Dumpster Weekend

Hooray. We finally got a dumpster this weekend. It is our third dumpster since moving in, but it doesn't mean we love it any less than the other two dumpsters. To the contrary, we've been waiting patiently for the day we could bring it onto our property, looking longingly at the pile of junk sitting between our two outbuildings, waiting for the day the dumpster would be here and we could put all that junk in the place it belongs. It came on Friday and we welcomed it with open arms. Grandma and Grandpa Fawson came out to welcome the new arrival, and help pile it with stuff. As can be expected, the day had its highs and lows.

The good news:
(1) We got rid of 40 cubic yards of junk--old heaters and rotted ping pong tables and an old kiln, but mostly inventions of the previous inhabitant, many of which involved plexiglass and pegs and all of which rolled around on wheels, the intent for which we could not guess. (2) Grandma caught a huge lizard and a teeny snake and a few bugs to feed the lizard. The kids were delighted.

The bad news:
(1) After the work was done and the junk piled in, we realized we still have enough junk to fill one more 40-yard dumpster. But that will have to wait. (2) By the end of the day, after realizing this, I found myself growing less patient with the country custom of collecting junk. I have never liked collecting clutter, but I had an unusually hard time restraining myself from going into the house and throwing away everything in sight. But I have been watching, and it seems that if you live in the country long enough, you can not help but start a little collection, and I fear that the longer I am here the less I will be able to resist, until I too morph completely and become one of them, and start collecting my own pile of things.