Our youngest son was working on a construction site as a plumber where a temporary deck was being torn down. Long story short we inherited an enormous stack of treated lumber, 2x6 in long and short lengths, 4x4's, 2x4's and more. Of course I wanted it, I've got raised bed gardens to build.
We continue to strive for self reliance and preparedness, hopefully being able to sustain our needs from anything from a electrical outage to a major flood. Gardening is a big part of that, vermiculture (worm farming) fits right in there as well.
My grandson's and I built a front stoop, a cold composting bin, nine raised bed boxes, fences and I gave a lot away to the rancher across the road and a guy down the road for a deck. I still have more left, we will now build a small, 3' x 6' x 16" deep seed starting greenhouse (I'm going to use an old glass shower door for the top) and another box for more artichoke plants. This lumber is treated but had been exposed for about 5 years to the sun on the construction site and another few years in my pile. All the bad stuff (arsenic was used to preserve the wood, it was stopped being used in the mid 2,000's). It won't and hasn't hurt the plants or the worms. I always try to use Re-cycled wood and other useful items before I buy new stuff.
The problem with wood piles is they attract a lot of different creatures, rats, raccoons, possums and whatever else happens to walk by. So they are a nuisance and the time has come to use what I can and clean up the rest and to the dump. I won't burn it, just because I don't know what else may be in the wood. I suspect it's OK
but I won't take the chance, I will cut it up into 2' pieces and off to the recycling program. We won't burn painted or stained wood either, it just doesn't seem right to send more stuff into the air.
The nails, screws and other hard metal construction fasteners are sticking up, it's a hazard. So being it's prudent to wear hard soled shoes, safety glasses and gloves when messing around with this pile. When it's being sawed (sawn?) we wear respirators, safety glasses, hearing protection and gloves, old wood splinters in a finger get infected easily.
I one time had a 5 inch splinter pierch through a leather glove and into my index finger while re-arrainging scaffold in a boiler on a job site. That splinter went in at just about an inch below the finger tip, exiting about an inch from my knuckle, it had to be cut out, at a hospital, in the emergency room at 2am.
It goes to prove even when you take all safety precautions bad things can still happen, we can however cut our chances of injury by wearing our safety protection and going in with our "eyes wide open."
Thanks for reading JimandKate
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