I remember when I first moved onto the farm on Mt. Spokane my brother told me about a woman whose husband had died. Apparently, the garage full of tools was a painful thing for her. And she wanted the tools to go somewhere where they would see some use - not to some pawn shop.

So I bought a pickup truck full of old tools and nuts and bolts and weird things. At first I just stacked them on one side of the shop. About once a week I would go pawing through all of it to find a part I needed and thus save myself a trip to town. About once a year I would try to organize this mountain a little bit. There were wrenches and pliers and hand drills and a tap and die set. There were buckets full of wood screws and buckets full of nuts and bolts. There were weird things that came from who-knows-what. There was also a lot of scrap steel - a lot of which I ended up welding to different things as needed.

That truckload of stuff earned its keep. So something on my wishlist is to somehow duplicate that. Get a big truckload (or two) of ... stuff.

Another thing was that I found a sweet deal on 18 foot long 2x6s. I think I bought a hundred sticks for $200. And then about a year later I bought a hundred 8 foot long 2x4s for $100. It was after this that I got a sawmill. I have a sawmill now, but when you cut the lumber you need it to dry a while before you use it. And I have projects NOW.

So I would like to find a few big piles of lumber so I can get started on some big projects. At the top of the list is to build a proper workbench inside the shop. I would also like to build some draggable wood drying sheds so that when lumber is cut with the sawmill, they can be put near the mill site for proper drying. Another immediate project is the pooper!

You can get free pallets in Missoula all the time. I have built all kinds of things out of them including 2 work benches in my garage that are very strong.

Home ReSource is the best place to go if you can't get stuff for free or nearly free.

I've always had a lot of luck asking: "is there anybody nearby who's a junk collector or who just has a whole bunch of crap in their yard?" Then you just drop by their house, pull out some cash, and let the dance begin.