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Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Trash to Treasure?

Sara got me thinking about rubbish. Although the rubbish of which I'll write is not at all the same as the rubbish of which she writes...

Sometimes rubbish is good... (I think)

Brillo Man has a new nickname: Junk Man.

His newest "hobby" is taking other people's discarded junk and turning it into money. Okay --so he's made several hundred dollars hauling people's scrap metal to the recycling plant. I don't complain when he walks in and hands me a big wad of cash. But perhaps this last time he went a little overboard...

Yesterday, he went to pick up someone's yard sale leftovers. A pickup truck and a trailer FULL of junk. Amongst this treasure were two moldy ottomans, some moldy clothes, some moldy encyclopedias, ten or twelve moldy-smelling video tape holders, a huge box of moldy shoes, a couple of moldy, chipped angel figurines, a bouquet of moldy, plastic flowers and a dozen moldy ice cube trays (some of which were cracked). Did I mention that most of this stuff was moldy?!


Also included in this truckload and trailer load of JUNK were some kind of electric motors. A treasure!! (don't ask me, I don't know anything about electric motors but Brillo/Junk Man walked around with a gleeful grin muttering something about copper...) There was also a sweeper, some windows (with metal on the frame) and a couple of other metal objects. Brillo/Junk Man spent considerable time with his magnet checking to see if things were steel or aluminum or whatever. (Since this new hobby began, he goes nowhere without a magnet in his pocket.)

I failed to mention that there were a couple of items that we did keep: the hand-carved wooden hummingbird ornament nestled in the bottom of a soup mug surrounded by the moldy and worn out shoes. No, I'm not keeping the shoes (wrong size) but I did elect to keep the bird and the soup mug. (As Olivia has given Brillo Man yet another nickname, "The King of Soups", we use a lot of soup mugs.) (But that's a subject for another post)...

As I type this, Junk Man is outside tearing apart the electric motors to get to the motherlode - the COPPER! Do you have any idea how much 'they're' paying for a pound of copper??!?!

Earlier today, Olivia and went to the mission --with the moldy things that we thought may be slightly valuable. The mission wouldn't even take half of what we had in the van. So, I brought it home, wondering what Brillo/Junk Man was going to do with it all. I assumed he'd burn it as 95% of the leftover mission rejects are burnable.

But no.

He's buried the encyclopedias somewhere in the "back 40". He says he's using them as 'mulch or fertilizer' for the tree that he's going to plant - or has planted. (I'm not quite sure but I think that he's thinking that by placing those moldy encyclopedias in the ground out will sprout a tree of knowledge of good and evil.")

So now he's burying the junk.

Pat --our 'state park' is now a landfill.


....meanwhile, the 'artist' in me is picturing all kinds of neat junk sculptures we could make!


....and I think I've failed to mention that on Thursday, I'm driving to a nearby town to pick up three bowling balls which a fellow freecycler is leaving for me in the front seat of her wrecked Chevy Blazer. (The bowling balls are for my 'garden sculptures') Wait! She did tell me that her Blazer is wrecked! I wonder if she'd let Brillo/Junk Man haul it away....

I will lay waste the land...
--Leviticus 26:32



Addendum: I went outside and asked Brillo/Junk Man what was up?
His reply: "I just spent about an hour's worth of work making my fifty cents!"
I had just taken a sip of pop and spit it all over myself as I laughed!
Never a dull moment...

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

All I can say is that you are beyond "beyond hope". Quote from dad.

Margie said...

That is so cool, these two guys were driving around one day and took the 1950's stove out of my garage and I think they thought they hit the Motherload too.

London Metal Exchange pays about $3.60 for copper on teh wholesale market, I have no idea what it is on the "scrap market" but I be it's good!

Margie said...

I read Sara's other comment, you're coming here? Is that why Brillo Man is making all that extra money???

Woo hoo!!! I'll cook!!!

can't wait to see you!

Pat said...

This post is a good example of why you need to write more! Spread the joy and let us hear from you more often!
I have to say, Brillo man not only cracks me up, but also gets my admiration-you gotta love a man so dedicated to making money, but please - keep the state park pristine - I'm coming there to visit one day!
By the way, speaking of landfills - we had one not far from us and they turned it into a ski slope, it was lovingly named Mt. Trashmore by the locals!

Sara said...

oh my gosh! brillo man is neck in neck with the mr. except brillo man makes money and the mr. just makes fire.

Jada's Gigi said...

well maybe he will at least break even with this new hobby..:) what I'm finding is that it is costing me more money than I'll make to try and get rid of some of my junk...(mutter mutter mutter to self)...lol

Anonymous said...

Go Amish, then you can scrap the copper wiring and pipes.

Arlene - BY HIS STRIPES!!! said...

I needed some humor tonight. Brillo/Junk Man surely is dedicated to what he is doing. Here, we just collect junk and leave it in the garage. Never to be found again!

Anonymous said...

OH I bet the neighbors are just loving his newest hobby. Just when I think Dad cant do much more weird stuff he comes and does this. Im just glad Im not there to help with his infamous "projects" of sorting out all the junk.