Manna from Heaven

As if in answer to my last post lamenting our dismal raised bed situation, our prayers have been answered! I do doubt God had anything to do with our windfall, but maybe He at least put in a good word with the garden gnomes. In any case, Providence of some kind has definately shown down on us.

So in my last post, I was lamenting the fact that our raised garden beds just weren't gonna cut it. I'd decided that what we HAD to have if were going to do the raised bed thing and do it right was some rough-cut cedar lumber...probably the sturdiest rot resistant stuff we could get that wouldn't cost a fortune. We checked into railroad ties, but the cresote that constantly leaches out of those are supposed to be bad news for your tender veggies. So we decided cedar was the route to go. I looked online at raised beds...most of which do seem to be made of cedar. I found all sorts of places to order raised bed kits...the cheapest of which was about $150 for a 4' x 8'x12" bed. *GACK*

None of that...we'll do it ourselves. After Marden checked the prices at local sawmills, we figured on a minimum of $25 per 4' x 8'x12" bed. Doesn't sound like a fortune, but it can add up quick. I'm not even sure of how many beds we're going to put in, but originally I had figured on at least 8 beds to get in most of what I wanted to plant...even omitting a few things. Now I've never been accused of being a math whiz, but I believe that's $200. Again, not a fortune, but we are in desperate need of a riding lawnmower, and Mr. Hooter has not yet gotten his promised promotion (nor promotion pay). And it also gets to the point where you have to wonder if $$$ spent on a garden is worth it in the end - the point is to save money on produce. But if you spend major bucks on getting your garden together, where is the savings? $200 will buy a lot of tomatos. As will the $100 we spent already on a load of dirt.

So back to my long-winded story...Mr. Hooter is calling around to sawmills trying to find the cheapest cedar possible, when a guy he works with pops in and says, "Hey...you looking for cedar boards? I'll give you some for free!" I'm sure this man, Mr. Murphy, had a halo and wings. While that fact may be debatable, what is not is that he ended up not having just a piddly pile, BUT about FOUR truckloads of all the rough-cut cedar I could possibly find uses for...did I mention for FREE??? We're talking good heavy stuff originally purchased for furniture-making by this guy's dad. He just wanted rid of it. And as I was picking through the brown recluse-riddled stacks (the largest suckers I've ever seen, by the way), getting filthy dirty and choking on years of dust, I was downright giddy. I would never have guessed a truckload of dirty lumber would ever have made me so happy, but talk about getting EXACTLY what you need at EXACTLY the right time - it's uncanny!

Now I need to try this again...lawnmower....lawnmower....lawnmower...