Monday, August 22, 2016

Weekend haul

Our friends and neighbors Peter and Laura are avid yard-sale-ors . So on weekends they like to hit any yard sales that pop up in our neighborhood . At one place, four houses away from us they spotted some big lengths of used butcher block counter top , and came over to let me know . I wasted no time and for the price of one dead Benjamin I bought all that the fellow had .
A solid thirty two wide by twenty five inch deep piece
And a nine foot length with a sink cut out, and a bad end that was in rough shape breaking apart at the glue joints from water damage .
After cutting off the back splash and the sink cut-out together with the damaged end , I was left with a good fifty two inch length . And even the short twenty two inch damaged piece can be glued back together and cleaned up . If I were to buy this much butcher block new I'd be in to at least six hundred dollars . Never mind all the work involved in building it as I learned recently , just buying the Rock Maple for this I'd be in to at least two hundred dollars .
Then we went to see my parents and came away the the usual garden veggie load and a nice 242-B model Coleman gas lantern dad no longer had any use for as they have a nice new stand-by generator . A quick search on Flea-bay shows they go for as much as 200$
Built in Canada August of 1954
For comparison sake my 1970 vintage Kansas built model 200-A I saved from a dumpster I had on a job site about fifteen years ago .
Then on the way back home we stopped by a  yard sale and scored a nice Coleman Peak camping stove for five dollars . . .
. . . to keep the rest of my Bunsen Burners company . The green Coleman 502 was another trash day road side find from when we used to live in Portland .

9 comments:

  1. the counter top went to the right guy! great finds all around!

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    1. Hi Jaz, after I refinish them, the thirty two inch piece will be a prefect fit just to the left of our sink. The longer one I am thinking of using as a separate counter next to the fridge. It may be a while before I get to that. The short cut-off that broke apart, I will glue back together, refinish and give to Peter and Laura.

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  2. Replies
    1. Yes Gorges, I thought so too. There's a bit of work to be done to refinish the butcher block counters, but the price was right and it should be a whole lot less work than building them from scratch. I am still licking my wounds from the last ones I built.

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  3. I'd love to have a butchers block like that in my shed where I prepare animals! Something solid to chop on and easy to rub down and clean!
    The other finds are great as well, I love those old lanterns but I haev to admit that all my alternative light sources are LED these days, maybe a few old tec backups would eb no bad thing.

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    1. The butcher block certainly makes for a nice solid bench. But I think for actually butchering meats I prefer the modern commercial grade HDPE as it can be washed and disinfected more easily. The new LED lamps are definitely a great advance. LED lights in general are great. They are very efficient and simply don't burn out. I recently swapped out all the incandescent bulbs in the house and cut our electric bill by two thirds.

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    2. We have low energy ones in the house that don't use much juice. All my torches are LED now, they last longer and have more power than my old, very expensive gun lamp!

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    3. Yes, I have several of the LED flashlights as well in the 500-600 candlepower range and they are incredible. Tough as nails and they light up better than a car headlight.

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