Are You a Scrounger? I Am!

[Dee]

Do you rat hole, and pack rat junk. I do, and I'm always on the scout for discarded treasure. Example. Occasionally I take drives in the country in my Jeep. Just me, the Jeep, and of course my Winchester. The other day, someone had dumped a big screen TV in the ditch of a country road. The TV was shot, and the county was gonna eventually have to pick it up BUT! I notice on the bottom of the cabinet was four really nice coaster wheels. Ten minutes and Phillips screw driver had them laying in the floor of my Jeep. A couple days later, combined with a 3/4" piece of scrap plywood cut to fit I have my generator sitting on it, and it will roll anywhere I want it to in my shop.
Today I stopped on the way to shoot (you guessed it, my Winchester) at a creek where city folks notoriously dump their junk ILLEGALLY. Laying in the top of a tree in the creek ( the top of the tree was below road level) was a brand new "leaf rake head" that had a crack in it. I fished it out of the tree top from the road with a collapsible fishing pole (perch pole) I keep in the Jeep. When I got home, I epoxied the crack, and put a broom handle in it. I now have a brand new FREE leaf rake.
I have an extra broom handle and in a few minutes I'm going back out to my shop to make a frog gig. I take a 3 1/2" framing nail, hit it with a hatchet close to the head to cut a barb into it. Then I drill a hole in the end of the broom handle, drive the nail in a inch or so, cut the nail head off, and put a needle sharp point on it. The cut made by the ax, I then pull out a little more and it forms a great barb so the hopper won't slip off. It also works on spearing fish.

[Oldshooter]

Dee i've gone past scrounging. My youngest son call me "sanford" I not only pick up junk, I have hard time throwing anything away!  Doors, hinges, you name it ! Heck I have buckets of bent nails i have pulled out of boards just waiting for their new project!


I saved old fence boards(not mine) that hurricane Rita knocked down in 2005 dont have any use for em but I may some day!  

[Badnews Bob]

HEY... I resemble those remarks!

[AtlLaw]

Must be the way we were raised.     Bent nails?  My father never through away a nail in his life!  And I must have streightened a million in mine!   

My mother always said "one person's trash is another person's treasure."  I believe that's so because I've found a lot of treasure people have just thrown away.  I would have grabbed those casters in a heartbeat!

And dumpster diving can be fun!   

[hillbill]

i aint a hoarder or nuttin, but id of prob got them caster wheels too and throw them in a bin with the rest on them.just yesterday my dad was sellin a old international truck for scrap and i pulled off the gas, rad and oil caps and threw them in a drawer of caps i may need in the future.my whole family does this.so i can call my brother or dad and they say yea i may have one of those if i can find it lol!!!!!i got two lawn mowers today that may or may not run, looks favarable. if they do ill sell them on craigslist if not ill add them to the scrap pile.long iron and tin is bringing 200 buks a ton, a big trailer load will git yu 500 buks all day long.

[Dee]

The older I get, the worse I get. I have kept a half of a five gallon bucket for the sole purpose of nuts, bolts, screws, washers, you name it. When I'm on a parking lot, I pick up washers, bolts, carter pins, and even money sometimes. Yep! I'm the guy you see at walmart pickin up a penny on the lot.
If I see 38 or 357 mag, or 3030 brass, yep! I pick that up too, and throw it in the tumbler. Wheel weights will make two or three bullets, or fishin sinkers. Rail road track made a good anvil, and the plates that hold the tracks down are really great for usin with hydraulic jacks when levelling a house or building, or porch.
I've got an ole trailer that was once a small tent pop up trailer for pullin behind a motorcycle. Very few miles on it. The bearings, races, everything great. It's about a 4' X 4' square two wheeler. I am goin to box it in, and make a chuck trailer for pullin behind my Jeep with a slide out table, for makin my famous dutch over biscuits, and cobblers. It will hold my cast iron cook wear, dutch ovens, ect, along with my three room tent, coleman stove, and lanterns, and will also be permanent storage for all. Bought the thing for $10.00, and it's all light weight steel.
I have a Wyoming built fiberglass canoe I bought for $20.00, that had been ran up on gravel bars, until the gunnel's were worn thru. $10.00 worth of fiberglass epoxy and cloth, and I Have been usin it for 22 years, and it's still in great shape. I'm gonna restore it this year and paint it to match my Jeep in my avatar. The trailer will be fiber glassed, and painted the same color.
If I could find a cave I'd buy that too. That would make a great
d house. Think momma would move out this one for a cave? She said she might.

