Monday, September 24, 2018

Let's go to BBC Steel...

I've lost track of how many times my comrades have shopped BBC Steel. I've been invited each time, but for some reason (many of them involving Lila care) I never had made it, until last Thursday...

Their windows feature screens with cut metal patterns and in the landscape there are rusty squares (unplanted, why?), nice to see they're making use of their own products.

On to the scrap yard...

They sell these pieces at 40-cents per pound...

I tried to pace myself so as not to get overwhelmed, it would be oh so easy to become so. Take this piece for example. I have two tall, thin, pieces with circular cut-outs at home already (thanks to Alan, who generously shared his prior purchases with me). I looked at this and knew I had to have it! Then I asked myself where exactly I thought I would put it. Ya, no idea...

There's Alan searching for just the right things to take home this time.

When I first saw a corner of this piece I thought I'd hit a gold-mine. Saguaro cut-outs! Nope, not that cool.

These grid pieces reminded me of the trellis I already have at home, and they were light...meaning they'd cost less.

But the expanded metal pieces were calling to me. I've already got one, which I love (here) and since I was thinking I needed something to hang on the fence at the back of our property (for vines, of course) these seemed ideal...

I wandered on, so many interesting things just begging to be used...

I wonder if they'd sell the auto body by the pound?

Damn!   

Now those would be fun to plant up. Although how you'd get them home I do not know.

Moving back over to the smaller pieces...

I bought that one on the left...

I was seriously tempted by that one...

If only those words meant something to me.

The stainless and aluminum pieces were more expensive (I think I was told $2/lb?) and set apart in a separate section of the yard.

There's always a Verbascum...

Okay, time to corral our purchases and head on out. These three pieces of expanded metal were coming home with me.

Fellow shoppers Patricia and Bill had scored a cart, which they kindly shared.

My haul on the scale, and my total was $27.00 which I guess means they weighed in at 67.5 lbs. Gosh, metal does add up! I am thrilled with my purchases and look forward to using them in the garden. And returning to BBC Steel in the future...

Weather Diary, Sept 23: Hi 68, Low 50/ Precip 0

All material © 2009-2018 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.

35 comments:

  1. Wish there were a BBC Steel close to my house! You scored!

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  2. Looks like you had a fun visit! I have yet to go! $27 for fabulous, one of a kind, garden items is a small price to pay in my opinion. You did good!

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    1. It was fun, and yep, I feel good about my purchases. Sorry you couldn't join us.

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  3. Be still, my envious heart! I would have gone bonkers. You really need to know someone who has a pickup truck.

    I'm determined now to find a salvage yard like that in Sacramento.

    P.S. Those culvert sections! Just imagine them cut down to a height of 2 or 3 feet...

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    1. Laura and Charlie (parents of Barnaby) organized the trip, and brought their truck. They delivered to Patricia and Bill who are just a few blocks away, but there wasn't anything big I wanted so I didn't take advantage. Oh and yes, the original deign I came up with for the front garden had huge metal circles like those culvert sections...

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  4. Wonderful! The last time I stopped at a similar place, they kindly weighed pieces I was interested in before committing to the purchase. Those pounds add up!

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    1. Good idea! I bet these folks would do that as well, if you schlepped the pieces all the way over to the scale.

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  5. What a cool place! I would love to have some of those rusty smaller square or round pipes to plant up.

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  6. I've always wanted to go there...but...work. Also...I never seem to be in a good spot in the garden where I feel like I can even think of stuff like this...there always seem to be so many other pressing projects that derail me...sigh.

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    1. I am sorry, I definitely feel lucky that my schedule allows for fun trips, even though it took over a year to happen. And since was never as dedicated employee as you are I still used to take "mental health days" from work for things like this...

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  7. It would be easy to go way overboard here as there are so many cool things. It's probably best that it's in Portland and not up here! You got some great new stuff to play with!

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    1. And it's not even in Portland! It's in Canby, about 45 minutes south.

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  8. I can imagine how excited you were. Heck, I'd be too. You got a great deal in my view and I look forward to seeing what you do with them.

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  9. Wow, what a neat place to shop. So many interesting pieces, so many ideas.

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  10. It will be fun to see what you do with these treasures.

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  11. So great! I imagine buying steel is like buying stone: only x cents per lb, but you need way more lbs than you ever knew. :)

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  12. Scrap yards are great for treasure hunting, though I think I'd glaze over with all the choices there! The steel mesh webbing would be great as a squirrel deterrent for spring bulbs.

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    1. You're right, there were lighter pieces that would be perfect for that.

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  13. So much cool stuff. I’m guessing this vist will make it easier to imagine how to use things you see there in the future.

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    1. I predicted that I wouldn't sleep that night as my brain would be busy working out what to do with all the different bits of metal.

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  14. Oh my gosh! I grew up down the street from this place. Is it open to the public, or by appointment?

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    1. The scrap yard is open to the public, just look for the building I pictured at the top of the post. It's on the same side of the street as the cemetery.

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  15. i was overwhelmed at BBC by how heavy the cutout pieces are. so i went for the grid pieces Alan got. 14 pieces for $50. i am happy to see in your photo that they have a large stock of them.

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  16. If you lived here we could give you guys this stuff! Work in metal fabrication and those sorts of sheets are what’s left from our plasma cutter

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    1. So do you do creative things with them? Or is it a reminder of work and not something you want to see at home?

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    2. I’m not a fan of reminders of work, don’t like my job despite being here for 9 years *facepalms*

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  17. Call a tow truck to get the big stuff home. I got the idea from my brother who owned a salvage yard and drove a tow truck.

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