sunday night ( trash to curb night ) and I was returning from the drug store . I would have gone to the other end of this particular town and driven up and down each street looking for good trash or scrap metal . On this particular night I did the whole route backwards by making my first left . Within a block I saw a curb piled high with house content trash . There was a little bit of everything, old but reusable . As I filled my truck up to overflowing with nice old couches , old chairs , old Ladies dresses and clothes ; an elderly woman came out dragging more stuff .

I couldn't beleive my luck . It turned out she was a neighbor of an even more elderly woman who had passed away and was left caretaker of the property . Settlement was Tuesday and she was trying to get the " Junk " out before Monday morning trash pickup . The poor woman needed help . I took home a load ( only two blocks away ) and dumped it in my back yard, then calling a buddy to help me pick up more . Loaded with handtrucks and bungee cords we returned . Except for the fine furniture we took everything else .

Everything was well kept. Lawnmowers, yard tools , and anything being stored for the winter was wrapped in plastic. All kitchen ware , dishes , glasses , the antique 1920's gas stove , a 1950's fridge, etc had to be removed .

There were black amethist candy dishes , ash trays , candle sticks , and vases . A home made pantry Hoshier painted green was claimed by my wife . It later turned out to be made of several kinds of wood plus parts of old sewing machines , and hard chromed ice box hinges . In the sewing kit we found old gold and silver hat pins and broaches and antique buttons .

Well ; I can tell you I had quite a pile of "junk" piled high in my back yard covered with tarps . It took the rest of the summer to sell all that we didn't keep or need at the Flea Market and yard sales . Boy , was that a good summer, making money and learning more than I expected to learn about antiques . After that I advertised " Light Hauling and cleaning out houses" .

The point to this story is to listen to the gut feeling and not your pride when passing some " usefull trash " at a curb. There are always some hidden treasures lurking out there . From experiance I learned that if you pass it by, often within minutes someone else will carry it away .

Timothy T

Getting By On Trash

6 Febuary 07
Women can change their minds !
The Lionclaw Table
It was a dark drizzling night , driving home from graveyard shift . It was trash night in this town ( suburbs ) . All of a sudden I noticed a large round table at the curb . Usualy I would leave it alone because the rain ruined any venere out in it . My gut said ," what can you loose but get wet ", so I stoped . The table appeared not to be venere but solid wood . It had many coats of paint with much peeling , cigar , and ciggerett burns .

The table came from a glorious old Victorian house . It appeared to have come from a basement ( judging from the other trash ) where guys must have used it for a card table . I had to take it appart to get it into my little truck with a cap . I got it home , struggled to get in the door , put it in the livingroom on a tarp , and went to bed .

The next morning at coffee my wife was upset . In so many words she said " Get That Junk out of My House " . So I hid it in the basement when she went to work . Around Thanksgiving when I had 3 days off I stripped all 6 coats of paint off , cleaned it up , oiled it , and put 3 coats of Marine Spar Varnish on it .

The table was an 1880's oak lions claw round dining table . Boy did it look terrific ! On a Saturday morning I was on my way to the Flea Market and decided I could make some extra cash . My wife caught me bringing part of the table out of the basement . She said " You're not taking That table ! " . Well , I didn't and don't regret it . One of the reasons being I just love that table . The others , you can guess . When she's right , she's right .

Since then the table has seen alot of service and probably will see more with our children and childrens children . And to think someone set that table out in the rain to be crushed and put in a land fill ! Lucky me ! Last year I washed it , sanded it , cleaned it , oiled it , and varnished it again . Reckon It will be another 20 some years before it needs any work but daily cleaning .

Timothy T

Getting by on trash

5 January 07
The Piano

Many years ago I was trashpicking in one of my old neighborhoods . It was Sunday night and trash was out for Monday morning . There was tons of what I called moving out trash at the curb . As I was checking out the trash a Lady was on the porch ( of a house I had previously owned ) trying to push a piano off the porch . Needless to say , I stopped her .

