packing for the exodus!

[dieselgman]

Nothing wrong with lots of stuff guys! That is - until you need to move it! At my Alaska yard I have 5 acres completely jammed with storage buses and various connexes & storage buildings devoted to ... stuff. Mostly construction materials and generator parts. Of course it all had a plan at one time or another, and of course I'll never live long enough to use most of it but maybe my kids or grandkids will benefit. None of that stuff has to move around though. When I branched out to Kansas I didn't move much of anything, just started a couple new batches on rural acreage. Just tools and engines, generators, and spare Lister parts, and none of it will need to be moved around in my lifetime except for what is used up or sold. Yes, I would also have to admit to hoarding (that is my business plan!). My ex-wife would vote for the "disease" definition, but why was she the only one ill-at-ease about it? The way I see it, if it isn't bothering anyone, and can be useful to someone, then it is just good to have it around! Just about every farm around here has an acre or so devoted to the "junk" collection, er, ah, good stuff that is.

dieselgman

[TimSR2]

So my wife said to me " If you haven't used it in the last one year period you should get rid of it, that should be your rule of thumb".

"Okay", says I, "so what about your sewing machine? Seems to me you haven't used that thing in two years..."   

End of conversation.   

[bschwartz]

    "Maybe if I had all that neat stuff like Suburbans and Mercs and a Cherokee (have you driven any of them in the last 12 months?)"

Actually Casey, all but the CJ-7 and the miata get used.  I don't drive those two because they need gasoline  (insert nasty sounds here).  The Grand Cherokee is my wifes, and she doesn't mind spark plugs

[BioHazard]

I've had a bad habbit of parking my vehicles and moving on when something minor breaks. Must be at least ten, I wonder where I keep all the titles?  Last time my work truck lost a fuel pump on the way to the shop, had AAA tow it to the back, where it has been sitting more than a year. Already found another truck. CPS went out in the Jeep, about two years ago. I'm not even sure what year one of the Fords is? Now, I'm trying to bring home a third boat...

I've been thinking of making some sort of art sculpture with pickup trucks half burried in the ground. Kinda like the "Cadillac Ranch" in Texas.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadillac_Ranch

Anybody that refers to my collection as garbage is swiftly corrected and reminded that nobody could ever find a body in my stash. 

[AdeV]

Anybody that refers to my collection as garbage is swiftly corrected and reminded that nobody could ever find a body in my stash. 

You should change that to "No-one has ever found the body in my stash" - and just check out the double-takes you'll get 

[BioHazard]

You should change that to "No-one has ever found the body in my stash" - and just check out the double-takes you'll get 

Part of my "security system" at the shop is a bunch of propane tanks full of .44 sized holes strung up to make wind chimes. The sign on the door says "I don't call the police".

Around back is my venomous snake rescue-holding area, enter at your own risk.

[deeiche]

rm /

[LowGear]

2 Saab Sonnets.  Wow!  I know you don't have the largest collection in the world but I can't blame you for holding on to these rare units.  I'll bet you could almost get both of them in a container with just a little second deck construction.  Oh,  I almost got back on topic.  I have shipped a few cars in containers from Seattle to Hawaii.  All they do is is block the tires.  I think the strategy is that if anything happens that these blocks won't protect the cars it doesn't make any difference no matter what they do to secure the vehicles.  I shipped a NPR dump truck, small by most dump truck standards, and blocks is what held it in place.  The big island includes transferring the container from container ship to barge.  I'd still pop for the $700 to ship your special car separate from my other really valuable collections.

Best wishes with your move.  I'm going out to my garage (AKA crap storage area) today and throw a garbage bag full of crap away even if I have to get into my house wiring remnants boxes.  Of course I may have to get drunk tonight to get through the pain but Damn-it!  I'm doing it!

Good Luck,

Casey

[vdubnut62]

Casey, the prices of scrap these days.........do you have ANY idea of what 12 cubic feet of copper wire is worth
You might could just buy another Witte.
Ron

[mobile_bob]

about 3 years ago, i bought a brown and sharp horizontal milling machine,
had no idea what it weighed till after we about squashed a 3/4 ton ford with service body.
i paid 300 bucks for it, old machine but solid and very few scars in the table, certainly good enough
for my needs

turns out it weighs 4500lbs

a year later oily cast iron (which is basically what the milling machine is) was up to 400 dollars a ton here in tacoma, washington.

i could have sold the thing for 800 bucks and change for scrap!

just couldn't bring myself to scrap it, basically because i was able to fully tool the thing in boeing surplus and ebay for pennies on the dollar

i might have 500 bucks in the beast, and i got room for it in the container, so... why not?

my pain level is back to manageable today, and as such the iron looks more appealing than it did yesterday when i was maxed out at 10/10
on the pain chart.. under that condition anything heavier than my wiener looks like scrap to me.

arranged the rental of a 10k lb all terrain forklift for the weekend, i expect to make some serious progress with it and my younger neighbor that
is trading labor for a dodge flatbed truck he has a shine for.

he is worried that his labor won't be enough to make the trade! 

(little does he know i would have given the damn thing to him, even if he was unable to help out)

he feels like labor trade for the truck is a good deal,, a classic win/win situation

who am i to argue with the guy!

bob g

[Thob]

I think Bob touched on this issue - anything I have that is heavy and made of cast iron is holding it's value better than cash in the bank!  Not to mention what all that old copper I'm hording is worth -

[BioHazard]

Casey, the prices of scrap these days.........do you have ANY idea of what 12 cubic feet of copper wire is worth
You might could just buy another Witte.
Ron

Hell, I even seperate out the pre-1982 copper pennies out of the change in my pocket. About 2-3 cents in real copper value, though I haven't checked in a while...

[DanG]

The financial mavens got a law passed that coins can not be exported in bulk and/or coin-metals can not be privately smelted down, so the Treasury has insured it alone can buy them at face value. At $3.83 per pound scrap price my local buyer pays a roll of pre-1982/83 pennies is worth $1.25 for the 95% copper metal content.

http://www.usmint.gov/pressroom/index.cfm?action=press_release&ID=724

[BioHazard]

The financial mavens got a law passed that coins can not be exported in bulk and/or coin-metals can not be privately smelted down

Whatever happens in the shop, stays in the shop.   They say smoking pot is illegal too...

But also, in a SHTF scenario, copper is almost as good as gold for having real value regardless of government, it's nice to have a couple buckets saved up. I have close to a 5 gallon bucket filled with copper cents only, with a real metal value.

At $3.83 per pound scrap price my local buyer pays a roll of pre-1982/83 pennies is worth $1.25 for the 95% copper metal content.

A pound of cleaned copper pennies is less than 150, I can't remember exactly now...

[vdubnut62]

My friend's old RAGGED S-10 work truck got hit in a parking lot the other day and totaled by a young girl. The Ins. Co. paid him something like $1800,
and let him keep the truck. He went and bought another junk truck for $200, took all the parts he needed off, and sold the carcass for $332, scrap value. Talk about smelling like a rose!
Ron