What should a Salvage Mining Seminar teach you?
A decade ago I attempted to help teach others how to become millionaires through salvage mining, building, and hunting the cherries often hidden in old houses, buildings, and barns.
Here is the example I created as a model. It was a successful adventure, but it was not repeated many more times after this video due to the logistics and lack of profit to support the seminars unless I were to take that on more frequently. I did not personally, as I accumulated too much inventory from salvaging and did not sell it right away but stored much of it for later.
Today, I am preparing to release those many treasures back into the environment of people who now see the value better, want to build with salvage, and will perhaps carry on the torch of conservation and sustainable building without imports, toxic new building materials that outgas, or imports from the far sides of oceans. This is an accumulation of many decades of collecting for the times that the materials would be valued for their quality and longevity. No, it is easy to see the difference compared to expensive, new, inferior building materials that are imported, often toxic from the outgassing of chemicals, and a realization that all new building materials manufactured create more pollution. The only way to reduce consumption is to salvage, reuse, and repurpose all things in the creation lifecycle to disposal. Our goal must turn toward lengthening the life of products made for as long as possible instead of creating unrepairable disposable products out of plastics and other toxic materials once disposed of in the environment.
Here is an example of what to learn and know when doing salvage mining on old structures. It goes well with the videos on the El Campo Expedition and Salvage, a musical score that shows the action of 7 days in 7 minutes and the product, process, and success without drawing blood from the salvagers, the key important thing in the world of Salvage Mining. Join me to look at what you can do to grow your wealth, health, and homes out of salvage.
The El Campo 1860‘s Hotel Salvage Mine
Seminar #1: Salvage Mining Testing Waters for December 2011
Looking for feedback on this short-fused idea:
Here is a Salvage Mining Project that I want to do as a seminar and volunteer operation during the Christmas school break since so many people have time off. Otherwise, it will be off in January 2012, possibly a bit colder by then. I have found a rare jewel of a Salvage Mine in an 1867 circa Texas Hotel. Entering is like stepping into a time capsule to see a hotel's plain, straightforward interior from early Texas history. It looks like it was never redecorated in the century and a half since it was built. It stands bravely still while bearing the weight of giant Live Oak trees that finally leaned on its roof after growing up together side by side and shading their home from the harsh weather year-round.
I am calling to determine the interest level for participating in a holiday vacation Salvage Mining seminar on this opportunity. The location is 30 minutes from the Texas coastline in El Campo, Texas, about an hour from Houston, 2 1/2 from Austin or San Antonio, and 40 minutes from Victoria. A trip to the Texas coastline will be for nearly anyone who has not seen it yet but doesn’t expect it to look like the Pacific coastline. I will need a participation fee to cover the complexities of setting this up so far from our home base in Luling. Still, it is worth letting everyone who can share in this educational and inspiring experience. From the Hotel to the houses it forms with our imagination, I want to let some people with a passion for this come and learn, then take it out into the world and share it with others who will do the same. It takes volunteers and people who can afford to contribute money to make things like this happen, as well as time and effort in the form of human energy, to carry this concept forward. The individual sacrifice of time and money will make this a Pure Salvage Living solution more than just good conversation and fascinating coffee table books.
This “1800s Hotel is an incredible relic of the past that I hope some history buffs would want to track down, document, and even record stories from the old timers locally who will have some tall tales to tell, if I imagine right. I think past guests will come out of the woodwork to help put the past on record. While I realize some will want to keep it for its historic nature, that time is past, functionally obsolescent. It is a treasure of history that should be passed on and not be lost. It will be re-manifested as several beautiful Tiny Texas Houses that will live on for centuries if the bugs and fire leave it alone. Incredibly, the Hotel still has the original Milk paint on the beaded ceilings, walls, and parts and pieces for two floors.
There has been no re-muddling over the century and a half, just the original green milk paints and a few other great colors that most of us treasure and appreciate. It should be all square nailed and a quick take down because so many boards are long runs in good condition. The fire brick will be beautiful, as will the doors and the stairwell, which are original and clear for shorter-footed people than me. I am thrilled with this opportunity to share this trove of history, material, human energy, and future homes for generations to come. I have seen a lot of salvage, and this will be one of the cleanest, fastest, and most excellent materials I have done.
We have a unique opportunity to find a visually fantastic find from the “1870s,” with many stories to be found locally. I hope to hear and retell the tales of the life energies that passed through and walked on those 5” Long Leaf Pine floors.
