My Yard and Beyond: 2/20/11

Today's collection indicates that folks have been eating SpongeBob candy, smoking Newports sparked up with Bic lighters, and bargain-hunting at Family Dollar (no receipts this time, though).  A few specifics:

Here's where all the Newports got smoked: at the corner. I only counted 13 butts on our corner, though; our neighbors had 27.

This should look familiar to those of you who tuned in last week. It's another bit of that shredded menu. Note the Deputy Hot Dog.  (Why oh why is it not the "Deputy Dawg"? Guess them varmints were scared of infringing on any trademarked 'toons.)

Here we have some sort of tag thingamajig from Time Warner Cable (if I had known they were in the neighborhood, I could've had them check why we aren't getting IFC in HD). Also a metal part from something that I hope was not somebody's car engine.

Those who read my first post have probably been wondering where the prophylactic-related litter has been lately. Well, it's your lucky day--a recent passerby apparently wanted to let us know that he's been using LifeStyles, ribbed, with reservoir tip. Thanks for the heads-up.

Thought this might actually be something cool.  Spotted these ceramic/pottery shards poking out of the dirt under a tree, where some roots have recently been uncovered. I'm going to imagine that they're from an earlier time. Our neighbor a few houses down lives on land once owned by a blacksmith, so they occasionally find horseshoes and such when they have to dig. Maybe our corner belonged to the town potter? Or more likely, somebody just tossed the dish they ate their pot pie off of out the car window when they finished...

Last up: I took a walk after cleaning my yard and decided to look for the nastiest piece of trash I could find along the way, without leaving the sidewalk. The golden yellow color didn't come through very well in the photo, but let me make this clear: That's not Pepsi in that Pepsi bottle. I'm sorry to report that I did NOT pick this up.

2/19/11: Just One Word ...

I see from the window that we've acquired a few plastic bags this morning, which reminds me of this from Britta. But am I somehow disappointed to learn that the Pacific garbage mass isn't actually an "island" of floating plastic bags, bottles, and six-pack rings? Guess if it were, it'd be easier to scoop up than bizillions of miniscule underwater bits.

The Latest Collection: 2/13/11

In a very concerning move for Mr. Pickles (he's our cat, not something I found in our yard), I had to bring today's batch into the sunroom just long enough to snap with my B-berry because it was too windy outside to get everything to pose nicely for a group photo. (Yes, we just mopped this floor yesterday.) A pretty standard collection in many ways: candy wrappers, plastic bags, drink lids, cigarette butts, water bottles. Also a totally tubular piece of foam, a scrap from a JC Penney credit card bill, and some newspaper clippings (somebody's still reading!).  A few standouts:

We've recently gotten a new Family Dollar AND a new Dollar General just a few blocks away.  So our options for procuring off-brand 5-Hour Energy have expanded exponentially. Want to know what folks are buying? According to today's Family D receipts: Alpo dog treats ($2.85--that was a lone purchase, so it's nice that someone made a special trip to the store just to reward their pooch), a king-size caramel Twix ($1.10), Super Glue ($1 for a two-pack), fruit-punch Gatorade ($1), and a bag of Werther's Originals ($1--another lone purchase so somebody must've either had a real craving or just needed to break their $20). And on the Dollar Gen receipt, children's mucus-relief pills ($3.75) and, perhaps helpful for the mother dealing with the sick child, PMS pills ($3). 

Now, while this piece isn't very photogenic, it is exciting because it's the first one I've seen in a month or so that came complete with its owner's name: a library receipt for Rhonda Kay Rive (possibly River or Riven or something, but it's only clear through the "e"). I also have her Tel, which I'll refrain from sharing. Though if I really start to wonder what she thought about her movie picks of The Joneses, Brothers, and It's Complicated, or if she felt that Twilight novella lived up to the rest of the series, or what she did during her 60 minutes in the computer room, it's nice to know I can call her up.

I don't know for sure, but I suspect this menu scrap is from our local soda shop, because they have a "911 Heroes" room (I've never been in that area--not sure if they serve us non-hero types there) and the items listed here include the Jailbird Chicken Salad Sandwich, the Officer Patty Melt, and the Hit & Run Ham & Cheese. Also note that one of the drinks is proclaimed "a steal." Get it?  (I couldn't make this stuff up.)

Here we see the Bible verse on the reverse side of the menu scrap. I'm wondering where the rest of the menu got to, though? Why do I only have this small sliver?

