What in the World is Scrapping?

It's come to my attention that some of you have no idea what we're doing when I say we've gone scrapping (which we do usually three to five nights a week). This is just a short blog post to let you know just what it is that we're doing.

First thing we do is figure out when trash night is each night and then drive around that area starting between four in the afternoon until five. We'll continue driving around until we fill up the bed of the truck. What are we looking for?

Metal. All kinds of metal. Aluminum, brass, auto cast, steel, just every metal that you can think of. Each type of metal is worth it's own amount at the scrap yard and we get paid per pound. So we separate the scrap by type and take motors off of things like lawn mowers so that we can be sure to get the most return for our work. 

Once we've done all the separating and taking apart of the metal we load the bed of the truck back up and drive to the scrap yard. Where we get weighed and then dump all the basic metal into a pile. Then we get weighed again and head to the office where we turn in the motors and special metals. After which we get paid for the metal that we've brought in.

It's a dirty bit of work, and you don't want to wear your best clothing or shoes to do scrap work. And often it doesn't pay a whole lot. First the truck gets back whatever we've used in gas to pick up the scrap metal ... usually about $40 with gas prices being what they are. What's left either gets saved for specific items like a camper (we're currently saving for a new one as we miss camping), birthdays, pizza nights, random things like that. Some days we're putting five dollars into the camper envelope and some days we're putting a bit more in ... there are even days that we put a lot more in.

The scrapping we've done so far in the past month and a half has paid for new used tires for our truck, brake pads all the way around, and a tune up. Plus items to send out to our eldest daughter and our granddaughter who live across country from us.

Scrapping is not for everyone. But, it's one of Daddy's hobbies and I enjoy going out with him. The campers join us in looking for scrap two to three times a week as they enjoy it too. They're learning to tell types of metals and the mechanics of taking apart small engine items. They may or may not continue to scrap once they're older (and we don't scrap in the winter) but they're learning to respect all types of hard work that make money, the value of the dollar, and that just because you do not have a college degree doesn't mean that you cannot support your family.

I hope that this clears up what scrapping is for those of you who didn't know.