[hillbill]

attlaw, yu crakin me up. my dad still has buckets of used nails he plans to use lol!if yu have kin that went thru the depression yull never get them over that.sad part is we may be there agin soon.

[Oldshooter]

My moma was a Depression survivor so was Dad, she had it bad, the disease I mean. I'll bet she had the first hat and in the original box that she got!

I guess I came by it naturally. The bad part is that I aint organised. I rarely can find anything that i have stored away. I got it and remember it , just can't remember where I got it!   

[Dee]

I used to do that, but as I get older I get more and more organized, and have cut back on non-essential toys. I sold off most of my guns, and kept only what I use, drive a 10 year old Jeep, but it's a good one, and are starting to get back into gardening, and other things that left years ago.
My wife and I are blessed that we got our home paid for, and a small piece of land, but both day dream about a "cave home". I am a jack of all trades, carpenter, plumber ect. and we have looked at caves that have been transformed into homes. That is our dream home but, at our age it's gettin farther away.
I was born a survivalist, and I guess that just goes hand in hand with a scrounger.

[Sweetwater]

I could be part of this group! My wife also. She was raised barely getting by in rural Missouri, I was raised in Eastern Maine. Our parents were born within a couple years of the start of the Depression and we have cans of bent nails, door hinges, screws, you name it. We saved pop bottles for the 'deposit' and then later pop cans. I owned a Redemption Center in Bangor, Maine for a few years before heading to Wyoming. Talking real TRASH here. The local dump has a "mall" where you can put stuff that maybe works, and you can take stuff that you maybe want. One man's trash is another man's treasure!

My Dad always had a seven-year box. In it he threw all sorts of odds and ends of metal pieces, springs, levers, odd bolts with or without nuts. He said once every seven years he actually finds something in that box that he could use. We always laughed, but I managed to find a bunch of stuff in that box way back when. Even had one myself. Lost the clutch fork on my '74 CJ5 on a Saturday. Got it apart; throwout bearing had welded itself and turned the retaining bolts out of the end of the fork. Parts store had a throwout bearing. No one had a clutch fork and would be a week to order. I went to the salvage yard - no dice. Went home, had a cup of coffee and pondered. While pondering, I cast a glance at the seven-year box and spied a shoulder bolt. A couple more sips of coffee and a plan developed. I scrounged through the box and found a 2nd shoulder bolt, and correct nuts! Cleaned up the holes in the clutch fork, inserted the shoulder bolts, tightened the nuts and peened them into place so they couldn't back out, then ground the bolts to fit the throwout bearing! Had it all back together that night!!  It was never replaced while I had it!

[Dee]

Great post Sweetwater. I keep my bucket of bolts, nuts, screws, all mix in, and anytime I Need an odd one, it is usually there if I take the time to scrounge thru them.

[TomRob]

I don't feel so alone. My wife's family was always moving and don't have much. She never got ride of anything. So we have a barn of stuff.

My wife is a rural mail lady. and things come home or I have to go and pick it up. The best place we have is a lake where big money live. One year Cheryl picked up 3 5 gal. gas cans, almost like new. I have some of the best fishing money can buy, I didn't (free).

If you need smoething just look around you will find it.

So happy searching.

Tom

[Graybeard]

No actually I must admit I not only am not but have never been either. I tend to toss junk away not collect it. Now Matt is a pack rat and has my barn so full of junk I can barely get inside the door to hunt for the items I built it to house.

Lately I've been watching a TV show called "American Pickers". It's about a pair of guys from some northern state who ride around in a large van looking for junk to buy hoping to make a buck on it they say. They go to at least 3 or 4 places each show on average and ramble about looking for things to buy. It seems mostly the folks who have it want to hold onto it even if they are already into their 80s and fairly substantial money is offered.

