Odd jobs for a living!!

Morethanconcerned

Should_be_out_gardening wrote: »

This week I was held back by the weather but helped by it in a way, I had a call from a couple who wanted logs for their fire as it had been cold last week and they expected it to be colder, their neighbours too wanted logs but also a lean to like I had built for them to keep the logs outside.

Now I was hoping to start on a roofing job with my mate the roofer but the weather last sunday was snow and he felt it would be hopless to start before wed or thurs. I approached my friend the farmer and talked round the idea of taking down the dead tree he had in one of his fields now instead of in the late srping when the ground would be drier. OK he said but don't take the car in the field (it would have sunk) and he was too busy with top dressing the fields to get the trailer out so I was on my own out there. No problem so I thought but it was a bigger job that I though and took ages to cart he logs to the car in the lane. Plus they were all wet , I needed to get them home , cut quartered and staked to dry off by the end of the week.

Typical it cleared by Monday evening and my mate wanted to start the roof on Tuesday late morning , so I was cutting logs and stacking all night then back to the farm by 7am to finish off. In my eagerness I suggest on early mon to the farmer I swept out the stable yard where he hires out stabling to horse riders - the various people are meant to keep it clean but don't and I've swept it before - I was getting the wood for free but now I was time poor. I got it all ways and was at the roofer for 11. I wanted the laths for kindling and all in all there were two car loads in the end.

I needed to get all this done by the end of the week so I was starting at 7 am after walking the dog to get all this wood cut and quartered. I was glad of the straw twine I collected sweeping the yard to tie up the kindling.

I had fortunately collected enough timer off cuts - like decking and fence posts to build a nice lean to with a tile top for the logs , they look nice and rustic.

Recently the waterways board cleared the brush and undergrowth along the canal banks by here and as the new spring growth is there all the rubbish is there to see - on thursday and friday when walking the dog early morning I collected a couple of bin bags full of aluminium cans , which when crushed made a bag full.

I was glad to get the firewood sorted , I had all but run out and now there is enough for anyone that needs it and my own use , it'll keep for next winter . Surprisingly I sell a fair bit in the summer for use in those chimera things .

I have some labouring to do this next week and I have noticed a skip being delivered later sat afternoon to a local factory along with building materials. I shall pop out there early tomorrow and ask about it.

Like others with the skips it wasn't till I read this thread that I began to notice signs with *cut logs* on , various prices and load sizes like bags, trailers bundles etc. It seems a growing market.

SunnyBunny

Hi

Just like to say I have read the whole 7 pages of the thread and feel compelled to add my positive feedback to Shouldbeoutgardening - what an outstanding hardworker you are under any standards.
What you are doing is so "right on" in this current times, recycling, reusing, minimising waste - doing tons of work and then accepting whatever people wish to pay you.

I hope that times change for you so much so that not only do you earn way over the taxable threshold, but that you will one day be in a position to take on an apprentice to pass on some of your knowledge. You may be cash poor but you are a very rich man. Outstanding.

SB

londonTiger

cant do odd jobs like this when you get older, you need skills and expertise, otherwise you can lose out on jobs from cheaper labour (foreigners and younger lads).

Ultimately in any case the money is in specialisation. You have to focus on one area and be the best man you can be.

Should_be_out_gardening

Hi all , I'd like to thank everyone for their kind words and hope the week has been good to everyone . I've been very busy this week , I finished and installed a nice lean to for cut logs . I managed to get all the logs out and was quite glad. The weather has been lovely all week but typically it's gone cold and wintry again now. Those people will be glad they have that wood under cover. I made sure I gave them my number and told them to pass it onto friends who might be getting wood burners , of course this could backfire if I have orders for too much wood, I have limited space to store it all , I have it stacked everywhere I can.

I have been working with a gardener this week , a customer wants the over grown garden that came with the house cleared and turf and decking put down. We can clear it now and we might lay the turf if the weather keeps up , the decking will have to wait till it's drier. The skip had been delivered and I was asked to go along and make a start clearing . It was a jungle but I hit jack pot straight away , two crown style chimeny pots in the over grown weeds, they'd been planters at one time. I asked the owner as seeing me put them in the car instead of the skip would have looked strange. A busy man he said do what you like but get it done ASAP. Into the back of the car , these are worth £80 each easily once cleaned up with some elbow grease. I also got some nice looking shrubs that would have ended in the skip , I take larger pots and planters to jobs like this just in case, it's too late to move them really but I heeled them into the corner of my garden and they look ok now. I shall either leave them or supply them as a plant when people ask for a few plants in the garden.

The high point of the week was the Saturday carboot near here, £10 per stall . last year in the autumn I bought a large sack of Jonquil bulbs really cheap. Before that I had been at my mate the landscaper and he'd bought a job lot of stuff from a market garden that had closed , I took off him a massive pile of plant pots , wide but short ones. I had the idea to plant Jonquils ( mini daffodils) in the pots then sell them in the spring. They look lovely now and we sold them for £5 a pot at the car boot. We sold about 25 plus some trays of pansies that were ready. We shall go again Mothers day saturday and there will be more trays of bedding ready. I am so glad I got all this in place last year.