This simple hotel could have had hundreds, if not thousands, of guests. This Hotel was built from trees that were centuries old when they were cut down. The wood will all be Long Leaf Pine or Cypress, and we will find a good bit of both, which had to be at least 185 years old to be considered mature enough to cut. That is how long it took to instill the bug resistance and rot resistance characteristics of Cypress, as well as the unmatched strength of Long Leaf Pine. Given they were still abundant in the late “1800”’s, the quality will be unmatched by any wood found in stores today.
Fortuitously, there is a vacant farmhouse on the property with running water and electricity, so it should be possible to have an incredible camp for a fast takedown and a lesson in maximizing yield on a Salvage Mining expedition with minimal waste or hazard. Though it will need some cleanup, with water and electricity for camping out and having RV space and electric water connection for additional people, we should have some fun. Can I set it up yet? I'm unsure of that, but it is one of my possible realizable goals. It just sealed the deal on the house last week.
What it will take.
If we do a seminar and have 10 (=/—depending on the level of paid response based on resources needed to host it) paid people or volunteers, we could take it down over a weekend if everyone gets on it. The weather cooperates, nothing goes wrong, and we have the nail shooter or two to speed up the cleanup. Notice how that “nothing goes wrong slips in?”
Benefits will include:
Plans for the specialty tools used to take the house apart,
The chance to get sets of plans as a package that the Hotel creates
1st chance to be part of a seminar on building a house from this material
Some parts and pieces of the Hotel to take home
Certification for passing Salvage Mining 101 to become a Pure Salvage Miner
To be a charter member of a movement that needs you to grow into a solution for our present world needs and preservation
To contribute to creating a video, being in the credits for your work, and being a part of the action and dialogue in a Pure Salvage Living event.
The seminar could include some food, paperwork, and an early draft of parts of our Ebook as well as plans for the houses that will be created from the Hotel we take down. That could be three or four Tiny Texas Houses or more before we are done. The package of pictures, plans, materials to be taken from the site, participation in tear down, and education should be worth the $495-$750 for the seminar, several levels depending on care, food, and package upgrades like the video. I aim to produce an informative and educational tool for each Salvage Mining student who comes for the event and an offering to what I hope will be a growing membership in the Pure Salvage Living world ahead. I am sure I will involve some volunteers who may see future opportunities evolve from this endeavor, such as careers and mentoring opportunities that will change lives before they are passed.
T-shirts, armbands, and a great El Campos Salvage Mine Poster since it is so picturesque. Imagine one showing it up in the middle and various stages coming down pictured smaller around the outer edge. The video and the accessories are worth $100 in such a package or more. Packages of nails, parts, and pieces will be marketed to help pay for production and get the story out to everyone. This is possible for volunteers, too, because I believe that taking home the parts and pieces will tell a story a hundred times instead of just a few and connect to the tangible memory we can easily share to educate and inspire the children who will live in these houses one day if I succeed.
We will include in the package square nails, beaded wood, parts and pieces found along the way, and great memories that will last a lifetime for each participant. The quantity recovered and the number of participants will limit the gifts.
Scrap packages for making projects from your part of the Booty from the Salvage Mine. This is one of the best projects of my career, though it may look like nothing from the outside because it has:
Great pre-1900 circa materials, minimal updating over its life
Very little trash or waste from the project
Nearly not obvious contaminants
Easy takedown, Relatively speaking, of course.
Easy nail removal due to having so many square nails. Nail remover gun will be on hand.
Originally, they only had a few nails used as they were scarce.
The seminar fee would include some of the house wood and materials as part of the seminar cost, as in 15-25 square feet of the beaded wood or other packages that we will create as the desire for what people would like is clarified. Window sashes with blown glass, hand-made bricks, firebricks, and other treasures found will also be available for sale within the group first.
The chamber stove will be traded off or kept for the TTH community kitchen.
In a perfect world, we create some things to build from the parts and offer them in the seminar program as a parts package.
Short notice limited entry into the seminar, prepaid, nonrefundable. Reservation: 3 days, two nights, or how many days, or full project commitment?
Absolute Liability waivers signed .... required. We cannot be responsible or insure people against the many hazards of salvage any more than the drive or the airplane trip here. This is old fashioned being responsible for yourself if you agree to come, for though I will do my best to give fair warning about wearing the right shoes or gloves, or how things fall from overhead, I cannot keep mistakes and fate from coming into play. I don’t want anyone to come with expectations that I can ensure nothing will go wrong, so please don’t hold me to it.