It amazes me the collection of junk some folks have. One had had over 5000 old rusted or rusting motorcyles and they were able to talk him out of only a couple of old rusted out frames from the lot.

Most weeks the profit they show they made on the items bought on the show barely cover the gas and food while on the road much less the motel bills. I think it's a funny show which is why I watch it but I truly am amazed at the volume of junk some of these folks have collected in their life times and wonder how rich they must have been to be able to afford it and now all their money is tied up in stuff they honestly have zero use for yet they refuse to sell it.

I often think when watching it about the things of a similar nature that have gone thru my hands in my now 65+ years on this earth that I just tossed aside as junk. Some of it I regret some I guess I don't but really I've never had a place to have stored it as most of these folks do.

[Old Fart]

I tend to hang onto stuff I use regularly.
For instance partial boxes of screws or nails.
Stuff I won't need anytime soon gets passed on.

Maybe if I ever get that new barn built.........

[SHOOTALL]

I pick up tools on the side of the road , chain also . Stuff falls off trucks all the time . Bet i got a couple box full . Hammers seem to make up the most . Have found several knives also in fishing season . A trip with out a find is just a trip.

[LabRat2k3]

Yes I am, but I try not to be. I just can't help it, when I see something that is broken I think, "how can I fix that" or " what can I use those parts for". Noting ever makes it into the trash with all of its bits and pieces still attached if I'm around. I guess that's why I earned the nickname Rob the recycler.

[AtlLaw]

I keep my bucket of bolts, nuts, screws, all mix in,

  Just a while back I bought one of those plastic stands with a bunch of little drawers in it and sorted out my coffee cans; one full of nuts and bolts and another full of screws.  It took me darn near forever!     Heck, I don't even remember when I started carrying those cans around.     Seems like I've always had them!   

My folks were adults during the depression and never accepted the "through away" mentality.  Neither have I.  My kids on the other hand... 

[Oldshooter]

IS IT ETHICAL TO PICK STUFF UP ON THE ROAD? That ain't yours.  I have picked up ramps for lowboys, drills, shovels, trailer balls, tools you get the picture! I always wonder if the poor guy that lost it came back looking fer it!      

[Rex in OTZ]

Found a Savage 110 30-06 in a rubbish heap, the owner was moving and hucked it, the sling had busted on a snowmobile journey breaking the stock rist and shearing off the aft scope bell, a different stock and scope and I have a almost new (Did I mention accurate) rifle.
Dog musher threw away a training sled (wood flat sled with handlebar and foot step) kinda a mini version of the wood sleds used by the coastal Eskimo when whale hunting, I replaced the rope hitch with a welded pipe hitch and instead of dogs pulling it I use my snowmobile.
Floor jack threw out due to some surface rust added some jack oil works fine, same with a 20ton bottle jack
Skill wormdrive saw new switch works fine.
Fixed up 3 different .22's found at the city dump (old days before the bailer facility) the winchester 240 was terrible
Marlin 81 with a used Numrich barrel and inner mag tube and it was wicked accurate.
High Standard 3" sentinal MkIV in .22mag needed a new trigger guard
Basket case guns $20 for a Marlin model 60 that needed a rear sight and action screws
$50 for Winchester 64 30-30 needed a mag tube and a Ctg lifter
Remington Nylon66 needed a receiver cover and barrel clamp.and inner mag tube.
Hi-Point 995 that cost me $14.73 in postage, found thrown away cause it was blown up shooting bad reloads sent it back they fixed it for free and sent it back with all the trimmings of a new gun (sling & scope mount and 2 mags).

[bilmac]

I bought one of those places like the worst you see on American Pickers. Couldn't even get in the doors of the buildings, had a few little trails to get around the yard. Wire left laying around and trees had grown up through it, had trees growing up through the vents in electric motors. I'm finally getting it cleaned up enough that I can put in some fruit trees and plant some small gardens.

I keep a lot of stuff, but it is stuff that I think I may use. I've always lived quite a ways from places where I can buy things, so I keep stuff so I don't have to drive 40 miles and spend 2 hours to get a bolt.

