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.

 

[airbiscuit]

Chickens plan??

How else would you (or the chicken for that matter) know why the chicken crossed the road?

 

[Oaktree]

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.

My wife learned that too. Between feed cost, predators and not being able to take a vacation she had enough and sold the coop to a neighbor.
Store eggs not really an issue except in the dead of winter when they're not laying...probably half a dozen people selling fresh eggs within a 5 minute drive, $2/dozen.

 

[EddieWalker]

I have chickens, goats and a vegetable garden. None of it makes any financial sense. I could buy everything from the store cheaper then what it costs me to grow or raise it. But nothing at the store tastes as good as what we have here, and with the new direction out country is going, you never know what will be available at the stores.

I think that having a lumber mill makes a lot of sense. I'm not there yet, but I am looking on Craigslist and FB for people who are selling lumber that they are milling for less then Home Depot and Lowes has it for sell. I haven't bought from anybody yet, but the day is coming that it will be the only option if you want to build something.

During the lockdown, we always had plenty of eggs, so we where able to trade eggs for meat, cleaning supplies and a variety of treats like cades and pies. Friends would come to our place because they could not find eggs at the stores. We only have 22 goats so far, but the long term goal is to have at least a hundred breeding nannies. I'm spending a ridiculous amount of money making this happen so that we will have the ability to feed ourselves, and trade for goods with our friends. It has nothing to do with profit, or making a buck.

Just like the destruction of Healthcare, it's all about who you know and how well you are connected.

 

[BnRidge]

If any of you saw the inside of the Cold Spring Egg farm in Wisconsin, or currently have a chance to witness the aftermath of 3 million chickens being exterminated and composted (due to bird flu) in your back yard, never again would you buy the poison eggs they call food and the tasty Campbells chicken soup the animals would have ended up in.

 

[Jstpssng]

If any of you saw the inside of the Cold Spring Egg farm in Wisconsin, or currently have a chance to witness the aftermath of 3 million chickens being exterminated and composted (due to bird flu) in your back yard, never again would you buy the poison eggs they call food and the tasty Campbells chicken soup the animals would have ended up in.

That's my viewpoint, and one reason I choose to raise my own. Besides, I can't tell the difference in taste between store bought chicken and pork; they both are merely flavorless blobs on the plate. People who try some of my pork or home raised turkeys are amazed at the difference in flavor.

 

[jyoutz]

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. . .

Also factor in air drying time for lumber.

 

[NorTracNY]

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.

Either you're young or you didn't read the original post.

"MrsKilroyJC has decided we need to get some chickens."

 

[PuffyC]

If it's a hobby and that's how you want to spend your free time that's one thing, but if you're doing it to save money that's another story. We raise chickens and goats and assuming your time has any value at all I'd guess we pay 3x what we would in a store, but we don't go into with the illusion that we're going to save money. After pricing some mills I'd have to think they would be the same. When I can buy 2x8 boards at Lowes today for less than $14 I doubt I could ever break even doing it myself no matter how many I made in my lifetime. Add in the need for PT lumber and plywood and the math looks even worse. But again, if that's how you like spending your free time then I wouldn't even worry about the cost if you can afford it.

 

[BnRidge]

hobby

save money

Or to improve my standard of living. Avoiding cardboard poison food, and living in a place made with my own ingenuity, has far more than monetary or time value.

 

[Jstpssng]

Or to improve my standard of living. Avoiding cardboard poison food, and living in a place made with my own ingenuity, has far more than monetary or time value.

He isn't around much anymore, but TBN member TnAndy has built the life which many of us dream of. He raises and slaughters his own meat, cans extensively, and lives a very independent lifestyle.