Sometimes you have to spend money to save money

[KilroyJC]

About this time last year, I was minalizing my plans to build an outdoor kitchen pavilion. It would have needed about $1700 in lumber.

a week before I was going to start, that number became $5G. And then climbed from there.

MrsKilroyJC has decided we need to get some chickens. She spotted some nice coops at one of the storage shed places along the highway yesterday. $1600 for a 6-chicken coop, $1800 for a 10-chicken coop.

I also have some other projects on the radar that require lumber.

two weeks ago we went to Big Box Home Center for some 2x4s and they all had bark lines.

EVERY

SINGLE

ONE.

The must be milling them out of 8” diameter trees.

So, yesterday I made a call out to Indiana and got a quote for a WoodMizer mill package

For the cost of the lumber for the pavilion deck, a fancy coop, and a porch repair, I can own the equipment to produce all that lumber—-
AND I will still have the equipment to make any additional lumber that I need for any future projects, instead of needing to buy more lumber.

Of course, there are two big wrinkles in any such brilliant plan:

1) WoodMizer is about 5-6 months out on delivery

2) Plywood is superior to boards in many applications

but we humans did just fine with planks and boards for quite some time before OSB was invented, so I guess we will manage OK on #2. . .

 

[lman]

Probably cheaper to buy the eggs in the store. They're still about $1.50/dozen here and you don't have to buy any overpriced chicken feed.

 

[Jstpssng]

My 12 or so hens have always had a 12x18 foot area to scratch in, plus I let them free range when I'm around. They've got that area so scratched out that I took it down and had to move it. Now as birds migrate north they are bringing some disease with them so I need to keep them inside.

The poster above me is right, you won't save money raising hens. (Although they are considerably more here than in Indiana.)
Yet when I crack open one of those store bought eggs they aren't very appealing... pale yolks and runny whites.

 

[Thomas]

Chickens plan on extra protecting the from predators also up keep on chickencoop...repairs cleaning.

 

[Doughknob]

Chickens plan??

 

[Fxfymn413]

You also have to figure on either using green lumber, and putting up with the resulting gaps as it dries, or make a place to dry the lumber while you wait the year for it to dry.

Plus a mill is not "one and done" since you will be replacing blades, servicing the engine, fuel, etc. I do not know what the true cost of a board foot of home milled lumber is, but my bet is it is more than you think. I'd find a local mill operator and ask what it costs to run the mill per hour to get an idea.

You also have to consider the opportunity cost of spending money on the mill. You can only spend that money once and it may make more sense to use the money for the material and save the time you would use milling the lumber for another use.

My friend is pretty vigilant about checking the "beat up bin" ai HD for lumber at 50% off. That might be an option.

Eggs at the Local Lidl are $.89 a dozen. There is no economic justification for keeping hens in my book.

 

[Torvy]

Best reason to me is as a contingency. If I have hens, I don't have to worry about stores being closed or being able to get to town. (I am thinking unforeseen events) while it is true that eggs are cheaper in town, there are other reasons to raise your own food or cut your own timber. As @Jstpssng said, there is the quality factor. In my case, there is the happy wife factor. She wants chickens and goats. I vetoed goats, so chickens it will be. I can 100% understand wanting your own sawmill. I have more than enough timber, so unlike regular mills, I don't have to buy the raw materials. For me, I would just be too far out of my depth. Maybe someday.

 

[ponytug]

@KilroyJC Good luck!

FWIW: While you are waiting for your sawn logs to dry, there are specific construction techniques for using green lumber that account for shrinkage and the tendencies to warp and split.

All the best,

Peter

 

[KilroyJC]

Best reason to me is as a contingency. If I have hens, I don't have to worry about stores being closed or being able to get to town. (I am thinking unforeseen events) while it is true that eggs are cheaper in town, there are other reasons to raise your own food or cut your own timber. As @Jstpssng said, there is the quality factor. In my case, there is the happy wife factor. She wants chickens and goats. I vetoed goats, so chickens it will be. I can 100% understand wanting your own sawmill. I have more than enough timber, so unlike regular mills, I don't have to buy the raw materials. For me, I would just be too far out of my depth. Maybe someday.

We have MORE than enough timber, too. And contingency is a big factor if you follow current events.

I think I would rather own tools than have pretty pieces of paper the way things are going.

i mean, by the logic of “It’s cheaper in the store”, I shouldn’t have bothered buying a tractor, I shouldn’t bother getting the Fergie Plow out of the weeds and back into operation, I shouldn’t plant a Victory Garden this year...

 

[Jstpssng]

by the logic of “It’s cheaper in the store”, I shouldn’t have bothered buying a tractor, I shouldn’t bother getting the Fergie Plow out of the weeds and back into operation, I shouldn’t plant a Victory Garden this year...

I deal with that constantly, especially from my neighbor-who-knows-everything. "I can buy turkey in the store for .19$/pound"... "I can buy pork for 2$/lb"...
He's right, it costs me a lot of money to raise poultry and pork every year. Yet I enjoy doing it, and know that the animals had a good life until time came to go into the freezer. I guarantee that the pork from the store never spent time camped out in the woods under the stars...
To his credit he and another neighbor tended livestock for me while I was out for surgery last year. I gave them each a turkey for their trouble, and they split half of one of my pigs.