THESE ARE TRUCKS. I have been spending a lot of time babying and restoring my truck that I forgot... it is a truck!.

This weekend I am doing some yard work. In past years, I would take the subaru outback down to Home Depot and buy 15-20 bags of bark chips and haul them back, empty them in the landscaping and go back and get more bags. It usually would cost me about $100 in bark chips and and too much time in Home Depot checkout lines.

This year, I took the truck to HD to get the bags then remembered a landscaping place near my house. I went there was going to get 3 cubic yards of shredded redwood, but the guy at the counter said, start with two and you can always come back. I am glad I did because two was one too much! It was great seeing the front end loader dump four loads in the truck and the truck springs not even noticing the load. Two cubic yards cost me $55. This truck is already saving me money. Let's see, I saved $45. I spent over $1000 on rubber parts, floor cover, and stuff a few weeks ago. hmmmmm...... it is going to take awhile to break even.

The bed was completely full front to back. This photo is after I applied the shredded redwood to the back yard. I still have almost 1 cubic yard left after doing the front yard as well. You can see my faithful helper Stella laying by the tire.

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Here are some other photos of my truck being a truck.

3000 lbs of hay at my brother's ranch. The horse is trying to lighten the load.

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Here it is hauling 2750 lbs of coal. My brother had it documented because they had to take a tare weight going in and then a final weight going out.

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So, I guess my point is this. If you have a vehicle that is made for a certain use, use it. If I had an Aston Martin DB9, I would not let it live in my garage afraid to use it, I would be tearing up and down Highway one in it. My truck is meant to be used for heavy things (including my fat butt) and move them from point a to point b.

 

You betcha! Until your truck is worth as much as a familyroom addition...use it as it was meant to be used

 

Well, since my truck will never be worth a family room addition, I guess I have no choice but to use it like it was intended. Now, if I could only get that tailgate down....

 

Thumper, back when bigger was better!

 

If the wood chips are Redwood or not, don't put them too close to the house.

Termites love wood chips, and some of those chips might be infested with the little buggers.

I spread wood chips around the patio of my former home, the little bstards chewed the 4x4 supports holding the wood roof up from the inside out...to bits in a matter of months.

They chewed up the roof, too.

Before those chips arrived, we didn't have termites.

Termites don't like Redwood, but bark beetles do.

Bark beetles infest trees under drought conditions, the tree can't fight back, then dies.

Bark beetles aren't choosy, and they don't know a tree from a 4x4...you do not want them in the framework of your house.

 

That's odd...usually the bark/shaving's you get from everywhere are well dried and have no moisture..termites go for wet, moisture type climtes to feed and regurgitate.

Also, the Bay Area isn't too prone to ground type termites (from what I recall)...but airborn/flying mites...this is why most BA homes get tented for termite control, and little (if any) ground work is done...which really is odd when you think about since everything in the BA was originall build on orchards/etc., must be the climate conditions I guess.

 

My question is what are you gonna do with the excess?

 

Give to a friend and use on my church's landscaping.

 

Chips can be bought in plastic bags. Remove the chips from the bag, they're damp, so they weren't dried out first.

Climate conditions? SoCal is a primarily a desert.
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Everything in the Bay Area was built on orchards, etc?

You'll get an eye opener if you look at some maps that predate April 18, 1906.

Large chunks of San Francisco & San Pablo Bays were filled in.

After the 1906 earthquake, the rubble was used as fill in many locations, one being the Marina District in San Francisco.

When the 1989 earthquake occured, the Marina District was the hardest hit, because all that was underneath the buildings was debris, not bedrock.

The soil liquified, the buildings collapsed.

 

Most of the land fill is in the SOMA (South Of Market) district.

Liquifaction is what happened in the Marina District.
There were reports of water in many of the garages in these Marina District homes.

Where I live was mostly sand dunes.
A lot of old S.F. maps called these areas (Richmond & Sunset Districts) "Inhabitable Areas".

It was amazing watching the houses sway from side to side, and hearing the
lines whip above during the '89 Loma Prieta Quake.

Quite thrilling, to say the least.