Scrap Metal Wages

Leading up to, and during our holidays, we expended a fair amount of energy collecting and loading all the scrap metal from the garage, the woods and the clearing into a container. A company dropped off the container and picked it up when done. They would pay anywhere from $.06 to $0.10 per pound, depending on the quality of the scrap you have.

When we were told that we had 9876 lbs of scrap, we were disappointed, and suspected they were being dishonest on the weight. After all, we had a 9' snowblower that by itself weighed a fair bit: our Case bulldozer was able to lift it and move it, but the ass end of the 'dozer lifted off the ground at the slightest bump. That snowblower was close to the weight limit of the 'dozer for sure. Then, there were several trailer frames, and a whole lot of small pieces that weighed a ton. Anyway, we calculated at $.06 a lb and arrived at just over $500. Not quite what we had hoped for. We recognized, though, that we had no recourse.

Well, the check came in the mail today. They paid us at $.10 a lb, for a total of just under $1,000. That's more like it! We are quite happy with that amount.

So, this gets added to the pot for the woodstove:
$710 found money, $987 scrap metal, $1400 saved so far and $54 in beverage container returns for a total of $3151. This leaves about $2500 to come from the proceeds of the sale of the 5 acres, which we will reimburse to ourselves over time. With any luck, we'll have enough left over from the stove and septic install to do the second floor insulation upgrade this fall. Keep your fingers crossed!