It's nice to know that the empty AquaFina bottle and its corresponding label are eco-friendly, at least....

Finally, in a project for another day (or whenever we dig up those old bushes), there are all sorts of goodies just out of my reach. I jabbed myself in the eye on a branch when I was going for these Little Debbie and Charleston Chew wrappers. Not worth a corneal abrasion. Perhaps I'll rig up some kind of long grabbing apparatus like the Gopher.

Thanks for the comments and suggestions, guys! Would love to hear about any interesting finds in your own yards.

Pure As the Driven Snow: 2/10/11

No trash in our yard this morning! Is word getting out already? Or could it be because the ground was covered with a sprinkling of snow this morn? Are people less likely to litter when their offal will be displayed against that pristine white background? I need to do a study. 

Meanwhile, some inspiration for my artistic husband, in case we get a good haul once the frozen precip melts away.

Or maybe we could rig up some of these and sell through our local arts council?

Today's Haul: 2/6/11

So here, in a not-so-great photo (but you get the idea) is today's batch o' trash. This is just what I could carry without having taken a bag on my pickup; there are a few more tidbits left on the lawn that I'll deal with later. Overall, this is a pretty standard batch of detritus: McDonald's, Wendy's, "fun size" M&Ms, Goody's headache powders, etc. But a few highlights:

Exhibit A: Styrofoam cup with a hole ripped in the lid and plugged with a wadded-up Biscuitville wrapper. Somebody's idea of trash-compacting. Thanks for the help. Really.

Exhibit B: Please, people, don't use a straw to do the Dew. Mountain Dew is meant to be chugged, not sipped.

Exhibits C and D: Found in close proximity, so I'm no archaeologist but I'm going to imagine these were discarded by the same person. An empty (but carefully re-corked) bottle of Patron Silver (ah, see how it sparkles in the sunlight) and a wrapper from a Mrs. Freshley's Jelly Swirl Honeybun. Care to speculate on who might be shelling out 25 bucks for a small slurp of tequila to wash down a gas station pastry? That's cuisine/spirits pairing at its finest.

Exhibit E: My favorite find of the day. A scrap from a double-sided advertisement (there's a woman in lingerie on the B-side) for Zenerx Natural Male Enhancement. Imagine the scene in the car before this got ripped up and tossed into our yard. "45 dollars a bottle?! Forget that! I'll stick to my Extenze."

Welcome to My Yard

So welcome to my yard. After doing my gazillionth litter pickup from my front lawn since the husband and I moved into this house about 6.5 years ago, I started thinking about some of the bizarre and nasty sh*t I've had to dispose of over the years, for people who found it way too taxing to just keep their crap inside their car and find a proper receptacle later. Yes, we live right beside a fairly busy highway, and there's a sidewalk for the pedestrianally inclined, so I suppose a little garbage comes with the territory, but still. What line of thinking is a person following when they decide that somebody else needs to deal with their (sometimes quite personal) trash?

A few of our most memorable discoveries from days past: condoms (of course), bad class photos circa 1986, court documents, and approximately 13 bottles that had previously contained Mad Dog/Wild Irish Rose-caliber hooch (all found under one magnolia tree...why weren't we invited to that party?).

Now, sure, maybe we're a little more environmentally aware than some others in our rural NC county, and we're generally pretty law-abiding. To that end, I looked up the official anti-litter law, General Statute 14-399, for our state:

14-399. Littering. (a1) No person, including any firm, organization, private corporation, or governing body, agents, or employees of any municipal corporation shall scatter, spill, or place or cause to be blown, scattered, spilled, or placed or otherwise dispose of any litter upon any public property or private property not owned by the person within this State or in the waters of this State including any public highway, public park, lake, river, ocean, beach, campground, forestland, recreational area, trailer park, highway, road, street, or alley...

 The punishment to fit the crime? If you're busted chucking out stuff that weighs less than 15 pounds, you can get a fine of up to $100 and also potentially enjoy 4 to 12 hours of community service, preferably picking up litter. That would be pretty good justice in my book, but not sure how supportive the prison administrations are of that since I imagine they're turning a tidy profit from renting out inmates to do lots of our state's highway cleanup.

But I digress. The point of this blog is to share the discoveries we make in our yard. See anything that once belonged to you? You're welcome to come and retrieve it from our trash or recycling bins. Just don't do it again. I'm not your mother.