[mechanic]

I get sentimentally attached to some things.  I have my grandpa's blacksmith tools.  They will never be sold as long as I live.  I have his crosscut saw.  I've got a coffee grinder, a corn sheller....you get the picture.  In the house I've got my Dad's shave kit from WWll.  I've got my grandma's Bible.  I've got my wife's dad's shaving mug and brush.   I could go on quite a while.  I've got several boxes of things I've found metal detecting, civil war junk, etc.

My kids will have a field day when I die, but I won't be worried about it then........

[teamnelson]

Moving every 2 years has kinda kept us from holding on to too much, but everytime I run the neighborhood I'm scouting for stuff. Folks PCSing in and out of military housing all the time, there's always a pile somewhere. Half of my tools, yard tools, my steel workbench, shoplight, assorted paints, fluids, etc. were all in a pile somewhere. Only bought 1 window AC new out of 8 - the rest were "recycled" until they rusted out, and I found a new one. Lots of plant pots ... got a solar powered ceramic pot waterfall the other day. Couldn't fix the pump, but the cascading pots will make a neat planter. I've built 3 franken-grills out of parts from curb trash. 2 nights ago I was running the perimeter around the SDVT base and I found a shovel and two manual tillers scattered by a fence. Picked them up and dropped them by the guard shack - it they're still there tomorrow, they'll be in my garage by nightfall. My biosand water filter will be entirely from scrounged materials when its done, including the glue.

Dee, if you don't find a cave, scrounge a few hundred tires and build a rammed earth home. I've been inside one in the summer in Arizona, and it was about 70 inside with no AC. All the materials were scrounged.

[hillbill]

speakin of stuff found on the road. i found a savage auto 16 ga shotgun, a winchester auto 22, 3 boxes of 16 ga shells and a six pack of beer all neatly stacked in a pile, in the brush on top of a bank by a dirt road. the guns were still in soft cases, they had been there awhile and were pretty rusty and the stocks swollen up with moisture. the guns cleaned up and dried out pretty well. they looked like hell but worked fine, i still have the 16.id guess they had been there several months by the looks of them. id say somebody was running from the law and unloaded them or somebodys girlfriend was pissed at them and unloaded them and forgot where the heck they was.

[teamnelson]

yes, but how was the beer? 

[Dee]

In about 1915 my grand father was walking the banks of the Vedigris River in the area of Verdigris Oklahoma. Behind some brush he found a clay cave. In the cave was a octagon barrelled 22 leveraction, a cast iron skillet, and a coal oil lantern.
When no one came back and got it after a few weeks, he took them home. He gave me the rifle when I was about 12 and died that same year. Some one stole the rifle that same year. He was a scronger also. A full blood Cherokee that hunted everything with that rifle, and a single shot 12 guage. That was all he was ever able to afford, but he made do, and fished with cane pole, and made them work also.

[Victor3]

 I'm a 'recovering scrounger' (Kinda like an alcoholic in AA).

 We've accumulated a lot of junk that's 'too good to throw away but not good enough to keep.' We're now trying to get rid of the bulky items to free up space. At some point you gotta ask yourself if something is adding value to your life or just clogging up space that could be put to better use.

 I guess it would be different if we had a 5000 sq. ft. barn to store stuff in but without something like that, my dumpster divin' days are over.

[Oldshooter]

My son says that when I die all my stuff is gonna be put in a big wharehouse and filed with #'s so when he misses me he can go in there and go through some of it till hes mad at me again and leave for a few days!  The guns he says he will keep in the house in the safe when not using them. I'm purdy sure he's my blood relative! 

[nw_hunter]

If I could find a cave I'd buy that too. That would make a great
d house. Think momma would move out this one for a cave? She said she might.

Problem with most caves DEE........Is NO back door!, and Window's! Can't look out at the back 40

[AtlLaw]

11^th Air Assault!   

How come I never saw that avatar before!?   

[Dee]

I saw one once that the front was all glass, and the cave was up a good ways. When you stood in the windows you were lookin out over a big timbered bottom. It just don get no better than that. One dead end road in. Man it was quite into that cave-house. The temp never changes year round.