I'll Have a Bit of Whine With That

Forgive me for this next bit.  It's going to be a rant, or perhaps more of a whine, which I'm going to talk about, so I can let it go.  Feel free to skip this post.  When I pulled the jars of tomatoes out of the canner this morning, the guys were heading to a local metal salvage yard.  Since I've been making metal art, I sometimes tag along to see what I can find.  Today the yard was as low on salvage as we've ever seen, but I did find one treasure I wanted after digging through the bins, one of those oval copper tubs that people often use for firewood, which was in fact what I intended.  It had history, plenty of dings, and a handle bent sideways, but a little time in the shop would have it workable. I asked the man to weigh it, he gave me a price, & I told him I wanted it.  In the past, they've given me a ticket with the weight & price to take to the office, but today, he headed to the office with the tub, then went on through to the back when we got there.  As soon as we got in the door, a man said "Oh, *** will want that".  After waiting a few minutes, one of the office ladies came from the back and flashed me a big smile (***?), then he came out and told me a new price, which had basically quadrupled.  Yes, it was a find, but I feel the one who digs through the junk to find it should have the option of purchasing it at normal cost. Just saying.

On to more positive things. All my jars of tomatoes were sealed when I got back home. 

The pond is looking good, and filling up too.  We've had quite a bit of rain over the past week and a half.  I'm looking forward to getting grass seed sown in September.

The dam is settling in nice and solid, but J's shoring up the middle of it just a bit more, which is where the leak and the aforementioned brush pile was. 

I think he kind of enjoys this big, old machine.