Scrap Iron Will

"The law of the soul is eternal endeavour 

That bears a man onward and upward for ever"

I've been toiling over the last two months  at sorting out the junk. The plastic has been bagged, the wood burned and the asbestos cement piled up. The only "good junk" is the scrap metal because it pays to collect it - now 17p a kilo. It is however the hardest junk to collect. Its heavy, its sharp and its often hard to get out.

As a result it requires the most effort physically and mentally to remove but has the greatest  reward although not just financially. It is satisfying to know that it is entirely recyclable and can be reused almost indefinitely if recycled before it becomes rust .The metal is "saved" rather than lost forever, a  a mini-metaphor for saving  the farm itself. So by selling a small part of the farm, it helps preserve both the thing sold and the farm itself. 

All thanks to my effort, which relates to my "will" to suceed in saving the place as best I can.

Thinking about this "will" aspect  attracted my attention to an audio book available (free) this week from LearnOutLoud.com  .By author Orison Swett Marden, it is called "Iron Will" and led to the choice of blog title and opening quote. (Clever pun eh !). Some of the quotes may be attributed to other authors within the book.


I'm quite a fan of self- motivational books like this one - they've been around for longer than most people would suspect. Some of the examples are a bit dated, the book is over 100 years old , yet the message is eternal. I've added a few quotes from the book  to this post in bold since they helped keep me going this week as I was toiling away.

The week  started with shifting quite a bit of wood - the final remnants of that massive shed , some saved for future projects, some destined for the fire . It would have been easier with two people but I managed...just !

  
It felt a little like I was carrying my own unfinished cross at this point !

But luckily the van counts as my extra pair of hands usually !

Later in the week I started a major push on metal collection. I got a bit of assistance from Sam to help unbolt some of the seven metal grain silos / bins. It made that days work much easier - after that I couldn't be on the inside and outside of silo at same time to undo the bolts (unless my arms were like Mr Tickle!)


  


The other problem was the rust, many of the bolts couldnt be unbolted with a power tool, so they had to be taken off with an open ended spanner - one sixth of a turn at a time .

"1,2,3,4,5,6. Great thats one millimeter further out. 
  1,2,3,4,5,6. Great thats another one.....     "

Slow, slow slow !

Orison Swett Marden (OSM) suggestion for success was as follows ...

" The quality of persistance is never absent from a successful man.
 No matter what opposition he meets or what discouragement overtakes him,
drudgery cannot disgust him, obstacles not discourage him, labour cannot weary him"


So I had to grind them off one at a time instead. And there were lots !

Its not very nice working in the silo all day, really dusty and noisy.

The view on the other side wasnt that inspiring either although the pile of heavy panels (about 50kg each) was getting bigger and bigger.

After a few days "in the bin" another of OSM's quotes  seemed appropriate.


"Success is the child of drudgery and perserverance and cannot be coaxed or bribed, pay the the price and it is yours"

Success. The bins would have been down today - unfortunately I managed to break the Hilti drill right at the end so decided to take the remainder of the day to sell some of the scrap at the local yard

These are my piles of scrap ! Awaiting their next  re-incarnation.


The yard is far more impressive with BIG tools that dont break !

 

My silo panels can be seen in the foreground  - they got there along with a small delivery the day before.

The obvious reward was the £0.17 a kilo  multiplied by 980 kilos ! Thats just the first two van loads as well !

The less obvious reward was the pleasure of knowing that through application of will power and perservering  the farm is a small step closer to being sorted out and the environment a little better as a result.

(Well maybe apart from increasing my carbon footprint tonight- can burning wood REALLY be carbon neutral?)

"Go on sir, go on!  

 The difficulties you meet will resolve themselves as you advance. 

 Proceed, and light will dawn, and shine with increasing clearness on your path.”

(quote within "Iron Will" attributed to Jim Rohn )

We will succeed !