I am delighted with the chimney pots though, they are a real scoop , I might put and adverts on the garden centre notice on-board and at the supermarket for them , if not the salvage yard will give good money for them.

All good stuff after last week!!

Maz

What a resourceful and enterprising person you are SBOG. Your thread is a delight to read and a perfect antidote to all the doom and gloom about :beer:

Jeanetteathome

Maz wrote: »

What a resourceful and enterprising person you are SBOG. Your thread is a delight to read and a perfect antidote to all the doom and gloom about :beer:

Isn't it just!! It's made me stop and think and more importantly look around me when I go out with the dog. I'd never thought about those ornamental chimney pots before, and out the other day I saw some in a garden they are worth a lot of money.

In town I noticed the green grocers and florists selling pots of mini daffodils and hyacinths.

It's great to see someone actually doing something, sadly on this forum lots of it seems like good intention but never gets carried through.

Jeanetteathome

Should_be_out_gardening wrote: »

Hi all , I'd like to thank everyone for their kind words and hope the week has been good to everyone . I've been very busy this week , I finished and installed a nice lean to for cut logs . I managed to get all the logs out and was quite glad. The weather has been lovely all week but typically it's gone cold and wintry again now. Those people will be glad they have that wood under cover. I made sure I gave them my number and told them to pass it onto friends who might be getting wood burners , of course this could backfire if I have orders for too much wood, I have limited space to store it all , I have it stacked everywhere I can.

I have been working with a gardener this week , a customer wants the over grown garden that came with the house cleared and turf and decking put down. We can clear it now and we might lay the turf if the weather keeps up , the decking will have to wait till it's drier. The skip had been delivered and I was asked to go along and make a start clearing . It was a jungle but I hit jack pot straight away , two crown style chimeny pots in the over grown weeds, they'd been planters at one time. I asked the owner as seeing me put them in the car instead of the skip would have looked strange. A busy man he said do what you like but get it done ASAP. Into the back of the car , these are worth £80 each easily once cleaned up with some elbow grease. I also got some nice looking shrubs that would have ended in the skip , I take larger pots and planters to jobs like this just in case, it's too late to move them really but I heeled them into the corner of my garden and they look ok now. I shall either leave them or supply them as a plant when people ask for a few plants in the garden.

The high point of the week was the Saturday carboot near here, £10 per stall . last year in the autumn I bought a large sack of Jonquil bulbs really cheap. Before that I had been at my mate the landscaper and he'd bought a job lot of stuff from a market garden that had closed , I took off him a massive pile of plant pots , wide but short ones. I had the idea to plant Jonquils ( mini daffodils) in the pots then sell them in the spring. They look lovely now and we sold them for £5 a pot at the car boot. We sold about 25 plus some trays of pansies that were ready. We shall go again Mothers day saturday and there will be more trays of bedding ready. I am so glad I got all this in place last year.

I am delighted with the chimney pots though, they are a real scoop , I might put and adverts on the garden centre notice on-board and at the supermarket for them , if not the salvage yard will give good money for them.

All good stuff after last week!!

I've seen some of the chimney pots when out and about and they are lovely, they are worth a lot of money too will you ebay them or anything? Love the pots of jonquils, it's mothers day next week so you might sell even more , I bet they take up some room though.

When I take the dog out I always look to the weather and imagine you outside , it's raining today (wed) but has been nice the last few days.

Good luck

Jeanetteathome

SunnyBunny wrote: »

Hi

Just like to say I have read the whole 7 pages of the thread and feel compelled to add my positive feedback to Shouldbeoutgardening - what an outstanding hardworker you are under any standards.
What you are doing is so "right on" in this current times, recycling, reusing, minimising waste - doing tons of work and then accepting whatever people wish to pay you.

I hope that times change for you so much so that not only do you earn way over the taxable threshold, but that you will one day be in a position to take on an apprentice to pass on some of your knowledge. You may be cash poor but you are a very rich man. Outstanding.

SB

Well said. It's uplifting , and as I said in another post refreshing to see people doing something rather than talking about it. Lets face it, for all the market research surveys that are talked about few seem to make cold hard money like this do they?

dawyldthing

also try putting them on gumtree as its free to list but has an open audience of potential buyers

shadybrady

Quick tip for SBOG and anyone else regarding pallets - try some of the industrial wholesalers (plumbers merchants / electrical wholesalers / builders yards etc) as they tend to get many of their deliveries on untreated pallets and then have loads of them leftover and normally welcome anyoen willing to take them off their hands.

Some of them you can easily drill/screw together and make into log stores or even garden sheds and if they are broken then they are great firewood.

Might be an idea to have a nice chat with the manager of some of the wholesalers - my local gas supplier says I can have them whenever I want as does the local electrical wholesaler.

Shady