By participating, you agree that Pure Salvage Living will keep the Filming rights and releases for use in our documentary about the project. Credits for all involved will be included in the film.
The dates and times need to be confirmed, but it is hard not to lean toward the end of the month due to the scheduling nightmare this will create at Tiny Texas. it would be a great way to bring in the New Year symbolically, out with the old, and in with the new. This will be a year of this metaphor taking hold of our world in a way we have never imagined. I hope my vision for a Pure Salvage Living Movement can be one of the many solutions we need to get us through it and on to a better path as a nation and a world.
Copies of the filming of the Salvage Mining of our 1867 Texas Hotel will be available in DVD and accessible to the volunteers and seminar participants in
the film or part of the project. Participants are included in the credits, but there will be no future income from any video production if one happens.
Since Salvagers Tools are not as common as most we offer:
Plans for the specialty tools used to take the house apart,
Sell sets of plans as a package that are created from the Hotel
Have a seminar on building one of them and 1st chance to be in it
Part of project will include lessons on:
Flooring pullers
Beam bars
Giant crowbars
Med-small bars
Crow’s feet and eagles claw 1890’s Nail pullersAntique Nail pullers
Blacksmith tools that work
New Nail Pliers
Pneumatic Nailers make work fast and easyI will show the best tools and how to use them. techniques for different wood
De-nailing for preservation of primary surface
Using leverage for speed
The Zen of Nail-pulling 101
Mind over Muscle and rhythm means higher yield and efficiency. Teach nail-pulling techniques that speed up productivityPossible associated class:
The 4-hour class would teach how to build all custom tools ✤ precut parts but do one, for example
✤ offer packages of precut parts for welding later. ✤ tools available for sale or order to be made:✤ take orders for those we can fabricate
✤ possibly have some others for sale
✤ Memory specialized tools because we
✤ need more for use that could be sold at the end of the project ✤ Or give them away as prizes for the best user of each
Teach some of the terminology we use in the business: Tongue and groove
Board and batten
Beaded wood
Shiplap
Dimensional lumber terminology, Etc
Talks about how to calculate quantities of materials Estimating Salvage Value
Sorting for more value etc
Appraising value after salvage
Marketing materials, if not needed for the project Bartering materials for the materials market
Talks on wood identification for Texas wood of the last century
Cypress
Long Leaf Pine
Black Walnut
Loblolly Pine
Mesquite (will bring samples) Red Oak
White Oak
Live Oak
Cottonwood
Cedar
Fir (imported)
>40 yr old Pines
Discuss the Sequence for tearing down a house of this type.
✦ roof or if raining
✦ inner walls
✦ ceiling down
✦ Discuss the various hazards of Salvage Mining including war stories
Discuss the precautions people should consider taking and why.
✴ bat poop
✴ pigeon poop ✴ rat poop
✴ mold
✴ lead-based paint ✴ dirt and dust
✴ bees
✴ snakes
✴ scorpions ✴ spiders ✴ fleas
Packing the materials properly on a trailer for transport
level load
balanced load so as not tongue light properly strapped load
sized
sorted
de-nailed
flags on over-length loads
Proper materials storage for maximum lifespan
Stacking
Covering
Spacing from ground Spacing between wood types Shorts and Longs
Identifying wood damage due to insects and rot
Termite damage and type Wood Bores
Wood Rot
Dry Rot
Rodent Damage Water Damage
Corrections and treatments are needed for wood damage and issues. Antique Builders Hardware
Door Hardware of this period Window Hardware
Possibly a tutorial on inspection
Cleaning
Repair
The terminology for working with builders' hardware and paperwork is to be included in the package.
Much of this will depend on how much time the participants are willing to spend listening to me talk. My objective is to record as much as possible so I don’t have to repeat it a million times. Then, everyone can appreciate the story this Hotel will be able to tell to billions of others down the road. I seek an inspirational example of what human energy can do. We can show it to people, plant the seeds of inspiration, fuel the imagination, and provide the spark to ignite our passion and wake up that fire within to save our world. It behooves us to save our past, to use it to build a new world that will look so much like the best of the old paradigm, to not only house us into the next century but remind us of the best parts of humanities past that need to be preserved as carefully as our planet.
