Bye, Bye, Metal!

Today was a great day for the de-cluttering of the farm!!!  And it started early!!!

A couple of weeks ago, I had sold the semi storage container to a gentleman who had seen my ad on craigslist.  I had listed it as a hunting cabin, and that is EXACTLY what he was looking for.  He was going to do all of the work that had already been done to this one, and he asked why!  If it's already done, why not save the time, hassle, parts, and just buy this one complete?!

I loved it!  It was a perfect transaction where the buyer was thrilled (got exactly what he wanted), and the seller was thrilled (got exactly what he wanted).  Well, today was the day scheduled for pick-up.  I learned yesterday that the 8:00 A.M. appointment was moved to 7:30!  Agh!!!  But with a $3000 purchase price, I wanted to do everything in my power to make this transition go smooth!

I showed up at 7:28 A.M., and the flatbed and Dad were already there!

I pulled up, and the flatbed was already there starting to load up!

Over the next 35 minutes, the flatbed operator swiftly loaded this 5000-pound unit onto the bed of his truck.  As he pulled it further and further on, Dad and I quickly dug out these incredibly heavy beams that the unit was laying on.  The buyer asked for me to do this, and I was happy to oblige.  But these were SO heavy!!!

The flatbed operator wasted no time in loading the unit.

He knew exactly what he was doing.

At this point, Dad and I start digging out the massive beams that this rested on for the new owner.  LOTS of work!

Dad and I dragged them over to the flatbed and lifted them on.  But there were so many of them!

Dig, drag, lift, repeat.  After we had several on the bed, the driver then asked us to load them inside the container.  Aghhhhhh!!!  So much more work!  But I wanted them gone, and I wanted the buyer as happy as possible, so I obliged.

All of the heavy beams sent with the unit for the new owner.

Seriously, it was only 25 minutes of work, but it was WORK.  My body was spent, and the day had only just begun!

But the truck was loaded, and I had 5000 pounds less metal on the farm property!  Coupled with the $2500 in metal fencing already removed and the 1200 pounds of scrap metal removed from the pasture, the farm-cleanup is moving forward nicely!

The container box is all loaded and ready for its journey south!

Driving away.

The happiest view.  5000 pounds of metal leaving the farm.

Good riddance!

It's crazy to think that 3 tons of metal has been removed from this farm.

The great part about this structure being gone is that it opens up the drive as you pull up.  I hate storage containers (I think they look out of place), and this was the first building that you saw in the drive.  Now I have the massive lean-to visible which doesn't look terrible.  I'm still not sure what to do with that, but I have a possible idea.

With the storage box gone, you now see a great view of the massive 42 x 72 machine shed as you pull up.  What a big building!

I now have a ton of "free" rock to use for my massive potholes in my driveway, too!

This morning I made contact with a local farmer (again, from an ad on craigslist) about baling my 5 acres of pasture.  The farmer said he would be willing to do a 50/50 split on the bales or I could sell them all myself and give him a cut.  He literally said it's silly for neighbors to be trying to sell the same hay and undercutting each other, a very valid point.

I had originally thought about keeping the bales inside the big machine shed, but what if I used this big lean-to structure as hay storage?!  I would still need to add a garage door front to it to keep out the rain, but it would be a great hay storage area.  Throw some pallets in there, and stack up bales.  It would be easy access (in the drive) for buyers, too.  A possible idea for this random building!

If I could figure out what to do with the open front to keep moisture out, I think this would be a PERFECT hay storage building!  It's right next to the pasture, would hold all of the bales from a single cutting, and could be accessed super easily by the buyers of the hay since it's in the drive.  Plus I may not have to cut the concrete if I didn't use an actual garage door.

Well, the day wasn't over, and I learned that the gentleman that had come out to take a look at my free metal grain bin (for scrap) has started his disassembly.  What is more, he paid me $100 for the bin!  He wants to rebuild it on his property, something I am more than happy to allow him to do!

He sent me a picture (I'm in Colorado) of the top removed.  So hopefully that old structure will be gone soon.  Yet another piece of metal removed from the property!

The old grain bin is coming down!

What a great day for getting rid of metal!!!

And yesterday someone paid me $100 for all of the wooden posts that I have pulled up front the ground.  I'm eager to see those gone, too!  He wants to pick them up this weekend.

What a great day for the "less is more" movement on this farm.  I'm getting rid of items I don't need, all while the farm is looking cleaner.  It's simply a win-win!  The farm is cleaning up!!!

Little by little!

The remaining items on the list (for now) are the metal portable garage, the old hog panel fencing, the numerous amounts of treated lumber, the barn wood lumber, and the massive amounts of concrete all over the property (under the old grain bin, under the big grain bin, east of the barn, and all over the southwest corner of the pasture).

This farm was MESSY!!!  It kinda still is!

Again, little by little!  Over THREE TONS of metal gone so far!  Why stop now?!