Does anyone have a supply of used brick?

With spring in full gear and the rains gone for a few days we decided to jump in and start the path that will connect the house and studio.  Since the completion of the studio we have been forced to cross the grass in the back yard and it wasn't long before we had a dirt path--which turned to a muddy mess (inside and out) every time it rained or snowed.

Well, no more!  We'll just use the bricks we salvaged during the demolition of the Wendell school a few years back.  Problem is, lots of people heard about the brick give away and we were only able to salvage half a path worth...

Fortunately Diana works at the local grocery store--which is the social center of town and, as we're quickly learning, the networking hub for everything.  One day, while running the cash register, she asked a local stone mason she knows if any locals he knows might have a supply of used brick.  "As a matter of fact, yes! he said.  Apparently several years ago they demolished the nearby King Hill School and I guess not as many people heard about it because he told Diana one lady inherited a majority of the bricks!  She is rumored to have "thousands of them". 

We haven't made contact with her yet, so our brick road remains a dream for now, but hey, how long can this lady go before she runs out of groceries?  And when she does I'm hoping Diana will be at the register so we can work a deal!  If she actually does have thousands, our pizza oven may be one step closer to reality as well!

Our Morning at the Elk Ranch... and it has nothing to do with elk

Now that we're settling back into big city society while off the road, we're reconnecting with some of our contacts in the local area.  One such contact is an acquaintance of Diana's who manages a ranching operation just outside town.  The rancher who owns the place seems to do it all, from cows, to elk, to crops, and he runs a small time wood mill where he cuts red fir into some really nice board lumber. and they have tons of scraps which would fit really nicely into our wood cook stove!  So Diana asks the manager what they plan to do with the scraps and she replies -- "just come and load up all you want, any time."

Holy cow, the mother load!  We thought we entered firewood heaven.

But wait, there's more!

Apparently the milling operators are only interested in certain prime cuts of lumber because, not only do they have the round edge scraps, there's a ton of dimensional red fir in all sizes, shapes and lengths mixed in!  We have plans now to side the studio with some of the nicer boards.

Here's the truck with a half of a load left from our first run.  Notice all the 8' trim pieces and 2x2's on the left!

And of course we recruited all hands to help unload.

We stopped at two truckloads today (about 2 cords) , but have formed a plan to return to the massive pile twice a week until we have filled our wood pile and the wood piles of everyone in town who needs it!  We will not run out of fire wood this year!

While talking to the manager of the ranch before we finished loading for our first trip we asked what they do when they get too many scraps.  She said they used to cut it up and sell it off, but that the workers are needed for other tasks now.  Instead, in the recent past they have just lit the pile on fire to get rid of it.  Can you believe it?  

Afterwards we celebrated our victory with a picnic in the back yard! 

That wood rack in the background won't be empty for long!