Saturday, April 13, 2013

Winter is Still not Done!

Six days ago, I posted that we got some snow. Well, that melted in the sun a day or so later. It snowed most of yesterday. I was out in the driveway this morning and stuck the ruler in the snow. We picked up another 4" of the darn white stuff!



John warned me that the riding season this far north was a month or so shorter than "down in the cities", I guess you were right!

I measured the snow depth in the front yard, being careful to stay away from any snow blower throwings. It varied between 11" to 16".


I have things I want to do in the woods behind the house, but I don't know if the snow will ever go away. I'm hoping that it starts to warm up soon. My fire wood piles are disappearing quickly. It wasn't long ago and the garage racks were full!

NOW...


12-4-12


This is gone...


And so is the pile on the right!


Martha has been posting about her frustration with the 24 page guide to garbage that the city of Madison had provided. She posted a link to an on-line copy of it. I read it and found it to be a mind numbing, complex, treatise of what you can and can't do with garbage... So I thought I'd post a little about rural life waste disposal.

We have no curbside service here. If you want to dispose of something, you have to take it to the dump. Actually, the township refers to it as their "recycling center", I guess that sounds better than "dump". As you can see, it's only open a few hours on 2 days of the week.



Here's an aerial view of the place, thanks Google Maps!



It's on a small section of land, fenced off from the rest of the county's sand pits and equipment storage areas. The attending employee usually sits in the little shed by the driveway. The township charges $3.50 for each bag of garbage and no fees for recycles. They also sell very large and heavy duty bags at $2.00 for 10. There are 3 large containers for garbage and a long row of smaller containers for single stream recycling. Next to the shed is a small container for aluminum cans. They ask that you please separate the aluminum from the rest of the recycles. Off to the side, by the fence is a large 30 yard roll off container for dropping off steel and other metal items. I've rescued a few things from there, like my old pieces of tin roofing that I use to cover my outdoor wood piles. They accept old TV and such, for a fee, and don't charge you to drop off tree trimmings.

Martha, one thing we get at our "dump" that you probably don't have to worry about, is Bears. The containers are secured when the recycling center is not open, but the smells still attract them. The woman that usually runs the place has scared off more than a few! Pretty easy and laid back... not all up-tight and complex like Dane County/Madison!!

Recycle...


Garbage...