The lady was moving to a smaller apt and there wasn't the room , or the money to move it anyhow . She said she really loved the piano and had spent a consideral amount of money keeping it up . The sound was beautifull .

Now ; my wife had been begging me for years to bring home a piano but I kept finding organs .

I made arrangements with the landlord to pick it up later , and I did . That is , a piano mover moved it . It still played well . We thought it was a 1913 Cunningham upright , but it turned out to be 1924 . Next , I removed all wood parts that would come off and stripped 6 layers of paint and a few layers of varnish . It turned out to have a soft cherry color .

So now we have the old beauty in the front room . It needs a good tuning ( a little dusting and oiling ) and some minor work . I'm sure we will come up with the money someday . Meanwhile we have given her a good home and she's not ready for the trash heap yet . Wherever would we put the old kerosene lamps , without her ?

Above the piano there is a shelf that holds more lamps . The shelf is made from parts of an older Player piano . Beautifull tiger oak with carved wooden trim and designs . These piano parts came from a friends house after the house nearly burnt down .

I've made a few tables around the house with old sewing treadels with a nice wide ( actualy the front ) board off of a piano , attached .

That's all on piano's for now . Timothy T

Trashpicking bought my truck

Monday 30 January o7

Today I drove 44 miles round trip to the nearest RX to get my medicines . On the way I pondered , what a great old truck I had and what it took to get it . Just a few hours , four days a week .
The truck is a little 92 Toyota four cylinder , five speed , half ton pickup . It's hauled tons of scrap metal , antiques , furniture , flea market merchindise , and moved many freinds and family . The truck worked hard and gave me little trouble . The first clutch wasn't replaced till 135,000 miles . The engine was replaced when a broken timing chain destroyed the engine . The truck is still performing well on these mountain roads with 158,000 miles on it and no rust . The gas milage is good too .
My monthly payments for four years was less than $200 . I only had to make $50 a week selling scrap metal and selling at the flea market . I had a regular job that paid the insurance and other bills and mortgage payments ( $200 a month ) , Then I was disabled and the insurance paid the rest of the truck payments . I could no longer trash pick without a helper .
There was a local homeless Veit Vet that helped me for many years both night picking , loading , and unloading at the scrap yard and the fleamarket . In return we found him tents , sleeping bags , food , and warm clothes . He had no need for air conditioners , TV's , refrigerators , or lamps , so we sold them . He also got a little cash each day he worked ( three or four hours ) . Amoungst the homeless folk I was named " Toyota Man " .
So that's the story of the truck that trashpicking bought .

Timothy T

Getting by on Trash

Sun. 28 January 07

It has been a cold and snowy day . Loaded another lode of firewood on the porch . Although my firewood is not free ( $10 a truckload ) it is recycled waste from a nearby lumber mill . When they cut the sides of a log off , the waste is called a Slab . The hardwood slabs are then cut into 26 inch peices and split to fit into my stove .
I use a large two wheeled cart which I bought slightly used at 1/3 it's cost , to get the wood ( weighing about 300 lbs . ) from the woodshed to the porch . Once the wood is stored on the porch another small steel two wheeled cart is used to bring the wood into the house . That cart I bought a few years back for $2 at a yard sale.
I know I spend money ocasionaly on things needed but I try to recycle whenever possible . There are also ( irregular ) thick and thin oak boards that I buy for $50 . Those are usually a half truck full and 8 ft to 16 ft in length . The thick and thins were used to build a large woodshed , an emergency generator shed , and to rebuild my work shop / storage shed .
We now have a new chicken coop built from palletts , thick and thin boards , and a used fiberglass truck cap with screens and windows .
When living on a fixed income you save where and when you can . What I spend each year on firewood is less than what it would cost to heat this house with gas for a month . I compost everything in an area fenced in with oak palletts . The soil I use in the garden and around the yard .
Timothy T