It's Time to Take Out the Garbage

Living in suburbia, weekly trash pickup is a part of life. Your refuse goes from the table to the kitchen or bathroom waste receptacle. Then it gets transferred to a larger container in your garage or just outside. Then it's dragged or rolled to the curb once a week either the night before or, somewhat more grumpily, the morning of city trash pickup. Well-paid guys in coveralls drive a noisy truck down the street, empty your trash can into the vehicle with careless abandon, and your unwanted by-products are never heard from again. While you might think I'm about to lecture you about the three Rs (reduce, reuse, recycle), this is actually a post about trash disposal in the country. As city folk know, trash service is usually bundled with your water or utility bill. Of course, when your water comes from a well, you don't have a water bill so residential pickup service is $16.50/month (billed quarterly). The good news is that there doesn't appear to be any additional cost to come all the way down our 1200-foot driveway for "curbside" pickup. More good news, recycling is also available. The only caveat is that recyclables need to be placed in clear plastic or blue bags to distinguish them from non-recyclables. These services, incidentally, are provided by All Bright Sanitation---the same company that is providing our gigantic dumpsters during construction.

Cold and Getting Colder

The leaves have dropped and we had some nice color this year. The shorts and sandals are packed away and jackets and knit hats are once again hung by the door. The Farmer's Almanac (using their 200-year-old secret formula) seems to predict a wet, snowy winter. Sure enough, we've got snowfall in the nearby mountains already, but, as we live in the foothills, the weather is usually a bit milder for us. I am looking forward to some sledding with the kids this year in our backyard.

We've stripped down the original chicken coop to rearrange some roosting branches and nesting boxes. We've also removed a deteriorating bedsheet which was used as a layer of insulation. With a red heat lamp and the existing bubble-foil-bubble and tarp, we think we're good to go.

LOST: Pet Deer

On the way out of local Ingles grocery store, I came across an interesting "lost pet" flyer on the neighborhood cork board. While lost dogs, cats and even birds would not have surprised me, I didn't suspect a lost deer sign. The proposition of a young pet fawn (that sleeps on a bed no less) was one that left me somewhat giddy despite the obvious impracticalities. Ah...living in the country opens up so many new possibilities.