Untreated Lumber and Moving a Ramp

 

I have a family member that is starting to make some wood things.  And there was a FB post for free untreated hickory and cherry. So that was this morning's first task.  I loaded up Munchkin and got to spend an hour pulling the pieces that looked the best.  

Why an hour?  Because it was a big pile and I didn't want to leave it messier than I found it.  So as I pulled pieces that I wanted, I also made sure that the pieces I didn't want did not get scattered all over the place.  That's just basic courtesy.

The brain also threw forward a project for me that could use some lumber, untreated or not, so I grabbed a few more pieces that I could use.  And when I get a dry space built, I'll probably go back to get more for the smoker.  Last I knew, hickory and cherry make good wood for the smoker.

This will all get used for different things.  I'm grateful to the business that offered it up for people to use.  I also got a bag of sawdust from untreated wood to use for making wind stops along the bottom of doors.

Task number two was both simpler and harder.  We have a ramp at the porch steps in case we have to remove my son from the house, again, in an emergency.  Or in case I have to get him back in the house again after an emergency.  It's nothing fancy, but enough to help in those situations.  We can't afford to build a full wheelchair ramp.  And the health issue that causes the need is so sporadic that we don't qualify to recieve a free wheelchair ramp from the charities.  It is what it is.

There is a friend who gets a kick out of using it to bring full cart loads of groceries up onto my porch if he's here to help unload on the once-a-month grocery pick up day. I have to admit, it does make it easier to get everything in.  But I don't mind the exercise from just going up and down the stairs a couple of dozen times, most of the time.

The ramp was locked to the right side of the steps which was going to be a problem for multiple things in getting the new garden setup done.  One of which is the ability to easily move the trash cans in and out of their home.

So this was one of those pain things.  I had to find the lock key. Then I had to find the WD-40 because the lock had gotten pretty rusted. Then it was up and down the steps to wrap the chain on the opposite side and lock it down again.  Meh.  

The ramp had to be dropped open before I locked the chain in place again so that I wouldn't tightened the chain to the point that the ramp would have problems opening when it's needed.  And it was the reminder that I need to get outdoor textured tape to put across it.

So that is the planned morning tasks.  Well, I've also got to go unload all of that lumber because tomorrow I go to get cardboard and strawberry plants.  But I'm waiting to hear if/when I'm meeting someone to pass on most of it.  Because there's no point in moving it extra times if I don't need to.

This is by no means all of my tasks for today.  But that's the outside stuff for now.