D&L mentioned yesterday that they wanted a dump run this morning, so I hitched up the trailer (learning to my pleasure that I can, with effort and a little discomfort, now hitch up the trailer. My shoulder continues to improve, much quicker than I hoped.) and took my one garbage can over to their place.
It takes me about two months to fill one garbage can, which fact is the result of years of concentrating on garbage volume reduction. What I can’t burn, feed to chickens or compost, I must haul to the dump and that volume consists almost entirely of non-flammable packaging. I keep saying that some day I’ll cut the bottoms off my tin cans, flatten them and save them for building siding; that extra step might reduce my garbage to nearly nothing.
Anyway, D&L accumulate lots of garbage in two months, and it’s worth paying the dump fee for my paltry single can to get my help in hauling it all. Then we went to town, where I bought the pullets a new straw bale. I cut open my own last bale last night only to find that it was internally composting nicely itself, and so of no value in lining the new nesting boxes. So I got a new one, then brought my trailer-load of goodies and some tools to Landlady’s place and finished the new nesting box…
Through the use of a piece of OSB scrap D was going to PAY to throw away, I got the wider roof I needed to keep them from shitting in the nests. Then I stuffed the nests with straw, and hopefully the prospect of using these lovely nests will stimulate their maternal instincts or something. Or maybe I’ll just have to keep waiting. 🙂
Spread out the rest of the bale in the big chickenhouse, because it was getting kind of gamy in there…
…which of course terrified the pullets.
Ah, well. That’s two more chores off my list. Also scored a couple of pallets for the pile while I was running around. Next year’s firewood! 🙂
My non-burnable trash is collected by a private company, single woman with a single truck. I fill about two barrels a month – more or less. I could probably compress it down to one, but so far it just isn’t worth the effort since I’m at the minimum charge for once a month pickup already. No way for me to take things to the dump myself.
I keep a third barrel and toss in things I think she might like to salvage. She was going through the trash before, and remarked that I threw away very little… but she saw an old bean pot on my deck and asked if I wanted to keep it… She was tickled to get it, and is always pleased to see whatever I’ve left in the “salvage” barrel for her. Whatever she doesn’t want she tosses in the truck and I’m rid of it. I have no idea what she does with the salvage, but she’s never charged me for a third barrel. 🙂
Somebody send Joel a few golf balls to put in the nesting boxes. If the beginning layers don’t automatically lay eggs where they’re supposed to, toss a couple golf balls in there. It will work.