A lovely day here upstate NY. Started out quite cold; in the 30’s until well after 9 am. But the sun was shining and that makes most things much better. Our plan had been to get out to THF today and get a few small things done, but that was going to wait until the temperature went up. We finally headed out just after 1 pm. My goal was to tackle the pile of glass bottles left behind by the previous owner. Ron had told me that during the purchase process, they had discussed all sorts of things and even hit on the hippie movement of the 1960’s. “George” assured Ron had he had been a hippie and truly cared for the planet. Well, if you read my “Ginny, I’ve had a wild thought” post you will have seen just how much he did not care.

This pile of bottles and cans had been nagging at us since we started this adventure. The eyesore is just to our left when we are walking down the path to the creek. Even when the trees are full of leaves we can easily see this mess when we walk by. Thanks, “George” for leaving this behind. Already we had picked up enough of just the glass bottles to fill 3 of our tubs. All were taken to transfer station for dumping. Broken and full of mud and not suitable for recycling.

Ron stuck around long enough to take a few pictures of me working before he headed off to survey his holdings. Checking up on the mushrooms, trees and pussy willows. We had about 50 percent success rate on trees we planted and about 20 percent on the pussy willows. Ron is also becoming fascinated with the birds we have out here. His brother Don can ID many birds by their song and Ron wishes he could. I can see another class or two in his future. I just hope he doesn’t come home with one of those bird CDs that he listens to all the time. Even more, I am hoping that he doesn’t decide I need to learn all about the birds too. Oh, this guy of mine. He really cannot stay focused on just one thing. And he dearly loves to drag Jo and me along with him. He is all about the family time.
My project was simple enough. All the glass was going into the bins, and the metal cans into garbage bags. It would have added a huge complication to my day;  but it would have been interesting to have kept track of the number of things I picked up. Probably best that I didn’t, would have just depressed me. It was all broken bottles and rusty and disintegrated cans. I did find some Gillette razor blade dispensers and one can of FDS spray.  I had the right gloves for the job, rubber coated for extra protection, but really wished I had brought along one of our small stools to sit on.   It was harder work than it should have been.  Especially on the back.  Kneepads would have been helpful too.  Next time for sure.  And  maybe a couple of more people so the work goes that much faster.

Ron came wandering back and I decided that I was also done. Pulled the tubs and bags out of the thicket and stashed them by our Tiny House. We will haul them out when we have Jo along to help. Ended up with 3 tubs of glass and 4 bags of cans and other trash.

Looks pretty darn good, doesn’t it? Unfortunately we are not done with the trash pick up. Seems like everywhere we look there is more junk that was left behind. But it sure feels good to have some of it picked up. We are hoping for some visitors soon and want THF to looks it’s best. Mushroom drilling party happening soon. Details to follow.