What is a monkeybox?

When I was a little girl, we had a pet monkey named Amanda. My Dad worked in the produce business, so each night he brought home that days culls in a big box - spotty cucumbers, pithy apples, limp celery, moldy oranges and the like. We called it a monkeybox. It was really just trash, but my Mom would take each piece of fruit and trim it, pare it and cut it up to make a beautiful fruit platter for Amanda. Even though it was deemed trash by one, it still had life left in it and was good for the purpose we needed it. That's how I live my life - thrifting, yard saling, looking for another's trash to be my treasure.

Sunday, August 10, 2014

Bread Racks and Metal Scraps

*I did a little changing up on the old blogaroo- bigger type, wider side aisles.  LOOK AT ALL THE ROOM!  Is it easier to read?  I read another blog and it has the tiniest faintest print.  I want to read it SO badly but I can hardly make it out.  So, I wondered if my blog was hard to read.  I don't think it really was, but hey a little bit bigger for those aging eyes (Who are you looking at?) and wider sides for bigger pictures.  What can be wrong with that?????


So, the bread company that The Breadman is working for right now is in the process of changing over from using rolling metal racks to using flat trays that stack up and roll on a wheeled base.  Over the past few weeks, TBM has driven around to all the stores in the area and picked up these racks and.....I dare not even speak it... taken them to the SCRAP YARD. They pay $180.00 a ton and he has personally scrapped over $2,500.00 worth of these racks.  Such a waste.  I asked if there was any way that he could buy one at scrap value to use in my booth or for storage, so he asked and was told, "Take all you want."  Oh my!  In the end, he brought home eight racks and the twelve trays each one takes.  You could open a bakery in my backyard!  I did sell one on Craigslist, so we have seven left.  

They have these sliding trays that are adjustable.  You could store your craft supplies, inventory or just about anything on them.  Since they are all being DESTROYED, they are the antiques of the future.  In my opinion. 

I had 'pinned' this on Pinterest a long time ago.  This is a better quality rack, but look at all the things you could put on it at a show or in a booth.  Crazy good!  I love the added use of the little bread pans to hold smalls.  I think I am going to try this at the next Junk Ranch in October.  And take a few to sell.  I think the other vendors would LOVE them.


Every day when TBM would come home he would INSIST on telling me HORROR stories of what he saw go in the chipper at the Salvage Yard that day.   "Today a man had a couple boxes of old rusty railroad spikes."     "Today a lady drove up and had all these metal cubbies from a hard ware store.  They paid her $80.00 and then they chipped them up."  
I showed him this picture and he said, "Yea, just like that."

Is he trying to kill me?
Honestly?

Lara and I are trying to thrift ourselves some official looking Security or Inspector uniforms and then we are going to stand out on the highway and "inspect" these loads before they go in the Scrap Yard.  Things we like we will deem "unscrapable" and then offer to buy them.  Seriously, someone should be out there paying the Scrap yard a price a bit above the Scrap price and saving all these great old things from being destroyed. I have seen trailer loads of old motel chairs and ringer washers headed to the scrap yard.  It just makes me SICK.  

But, I can't save ALL THE JUNK.  So, I will have to be happy that I saved a few bread racks.  

17 comments:

  1. wow those are super cool for organizing :)

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  2. Love the new look and my eyes thank you very much!! I never noticed yours being hard to read but bigger is always better. I follow one blog where I mostly just look at the pictures because the text is SO tiny and gray on white.
    The bread racks are an amazing score and I agree you definately need to form the junk patrol.

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  3. Those racks are THE.BEST!! My Dad fixed one up for the 'cookie crew'... for our annual XMAS Cookie Baking weekend, and it is SUCH a lifesaver!!
    All of the other uses though are endless ~ Wheels... LARGE TRAYS... OH!! The possibilities!!

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  4. So glad you saved some racks and yes they are awesome to show off smalls at a show!! So sad what is being destroyed. Love the larger type, I think somehow mine has gotten smaller and I need to tweak it some.
    hugs,
    Linda

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  5. Anonymous2:15 PM

    love the new look. It is easier to read

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  6. Hey, nice rack. bwahahahaha

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  7. Cool racks. I beg to differ, you can certainly save ALL the junk. It's just whether you want to be THAT lady on the evening news or not.

    I do love the larger type though. Not that I thought it was small before, but now that you changed it I can notice the difference. Those of us with old people eyes thank you :)

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  8. I am glad you saved a few bread racks from certain death at the salvage yard. You must feel good about that. I feel just horrible that old motel chairs and hardware cubbies were destroyed and who knows what other old treasures were lost. Yikes!

    Danielle

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  9. Glad you had the sense to rescue some of those racks. Love the bigger type as I don't need to put on my readers.

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  10. I'm glad you were able to save some racks Love the new look of the blog.

    I wish I was able to save all junk too!

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  11. In the words of Steven Wright: "You can't have everything. Where would you put it?"

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  12. Ugh...old motel chairs?

    I just threw up my breakfast.

    ~Erica

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  13. I am of the generation that whenever my Dad would go to the dump he would come home with something. We had a too good to throw away place by our landfill here but people abused it by camping out so they closed it. Love that you got some of the racks! And that you get surprised with goodness!

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  14. Oh the inhumanity of scrapping. How sad... So glad you got to save a few racks. I know you'll put them to good use.

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  15. I AM SO NOT JOKING ABOUT THAT. We can hold up a sign that says "we'll buy your junk" and just see who stops. LET'S DO IT!!!

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  16. Hats off to your junk-saving skills! It would be a shame to see all those metal scraps go to waste, when you could transform them into something useful, like a beautiful rack, and then make a money out of it. I totally agree with what you said about how these things are the antiques of the future. Also, you’re doing our environment and future a favor by reusing them for another purpose. Keep it up!

    Marion Dunn @ Global Resources

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  17. Anonymous12:14 AM

    Hello, Do you have any of the bread rack left that you would be interested in selling? I happened onto your website while searching for this type of bread rack. My email is serendipity_41@hotmail.com. I'd love to hear from you. BTW, The larger print is a great idea. It is much easier to read without my glasses than most websites. :-) Thanks! Becca J

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