If you can support us, either by being here as a seminar participant, donating to help make it happen (no, we are not 501C anything), in time, money, and support, Thank you in advance for your participation if you choose, but foremost just for having been interested in this dialogue, considered this perspective, and taken the time to read this far.
I intend to take what we have done so far and share the process and the results with the people it will benefit the most. This is the next mission in our growth. I believe the changes will come from planting the seeds and the visual images proving it can be done. Ultimately, it is the physical experience of what it feels like, not just on the outside, but on the inside, when you sense the energy of the materials and their past lives and know you preserved it for another century. This is an opportunity to change the world on an individual level and be part of the dialogue in our society through the actions we take in our daily lives, not the words we speak but never act on.
Interested?
Salvage Mining Sponsors
Like-minded businesses wanting to help
Salvage Tool Makers
Salvage Furniture Makers
Local businesses wanting to have people share their food and hotels. National Movements that wish to support Pure Salvage Living
Salvage Mining Mentors & Donors
Generous entities that support saving history, as well as the parts and pieces that made it all possible.
Non-profits are interested in sharing the benefits and energy that unity can create for this cause.
Private people who are limited physically for any of many reasons but want to show their support and even come watch and be a part of this or get a package from it and about it afterward.
People who are too far away to come but want to offer support to prove we can do the same near their home towns and spread the Pure Salvage Living movement there, too.
Salvage Mining Apprentices (paying seminar attendees with benefits)
Sacrifice to learn comes in many forms, but the time is hard to give anymore when the job calls, so paying for the knowledge on a crash course but not having to spend much time costs money. Please know that the seminar fees will be worth the experience you help make it be, and I will do all I can to make it life-changing in every way I can.
Volunteers, likewise, work pays for the knowledge and the time, but with slim resources comes slim opportunities. I sympathize and want to offer up some openings to overcome this problem, but camping, water, and space may be tight and space to work without hurting each other. Two shorter shifts are possible, and we could make it look like the magic it should be. Lots of nails for everyone, and the volunteers will have to prove themselves to work their way up the Apprenticeship ladder.
I will offer up Salvage Mining Certificates at the end of the Salvage job for various positions and achievements with every Salvage Mining Expedition. I am sure these awards will always be the most prized and duly decorated.
Salvage Mining Veterans and Old Timers
If you have a history, recent or extended in the past
If you know about how this was built because you did it once as a boy
If you know your wood and grew up in the Lumber Industry when Texas was a forest.
If you have the hotel's story because you love the history, it is vital to respect salvage mining.
If you wish to share the last vestiges of a time when we built with our hand tools, not electricity,
Suppose you spent your life Salvaging Mining as a business or having the opportunity to build a home for your family. Most have forgotten how many people were able to build houses in America with materials salvaged after storms, fires, earthquakes, and wars. It's been a long time since they needed to.
If you remember building out of 99% Pure Salvage in the old days when every board and nail had a value that could not be matched by any reasonable means. Salvage Building is not a new occupation or idea.
If the weather and opportunity permit, I hope to assemble some really old-timers to tell tales in the evenings after the work day is done and the hammers come to rest. Since that will only be for a few hours, I would like to limit the number of speakers yet offer the chance for a number to come, especially the ones who can support us as donors and mentors.
Salvage Mining Support Services Food
Video
Photography
Internet support
Editing support
Event coordinating skills Waste and clean-up service
Salvage Mining Volunteers (can also be from the ranks of all above)
Physically participate in take-down
Support help in food, sanitation,
Nursing if we need it, as a healer, not a pro
Cooks if we are to create an onsite fare for a variety
Music, yes, there is enough space for a couple of styles of tunes.
I'm hoping for the best, and this could be the test.
If it works, we have another possible January date closer to New Braunfels and Seguin, Texas. More info on that teaser will come later. I'm glad you read this far.
Not long after this seminar, the desire for more ended. This was the first year after my son, Adam Brad Kittel, passed on to the other side of the veil of life.
I did have a couple more seminars, but there came a time after my son passed when the desire to work so hard slipped away to focus on other things. How do Wii take these treasures and put them back to use, except by convincing others that it is the right way to move again? Salvage mining, building, and hunting could provide millions of jobs, houses, and resources that would not have to be imported to build a new generation of housing where it is needed most, in the lower income classes where mansions for their old age are not possible as it is for the 1% at the top of the economic spectrum. The time is here to develop new ways to create tinier housing that can be grouped together on lands instead of lawns with gardens and trees growing all about. When will the world wake up?