Beth has had a case of writer’s block and asked her favorite minion (me) to write a blog post for the Retro Ranch site. My writing has a different tone than hers, but hopefully you will enjoy it.
We've mentioned previously that we're trying to tame the yard. Some of it is for aesthetics and some has been in preparation for the exterior painting. We have a count (somewhere) of the number of yard waste bags that have been picked up (every Thursday – thank you Waste Management) all I know is that I buy them 15 at a time at The Home Depot and we seem to run out every other week or so. In addition to pine needles, overgrown bushes, dead aborvitae and other stray plants that are no longer with us, there was a pile of firewood, paving stones, bricks, clay pots, miscellaneous lumber, various decorative pots and barrels, large rocks and enough river rocks to fill multiple pick-up truck beds. How could I forget the fountain, bird bath and small bench?
The Goodwill has been the lucky recipient of various things we no longer needed or wanted inside the house but most of what we had in the yard isn’t exactly the Goodwill’s sweet spot. Being something of a tree-hugger (ironic isn’t it considering what I do for a living) we didn’t just want to put everything in the landfill – hence…the curb. I would bring various items to the curb, take a picture, Beth would do her magic and post this “valuable property” (a nod to the Little Eddie books) on various websites as “free” curbside pick-up. We have been amazed and pleased with how well this works. Reuse, reduce and recycle. Almost everything was gone within a day or two. Occasionally items get cherry picked but so far, everything put at the curb has been taken.
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Stepping stones |
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Miscellaneous bricks |
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Old firewood, suitable for fire pits! |
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Miscellaneous wood and a bottomless barrel planter |
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A birdbath fountain thingy |
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A sturdy bench that needed some love |
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The stealth fountain |
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Clay pots |
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More pots, cinder blocks and yes, more wood |
The large rocks didn’t even get listed as a neighbor hauled them all off.
Now allow me to tell you that river rocks are a hot commodity. Due to the massive amounts of them, the weight and no way to store them, we decided to let people come and gather these rocks out of the yard. Once Beth posted free river rocks, her message board lit up. A woman came on Thursday and picked up as many of the softball sized rocks as her small pickup could haul. A neighbor came and got more of the large ones. Then on Saturday we met Evan – the rock machine. Evan lived within a few miles and needed rock for his driveway, etc. We loaned Evan some of our 5 gallon buckets and he started picking rocks. He would load down his Nissan sedan almost to the point of it bottoming out. Over Saturday and Sunday, Evan came and picked at least 25 5-gallon buckets – filled to the top. (Note there are easily another 50+ 5 gallon buckets of smaller river rocks if you want to come and get some.) It was a huge win / win for both of us.
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The first of the river rock to go! (That's sixteen feet right there!) |
So the last items from the yard that are at the curb are blocks and concrete lumps (a technical term) that were buried in the garden. They have been cherry picked once but the weather is supposed to be nice this weekend so maybe, they will be gone by the time you read this post.
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Concrete blocks and chunks |
The yard feels so much lighter and once the tree permits are issued by the city, Peter and his crew will have a much easier time doing the necessary tree work in the back yard. For me, as the weekend looms, there is painting, prep and likely another 4 or 5 bags of yard waste to fill. Thanks for reading!