Spring cleaning part two took place this week. (No, the kids were not out of school.) After phase one, I ordered some pallet rack to put in one of the storage buildings. I was able to find some at a surplus/salvage business for about half the price of new. It isn’t pretty, but it is sturdy.

We had been on hold for a bit waiting for the driveway to become passable for the forklift. The ice melted and the driveway stayed firm long enough to move stuff to storage. We assembled the racking, set it into place, and began filling it up with the pallets of materials that made the ‘keep’ list. We haven’t had that much floor space in the shop since we moved in over a decade ago.

After all the pallets were gone, we were left with a crate and a pile of recyclables in the shop. I don’t think it was any of our intentions, but as we picked it up, we began sorting it for a trip to the scrap yard. Our local recycler offers a premium for 2-foot and under metal scrap, and this month the price was $360 a ton, just over twice the price of 5-foot and under. It is worth the time to do a little sorting!

Most of the scrap consisted of wear parts like field cultivator sweeps, chisel plow points, and plater or disc blades. There were also some broken and obsolete parts in the pile. We also sorted out copper, aluminum and electrical as they are all different categories of recyclables.

As we sorted and loaded, the shop door was open, and we realized it was nearly 50 degrees outside. We just kept on working and moved materials into the recycle bins that were outside. I don’t think it was anyone’s intention that day when we began working to do that project. However, it was a good activity. A lot of progress was made and things are looking much better.

By early afternoon dad headed out with over 8,000 pounds of scrap on the trailer. Ken and I continued to clean up and put the larger scrap in the bins for the next trip.

The opinions of the author are not necessarily those of Farm Futures or Farm Progress.