I am doing a lot of work for the money I am earning. I can go and spend loads of time in town just to scare up $100 in earnings for the day. A third of it goes right back into the fuel tank on the car. Then I still need to account for a third for taxes. Well, $60 out of an hundred is not leaving much to cover bills and food and the like, and if I am not careful, that third can vanish on a meal and a bottle of water for the car just like that. When I said we could get by on hobby jobs, this is not what I meant. I did not mean jobs that just took up all our time and gave us nothing in return.
I cleaned up in the shop yesterday evening in the hopes I can transition to sometime in there making some things to sell at market. I think it might be nice to start to transition off the driving for free and into something I can do for a little money. But then, that might be a hobby job, too. I guess we’ll see. I am also getting set up to sell firewood soon. I need to get that rolling and I need to be ready to do a lot of cutting, so I have the proper chain sharpener on order and arriving Monday, and from there, I will be able to put the chains I have in use, and get some serious cutting done. A good sharpener is a fair chink of change, but it is on PayPal, and I got a decent price, and there is meant to be a bit of cash back and a rebate to account for, so it will come in around $100 cheaper than what I could have bought it off Amazon for. Well, we’ll see when it settles in against the credit account. Then I get six months to pay it off interest free. Well, considering it was the only hurdle left between me and that serious cutting, yes, I considered it a necessary purchase.
I have not been able to maintain my chains very well. I find files break in my bag and go dull too easily. So I have half a dozen chains just for the big saw that I have not been able to keep consistent sharpening on. Every tooth needs to be pretty consistent, and I am not good at doing it. So I think the machine will make up the difference and will be easier to keep chains running longer for me before they are too worn not to discard. But right now, I have good chains with dull tips I just can’t seem to bring back to life by hand. That sorted, I have a lot of good chain to use right now. I also have two other saws, and one of our kids has one, so we will need to be able to help him keep in order while he plans on being down here to cut wood for his place. I want to be able to bring a couple of conditioned chains with me when I go get wood, because it takes a second and no intention to completely dull a chain. So it would be good ot have a couple of extras ready to go since they are simple to change.
In other words, I feel good about the purchase of a sharpener, but the price is high. And in typical fashion, I go for professional grade, so I don’t have to buy it again in a year. It’s meant to be for life, and to eventually go to a kid or grandkid. I will eventually get diamond blades for it so I don’t have to dress the stones, and they can produce even more consistent results.
So, the plan is, I am getting some cleaning done right now in my free time. Then, in the next few days, I will also get the oil changed in all the equipment. I have to four stroke motors that need freshening up with the season. One on the sawmill, and one on the log splitter. Then I get the wood milled for a sales stand for out front. In addition to that, I get splitting wood to start drying for said rack. I will have to set up for a couple of types of wood. I cut about 20 inches for myself, but people tend to like 16 inches for their fires, so I will do that for public firewood.
I am also planning on cutting rounds. There is meant to be lots of rounds! They seem to be the preferred method for drying wood for a bit before splitting them. I could go straight for the split, but my theory on why I keep seeing them around on people’s fences and the like is that they are like round bales of hay. The shed water more easily, and cand be drying a bit from the ends like a log will do anyway, but the dry gets into them much faster than a whole log. So they are a good way of setting aside wood for splitting as an intermediary step before committing to a big pile of splitting wood for the shed or the rack.
Okay, so there is a lot of work talk. On a personal level, I have been doing good at it all, despite the tragic condition of my health over the course of my life. So that has been wonderful! Keeping physically more active than I ever thought I could has kept me in good cheer despite not making a lot of actual money. Being able to strategize more possible earnings has been good, too! I am lay in bed typing this, and I feel muscle pains for the activity I have been up to, but good hell, this is so much lighter than the day-to-day pain I used to feel when the joint inflammation was there. I worked yesterday for several hours, then came home and cleaned up a lot in the shop. I also kept up on my chores around the house, and when I say I feel better than I used to, in the old times, I would feel worn out from say, walking across the yard. So, yeah, slight improvement.
So the shop is getting cleaned up for the season. I need to get the big beams for the woodshed finished and out of there. I have asked a lot of those who have come out to access the freezer in there for having to walk over those beams! I won’t be doing that anymore. Time for them to have to push around a piece of furniture instead! But yeah, just getting up all the wood shavings and clearing the floor and what was on the one bench went a long way to getting it sorted out in there. I also got rid of some scraps of wood that were lying about and clogging things up. There is only so much someone can save! But there is also a lot to do in there still, and I think that I will be able to with the physical limitations severely reduced. So I am going to have to put free minutes to use and go balls to the wall. I need to get the steam box sorted out and get after some steaming. I have everything I need to do some shaker boxes except the practice. So, there is no reason to keep putting that off. I should separate off a YouTube channel and do the woodworking under the title of The Angry Woodworker or something like that. Anyway, the point is, I am getting myself set up to try to make some money in the shop as well as the firewood yard.
I have a kid who has a wood stove in his basement. He likes to be busy, too. So he has it all figured out that if he buys a trailer and sets it up to haul firewood, he can come here and get wood where I do, then keep his house warm all winter while also allowing to spend time with family and such. If he comes through, then we will be taking the tractor to get the wood, making that part of the job much easier, too. Once logs are on the property, we should be able to process them into all kinds of saleable stuff. Not to mention I can sell the time on the mill to make slabs and beams and such for folks. I am more ready to push than ever, and I am more able to, as well. So here goes what may be the best warm season of my life yet. I hope.