Monday railroad pictures
Today required a trip into a nearby town for some tire
repair, a spark plug purchase, and a library visit. I discovered a park
down by the river which was jumping up and down while yelling "come and
take some pictures of me".
I'm always intrigued by the waste material that can be found alongside
the railroad tracks in this country. These heavy steel plates are what
seem to hold the actual track in place and I guess they need to be
replaced from time to time? I wonder if they can be used for
anything non railroad related?
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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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Even though I am at work I nearly screamed at my computer, YES YOU CAN!!! After reading this older entry I had to comment. Yes, you can actually put to use alot of that old railroad items. I use alot of random pieces of metal from the railroad tracks in my blacksmithing and frankly the steel is usually pretty good. Railroad spikes are turned into knives, tomahawks/hatchets, chisels, and other tools. Some of those big pieces that look like big staples ive seen turned into sword blades (but probably not a big demand for that on the homestead!). The point of this is that with a simple forge and anvil you can turn that "scrap" into amazing tools. My forge is nothing more than an old brake drum with blackpipe on the bottom, an old hairdryer for air, and my anvil is an old piece of railroad track with a 1" thick piece of flat steel welding atop it. You can easily make your own charcoal from scrap wood and be create great pieces completely free (except for the electricity for the blower, unless you make a manual blower and then your free).
Might be something to look into if you two decide you wanna live off the land even more, like using what was left on the land by others. If you have any questions, comments, or photo requests dont hesitate to email me at rev.david_zimmerman@yahoo.com