Since starting to do food delivery jobs for DoorDash, my time has become fairly limited for my projects. But ain’t that typical? A fella has a list of things that he should be bothered to do, then something interferes with his time, and he cannot get to them because of the new interference? So, I am going to have to stick those projects in where I can now, rather than having time to do them all, all the time. Why does one never have time to do them then? It’s some motivational thing, I think. But anyway, here we are. Working to come up with enough money to keep the bills paid is keeping me busy, and doing projects never was my strong suit. As I do my lucrative work, I am trying to find the balance between making enough money and finding the time I need free to do some things like sort out the wood area for firewood, and look at changing oil on the machinery to get the things like the sawmill going. I got a chain sharpener sorted on the workbench to put a pile of chains back into service, and it is working lovely, and I am getting caught up on bringing logs down to rounds, ready to split. Other opportunities have presented themselves, too, and I am doing what I can to take advantage of them. This recently came in the form of a free lawnmower!
One of the kids has a woodstove in his house, and he fired it up and saw that it does a great job of keeping his whole house warm. So he wants to get wood going for himself, and he wants to sell some, too. With that in mind, I decided that it was time to invest in a chain sharpener to keep my chains going for as long as possible, and so they are efficient at cutting. I have seven chains laying around for the big saw, and I have never mastered filing for a couple of reasons. One silly problem I have had, for example, is that the files seem to go dull very quickly. With just that problem alone, I am out of service in my efforts. I was never quite sure of the angles, either. Funny enough, now that I am using an electric grinder, I have that all worked out. It takes seconds to do what took minutes, and It does it well. So I am much happier. I have several of the chains sharp now, and ready on the wall for days out in the log yard down at the dump.
I started cleaning up the Service Yard and getting it ready to finish my woodshed, and lay it out to work from logs out of the trailer to cut rounds for wither log splitting, or to store for later on. Shorter rounds will start the drying process, and I have theorized that I keep seeing people store their wood in that format because the rounds are not too dissimilar to hay, and round bales shed water and don’t catch fire like square bales do. Because they shed the water, they don’t rot. So, I think I will store loads of rounds on their sides and split them as and when. Logs that are split will go one of two places. One will be into the woodshed for our family to use over winter. Efficiency is key here as the first logs gathered in spring will have to go here right away. After that, I can go at whatever pace I can to make wood to sell. That will go into a rack out front, and can be sold on an honor system. I know our oldest son will want to work for cords to sell from his place. I’ll let him work out those logistics.
The nicest logs will go to the sawmill. From there, they will have to dry, then be made suitable for woodworking. With a lathe in the shop, I can make use of almost anything. So preference comes into it when choosing what to burn, and what to put into the shop for making. My biggest accomplishment will come when I have drying organized out by the mill. That can result in lumber to use for myself, or to sell.
Once all this is sorted out, and I can do it among earning a living, maybe I can begin to transition from making money on DoorDash to making money from the wood. Maybe the jobs can both be done depending on the season, too. Or time of day. After all, an air conditioned car in the day and a cool shop in the mornings and evenings may work out better than trying to hand plane boards in the heat of the day.
While I was out the other day with one of the girls tagging along, we have made almost all the money I had wanted to for the week then we came across a house up on the bench over Logan where a bunch of stuff was in the drive like a yard sale. There was a big sign that read FREE on it. There was a high grade John Deere lawnmower there, too. So I gathered it and a few other things and we decided that was had made my weekly income goal and went home. This mower was a self-propelled walk behind. But I think with the 6.75 HP motor and the swiveling front wheels, it would have cost me somewhere close to $2K new. It was not new. But it was in good shape. I sprayed starter fluid in the carb after getting it home and finding it not starting. It would run. So, I am pretty sure I need to repair the carb to get it going. I could buy a new one for what it would save me versus buying a new mower! So, I am counting it as a win for now. It seems fine all around considering.
The mower presented itself because I was doing deliveries. I would have never seen it otherwise. We needed a new mower of some sort. As it turns out, both of our battery mowers are on recall. I’ll get the carb sorted one way or another and see how the JD does as soon as I can.
I have done some cleaning in the shop. I need to do a little more. I need to get the timbers out for the woodshed, and that will free up a big piece of the floor in there and make it more comfortable to work! I also need to get to the barn and sort out space to store wood ready for making with in the shop. I have large swaths of the shop interfered with because of what is set aside for making.
All of these opportunities are there, but it is the work-a-day life that is keeping my time diverted. While I am complaining about this, it is the first time in years and years since I have been able to work a whole day and then find myself in the physical health to come home and not fall over dead from it. I have come home feeling as good as I did when I woke up that morning. That has definitely never been a part of my life experience before. Taking breads out of my diet and not experiencing the inflammation in my joints has been life changing for me. I feel so fortunate every day. Finding out milk was causing problems too has made as big a difference, but for other reasons to do with frequency. But that influenced how often I ducked into the loo, where the joint inflammation issue has been a total quality of life and ability to work issue.
I have a busy spring and summer ahead of me. I feel like I can try to get at it, and with a little balance, I can do some things to change the way we are working for a living and hopefully get us going in the right direction. Missus is working her way along, too, and it is wonderful to see her making strides. She has developed a product that is selling, and we may see a way forward with similar ones, too.
Our oldest is looking at getting chickens this week. AS I set up the Service Yard to process wood, I need to set up a sawing area where we can gather sawing chips to put on the floor of his soon to be chicken coop. We should also saw him the boards he will need to make the coop. I will also be saving shavings from the shop, I am sure, to send home with him to put on the floor of the coop. There are ideas. Lots and lots of ideas. Everything is integrated with each other. I like that. My money making at the moment can keep working, if there is balance. So that will be a goal to work out soon.