Hello
just got back from a skip raid ;D Got some 2x2 for stakes for raised beds.
Best bit.......loads of wooden flooring, good as new. It is like the laminated wooden flooring but is solid wood. Thought it would come in handy for cladding the shed. After looking in the light, it will make a fine flooring for the office. Will lay it, sand it and give it a few coats of varnish.
All in all, a good night's hunting ;D
Just wish I had a wood burning stove. It seems a shame to let all the wood I see in skips go to landfill. Ah well, when I've got a farmhouse..................... ::) ::) ::)
cj :)
wow, caroline, i can just see you, creeping back and forth carrying wood, how many times did you have to reach in for it, ;D good find though, solid wood costs a fortune, probably been swapped for laminate ! ;D
I sat in the car with the engine running , while hubby did the smuggling. it took about 15 mins all told. He was back and forth like a good un. Marvellous man!!!!
cj :)
I remember filling a skip at my old house, and at the top of it we threw loads of softwood. My oh is a joiner / hoarder, but we had no use for it. A really sweet old man knocked on the door and asked if he could take the wood. We obviously said yes, but could not understand what he wanted it for.
Now having a bigger garden with veg patch we know. My oh has started working for a local French company and was horrified with what they were about to burn (has loads of nails). Needless to say we are now their disposal company. It will apparently now do for edging my beds, building fences, compost heap etc. I drive the bigger estate car but now apparently he has to have it bring this freebee wood home :) I would be very grateful if they started throwing hardwood. Lucky you with your find.
Quote from: carolinej on March 06, 2007, 20:28:29
I sat in the car with the engine running , while hubby did the smuggling. it took about 15 mins all told. He was back and forth like a good un. Marvellous man!!!!
cj :)
sounds like my idea of skip diving, much better than putting on a balaclava or covering your face with camoflage? (spelling) ;D
Years ago our previous next door neighbours asked if they could have the staircase we were replacing from the skip we had. They made some enormous compost bins with them.
Just last week the new neighbours asked if we wanted any compost for the allotment as they had too much.
I thought it was funny. My husband forgot to tell them it had been made in our old staircase. ;D
They ruined refurbuished the main undergrad teaching lab in our department at the beginning of the summer. This meant stripping out all the old benching (which made it look like a proper science lab) and putting in new tables (which will be irreversably scratched to hell and graffitied within a couple of years). Apparently they got a grant for this because "new and efficient" looking workspace (right so that'll look dated within 5-10 years) is going to attract more students into engineering. Personally I'm not sure the ones who would be put off by some solid old teak benches are any loss - I mean, we're going to teach them Materials Science, and the teak is a lot more hard wearing, solvent proof, heat resistant, etc....
>:(
The criminal bit was that had I not heard in advance and made arrangements, then about 30 sections of 10'x3'x1.5" teak would have gone in the skip! I mean to say, that's in the region of £3000 worth of wood to buy rough sawn from a timber merchant - for iroko which is similar since teak imports are now banned.
???
Still, party bonus for me, as we were just starting to plan refurbuishing our kitchen. Somehow I don't think you need three guesses as to what our new worktops are made of... ;D
You mean you've got graffitied worktops from umpteen generations of bored undergraduates?
Turns out some of the flooring we got have some white mould on them. Having lived with a house overtaken by dry rot, we decided not to use them at home. Am trying to decide best way to use them on lottie. Perhaps as decking/flooring along the front of the compost bins, making it easier to clean up and wheel a barrow over.
Any other suggestions?
cj :)
Ah no, Robert, despite being 40-50 years old the bench tops are generally in great condition. The only marks are a few black rings from having beakers put on the surface while hot, and a few mineral oil spillages; in both cases the wood is so dense that there is less than 20thou' of penetration into the surface.
The beauty of teak or similar bench tops in a lab is that a) it's difficult to write onto a well teak-oiled surface and b) if you do get marks you can rub them back with wire wool next time you oil it. Not something you can say for formica type worktops... beside's it's mainly in more recent years that we have really boring experiments for them due to budgetary and Health and Safety considerations.
Quote from: trojanrabbit on March 08, 2007, 16:24:05
beside's it's mainly in more recent years that we have really boring experiments for them due to budgetary and Health and Safety considerations.
I'm guessing the type of experiments that left my science teacher
sans eyebrows are out these days then..... :-\
slightly off topic, but speaking of science experiments and eyebrows, did anyone do the crucible (I think) experiment at school?!?
the one where you all trooped outside and stood around a tiny little ceramic dish of harmless looking stuff that exploded with a HUGE bang and molten metal?
I remember one of my chemistry teachers showing us how to make explosives and poison gas, but not in sufficuent quantity to make a spectacular bang, unfortunately. There was the case of the exploding briefcase, and the time the police called about mysterious explosions in the shrubbery, but I didn't see either incident.
No, no exploding briefcases, and no crucible experiments. But the soundness of our school chemistry lab's vast old (wooden!) benches were put to the test one day when our teacher knocked over the jar of white phosphorus in water.
The bench did rather better out of the near-instant conflagration than the teacher's nerves did... :o
If you are into explosions, why not try the exploding cucumbers. I jest not! The seed catalogue warns you to wear safety goggles 8) Apparently, the seed is difficult to collect. Perhaps they should try using a baseball mit.
cj :)
Quote from: carolinej on March 09, 2007, 08:49:01
The seed catalogue warns you to wear safety goggles 8) Apparently, the seed is difficult to collect. Perhaps they should try using a baseball mit.
Ha ha ha, that sounds like something out of Harry Potter ;D
No seriously - I looked at those when I was trawling the seed cataloges before xmas. The Real Seed Company sell them - have a look on their website, it's the last one on this page:
http://www.realseeds.co.uk/cucumbers.html
Well I promise you that is not just Harry Potter cos I was daft enough to buy them and I have then here right now,thay are called Fat Baby Achocha aka Exploding cucumbers.Packet says to use as you would a pepper,They grow outside too. XX Jeannine
silly question but ..how do you use them if they explode, scrape them up? ;D
Quotesilly question but ..how do you use them if they explode, scrape them up?
You dont eat them, you throw them at your enemies ;D ;D ;D
Just kidding ::)
cj :)
I suppose IF you manage to harvest them and you stay in 1 piece you would be so proud that you would keep them as trophies. Originally I saw them advertised overseas,the explanation they gave made them sound funny as if they just popped open with a bang.When I saw them advertised here I got them but didn't pay any attention to the description as I had read it before.I sent for them as I thought the kids might get a kick out of them.It was after that I found out that you have to actually be careful. XX Jeannine