APRIL 5, 2021 – Being tree-hugger, I can’t stand a good piece of scrap of lumber going to waste. I caught this disease from my dad, who, in turn, had inherited it from his dad. My other grandpa collected scrap metal. Figures. He was an industrialist kind of guy. My dad and paternal grandpa, however, loved trees, and they made stuff out of wood, so it figures that they’d save good scraps for later use. It didn’t hurt that Dad and Grandpa were frugal Swedes—so much so, at times they’d dilute the water.
I followed in their footsteps, observing carefully their every project involving wood and their often ingenious ways of putting scraps to good use. As a last resort, they’d use scarps (artfully split) for kindling in the cabin fireplace.
“A guy never knows,” my dad would say, “when he could use [fill in the blank – 2 x something, or section of a plank or board].” And sure enough, Dad would eventually “know.” Meanwhile, he stored his scrap lumber on the deep shelving above the cinderblock retaining wall that he’d built in the cabin basement. Being a professional archivist of sorts (for decades he was a court administrator—in charge of all record-keeping), he couldn’t stop in his free-time. In his draftsman quality lettering, he labeled the end of each plank in every stack so he’d know its length without having to pull and measure. The stacks of scrap lumber in the cabin basement are so neatly stacked and labeled, to this day, 11 years after Dad’s passing, I have difficulty disturbing his “archived” lumber, let along using it.
Over the weekend, however, I did use good scraps from my own inventory—2 x 2 scraps just three-and-a-half inches long in place of metal hangers on (scrap) 2 x 4-bracing for our dock; a 2 x 4 scrap three inches long, simply as a temporary spacer for said 2 x 2 “hanger” scraps; four stub pieces of treated, six-inch decking, used as “shoes” for (scrap) 10-foot, 2 x 6s, which I’ve adapted as the modular frame for a new (old-lumber) section of dock; and best of all, treated 1 x 4s for our granddaughter’s new (old-lumber) treehouse.
The treehouse is boon for my personal scrap-lumber market. In fact, this Pending Cabin Project #479—which has leap-frogged the priority list to #1—has already made such a dent in my inventory, I’ll have to rely on imports.
The first source is an abandoned, collapsed deer-hunting stand on the property behind us (Shhhh!). The treated lumber outlived the rusted nails. Having served as a kind of treehouse, the deer-stand lumber is well-suited for a real treehouse.
My second source is actually a real treehouse! While prowling the local Neighborhood website for good deals on anything, my wife, who is an expert at finding good deals, found a good deal on lumber for the taking—2 x 4s and cedar siding. She did her part online. Today I have to do my part—with gloves, a hammer, and pry-bar.
One person’s treehouse, disassembled, is another person’s treehouse to be assembled.
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© 2021 by Eric Nilsson
