GRAVETTE — Sold all the scrap iron I could gather up last week; took a trailer and a pickup bed to haul it all.

I wish I had a couple hundred more loads because that is about the most rewarding thing I have ever had happen in my life. Who would have thought that you could make any cash out of your junk? Not me, not in a hundred years!

I thought my close relative might join me in cleaning up stuff, like all the pots and pans that she has to scramble through to find the right one. You fellers probably know that a roast of a certain cut has a certain pot that it goes in to be roasted! Each and every roast is a tiny bit different, and they all have to have that certain pot!Well, all those pots make a whale of a lot of noise when they are searched through, falling around and being thrown by the cook. She, my close relative, didn’t take the hint.

That isn’t all. There arefour drawers in the kitchen that you have to search through for a single fork to turn the meat on the grill. It must be illegal to designate a space for each utensil after it has been used and replaced in a drawer. I got a raised eyebrow and a stern look for asking why the other day. I figure she could make enough money by selling her extra and duplicate stuff to buy us a good bull!

Back to my cash cow! I was pretty careful while going through the pile of discarded metal parts and pieces. I know there are reptiles that love to coil and slink around broken rake teeth, axles and other wonderful things that have been well used. My heart rate was high the entire time I was working, and I had my Levis stuffed into my boot tops,leather gloves protecting my hands and, yes, I did wear my chaps! It was hot and I was hotter than the weather. My temp wasprobably around about a 110 degrees by the time I got the last thing stuffed into the trailer.

I did find a treasure or two. I saved an old tractor seat, the kind you used to see on old John Deere johnny poppers. I was thinking I could find five more of them and make some swell bar stools for our house. You can sorta visualize them now and, even if they would look a little different than the rest of her décor, they would be nice!

It is my opinion, and everyone has one, an idea is a fragile thing and best kept protected from other people’s ideas. The picture an idea creates in a feller’s mind is pristine and kinda gives off a glow until it is dowsed with a bucket full of “never in my lifetime!” I don’t think we should ever give upour ability to have ideas and our need to make our close relatives’ homes nicer, but just sharing the thought before it is ready can be dangerous.

I have now gathered up a set of six old tractor seats that are for sale, cheap.

Bill is a pen name used by the Gravette author of this weekly column.

Opinion, Pages 6 on 06/27/2012