The Camaraderie of Disposal

I got in a couple of trips to the County Drop-off on Saturday.  I love going there, but I hate to see some of the stuff people throw away.  Luckily, these trips were just to the brush drop-off.  The previous owners valued privacy very much, and so the foliage along the edges of the yard is overgrown by about 30 years(!).   We have 4 Ewes that are easily 15ft high with a 30ft diameter.  We have bushes that, in their attempts to reach sunlight, have become trees.  When we decided to put in the fence, we wanted it as close to the property line as possible, which meant it was time to trim this all back. 

I bought this last summer:

(see it here)

This I rate “awesome” on my tool scale.  I am not a fan of being whacked in the face with low-hanging branches whilst mowing, so I trimmed every tree up about 8ft.  I may have become a little carried away with it… I took down probably 7 volunteer trees averaging forearm size; as well as a lot of bushes.   Oh, and some trees on my neighbors side of the line that looked inviting.  And I may have tried to trim some hedges with it.  Then I cut some firewood.  And then I wandered around the property just looking for things to cut down.  Eventually, I realized I had better things to do.  Anyway, all this activity generated a lot of yard debris.  Enter my trusty Jeep and trailer.

 

The view from our hill really starts to improve when the leaves change and start to fall.  During my pole-saw excursions, I often consider climbing neighbors trees and chopping off limbs to better the view, but better sense (or an admonishing wife) typically prevails. 

Once loaded, I headed to the dump.  I stopped to take a shot after unloading half the trailer.

There’s something very communal about going to the county drop-off.  A half-dozen pickups are all lined up with guys throwing stuff out the back of them.  Everybody is asking about what projects people are up to, and nobody is averse to offering a helping hand with some of the bulker loads.  I sometimes see the same people I’ve seen before.  This is why DIYers are my people.  I also like to gauge a project by what I see people discarding.  Is that what is left of a bathroom vanity, there?  Or perhaps a kitchen cabinet? Cabinets are great, because when they fall the 15ft off the ledge to the concrete floor of the pit, they explode.  I’m a man, and I enjoy explosions.  Take note, Michael Bay.

After a couple runs to the drop-off, I took a few minutes to move a bush-trunk.  It’s not a tree, although it thinks it is.  I took it down a couple weeks ago with help from the father-in-law. 

My method, here, was to use a dog lead.  Hey, it’s what I had handy.  And it worked.   Yikes, that hill is a mess.  Maybe next year.