I have always been aware of the need to take care of our Earth. As a small child my mom and I would walk everywhere because in those days there was only one car in a family which my dad drove to work. My mother never learned to drive which was probably a very good thing. There were no stores near our house in Queens, NY so we walked. It always seemed we were walking miles and miles but looking back on it I'm sure it wasn't that far.
As we walked my mother was always on the lookout for trash . . . sometimes we would bring a paper bag with us to throw the trash into and then burn it in our tiny little "fire pit" in the back yard. Our property was maybe 50' x 50' if that. We lived in the country part of NYC just a few blocks from where Nassau County began and NYC ended. Our country "estate" seemed huge at the time with 2 pear trees, grapes growing on the wire fence, a cherry tree that was actually in our neighbors yard but had branches that hung over that fence so we had "picking rights" when the cherries ripened. We had a tiny garden of vegetables, current bushes for jam making and rhubarb plant out front for strawberry rhubarb pie. My mother knew how to use EVERYTHING that was available to us.
AND SHE RECYCLED !! We didn't know that word back then, I remember when it first started being used. Our recycling consisted of never throwing anything away. Tin coffee cans, when empty, were used to store all sorts of things. I remember my dad's "work bench" in the basement having all cans of all shapes and sizes filled with nail, nuts and bolts and heaven only knows what else. Aluminum foil was a new thing so when you had a piece of it you washed it off and used it twenty more times. Newspapers were saved for covering books or lining the garbage can in the kitchen.
BUT . . . all that was nothing compared to MI recycling. First let me remind you that the man I live with throws nothing out. Very much like my mother except my mother did not HAVE much to start with . I have mentioned in past blogs just how much "crap" fills this house. There is plenty of space here to store things and so every room is filled with "stuff" ! It's sort of like hoarding but not really because there is still plenty of room to move around. D's wife had a LOT of stuff ! If there was one knitting needle there are at least a hundred . . . NO exaggeration !
The question in my mind is WHY is it still here ? It's been at least six years since the lady passed away and the house is still jam packed. I am making some headway but it is slow and painful. Which brings us to the recycling part . . . Today we went to a neighbors farm to pick up bags of corn for the deer. She wouldn't let Dwayne pay for the corn so in trade we are giving her a bunch of things related to weaving. WE have managed to give away two huge spinning wheels and a huge loom to another neighbor. (As I sit here writing I am looking across the parlor to shelves that hold 14 woven
baskets. ). When was the last time you needed that many baskets ?
The point of all this is nothing goes to waste up here. It sits on a shelf until just the right person comes along who will appreciate a gift of "stuff". Even the deer and geese in the yard are recipients of recycled "stuff". I found some old wheat flour stashed in a closet . . . NO PROBLEM ! Toss it outside on the grass and something will eat it. Ends of the loaf of bread . . . deer apparently love bread! Go figure! Carrots, celery, an old ham sandwich . . . it all gets tossed out the door for the deer. I have even discovered that deer like recycled mashed potatoes. Who Knew ?!
And what can't be recycled gets burned in the fire pit ! There is a huge trash can at the end of the drive way out by the road. I'm not sure why The Man pays for trash pickup because everything that is considered "garbage" is put in a plastic grocery bag, taken out to the fire pit on a non windy day and burned. Are we polluting the atmosphere ? Probably ! But that's how you handle trash in MI .
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