Stopped by the local scrapyard yesterday to see if they had anything I
couldn't live without, and found out that they are stopping scrap sales.
The fellow said it was in the process of being removed, which explained the
big empty space where tons and tons of scrap used to exist to pick through,
but that while it was there, anything not banded was fair game.

Went back today with the trailer, my little red wagon all grown up, and
picked a couple hundred pounds of 1/8" angle, what I usually cook stuff up
out of, in a couple of different dimensions.

They'll still buy scrap, but won't have a yard to buy stuff from anymore, at
least not for little guys. Place had been there before my time, and it was
always comforting knowing you could go down there and find just what you
needed somewhere. Brush the rust off, and you were good to go.

And now it's no longer. Kind of gave me a bad feeling, like when a
backdraft sucks the air out of a room, and you know everything is about to
blow up, but that's just me. I couldn't get an answer as to "why," other
than the bigwigs decided to shut it down. I did notice a lot more "safety"
signage around, hard hats required, that kind of thing. Maybe it's
liability, maybe it wasn't profitable, maybe they want to cash in before
prices go down, maybe a combination, I dunno.

We've still got an outlet to buy metals from (not a scrapper), but their
"scrap" pile is downright puny, with not much "middle" sized object. Just
pretty much small chunks of really thick stuff and pieces thin stuff;
everything else is sold as new, and by the foot.

It's getting harder for an honest scrounger to find stuff to "make do" with,
but such is life.

Jon