bruce Fine

$10 digital thermopro still works perfect after about 5 or 6 years.

a couple, few of these can help.

beautiful area. many of the roads through this part of the country are every bit as beautiful as the blue ridge parkway.

here is the sawmill with pictures of stacks of culls too. $200 price may have gone up since 2022 but cant imagine all that much considering how much hardwood you get.
https://www.facebook.com/p/Clinch-River-Hardwoods-100046536247734/

Tim if there is a local school where you could take a class that would be very good. with some of the new inverter machines they are relatively inexpensive to get started. if your serious make investment into a MIG machine, self darkening hood and a tank of shielding gas, and a roll of mig wire. might look on marketplace for a used machine too. Yes, I know there are tons of people that will tell you to just use flux cored wire. well with shielding gas you will get much better results. Amperage of machine you need is determined by thickness of material you plan on welding. if your wanting to weld aluminum you will need additional gear or a TIG set up. There are tons of videos on YouTube that teach welding. Or you could just get a stick welding machine/buzz box and some welding rods like 6011 is an all-around easy to use rod for steel that uses AC output power.

maybe find local sawmill rough cut white oak. I guess I'm lucky to have a nearby sawmill that sells bundles of cull.  the boards range between 8 and 16 foot long from 4 to 12 inch wide . bundles that are 5 foot wide and 4 to 5 foot tall for less than $200. you can get either oak or poplar bundles

I need to come up with a plan to build a greenhouse so I can put to use all these pots my uncle gifted me last month. he has retired and he gave me some greenhouse plastic too. but, I really dont want a plastic greenhouse. has anyone ever made a greenhouse with random and odd recycled glass and windows?
I'm so grateful for the gift of 1000 pots. It could put me on a new path to producing bedding plants and flowers each spring.
https://hc-companies.com/plant-pots/135-fibergrow-garden-pak/

if it would ever stop raining and dry up here I would be drying out patty pan/flying saucer, straight neck and crook neck squash, Roma tomato and bell pepper seeds. I'm afraid these overgrown mature vegetables might rot this year before I can save the seeds. I dont have dry indoor facility to do this. all it has ever taken is a few days to dry out in full sun on hot dry days.

not sure if is blight or not but something wiped out my 6' tall sunflowers and all my zucchini , yellow squash and green beans. we had flash flooding a couple weeks ago. but I dont treat my garden with anything, no chemicals or fungicides allowed,  except in spring plowed in what I clean out from chicken coop floor all winter. but that is where the butternut and pumpkins are and they are still growing like crazy. I need to take picture of the sad sunflowers with there heads hanging dow all bent over.

cut a sprig of new growth, dunk freshly cut end in rooting hormone and stick in  good potting soil. usually works for many many things. I like to start out with good potting soil like pro mix so there are no weed seeds in it.
like 20 years ago I planted a row of aborvitae along the road at my moms house. never ever trimmed they are now a solid privacy and wind break as tall as the telephone poles