One of my hobbies is checking out the clearance rack for construction materials at the local Menards stores. About a week ago I found a good one! Someone evidently did not claim or returned a bundle of 10' thick decking. It's great to have trucks and trailers to take advantage of pallet price opportunities. There were a handful of warped boards from sitting out in the rain, but I'm cutting them down to about 3' anyway for hive pallets. Win at approx 50% cost!!! (You can see the new honey delivery van in the background too!) The other recent project was putting some scrap steel on pallets to create some cheap rain-proof lids. We especially use them for covering honey boxes after harvest until it is cool enough to put them indoors (to avoid wax moth infestation). I'm not at that point yet, so I included a pic of one of the new pallet lids keeping my nuc boxes free of rain. The steel is leftover from a little roofing project and finishing off the new extracting space over the past couple of years. I even had plenty of leftover screws to do the job! El cheapo prevails. It's also nice just to get the steel off the ground. Beekeepers do not lack for loose parts to manage. Also a parting note: these little Malco nippers are incredibly handy for cutting thin metals. The corrugated parts are a bit tricky to navigate, but the flats are extremely fast. I tend to hold it upside down on the drill for better control. I bought them a few years ago to help put on a simple steel roof without sole dependency on tin snips, but I've valued having this gadget around for odd jobs like this too.