Dump Run

This Chevy Silverado pick-up still runs like a champ.  And it will be celebrating its 29th birthday in September.  That was when it rolled-off the assembly line in Flint Michigan in 1997.

We take care of our vehicles and tend to run them until the wheels fall-off.

It's spring-cleaning time around here so when making a trip to the town dump it's always a delight to rock some Marshall Tucker on the cassette player.

Who do you know has a working cassette player anymore?  Much less, a cassette tape collection.... 

 

Fall Colors

Around these parts you'll find some of the best fall colors on the road to the town dump.  Yup, Previously known as Dump Road - Orchard View Lane - sports some of the finest fall foliage this side of the 45th parallel. 

And, by the way, it a new road.  Completely resurfaced this year for an extra smooth ride...

 

 

Dump Run

Trip to the dump today.  

Two barrels of mixed recyclables and three tall kitchen bags of garbage.

Unlike city dwellers - who enjoy municipal curbside garbage and recyclables pick-up - in rural America you have to haul your trash and recyclables to the town waste disposal facility (the dump).  Sure, we could pay extra to an outside contractor for end-of-the-driveway pick-up of a couple of carts.  But considering the minimal amount of waste we generate it doesn't seem economical.  Besides, a trip to the dump is something of a social affair on a Saturday morning and I'm almost guaranteed to bump into someone I know and have the opportunity for some idle chit chat and local gossip.  Moreover, I can combine it with a stop at the grocery or general store in town.  

The vehicle in the picture is our first and only pick-up truck - a 1998 Chevy 1500 Silverado 4X4 with a towing package and a matching cap on the back.  We took delivery of it in early autumn of 1997 which means it celebrates its 28th birthday this coming fall.

It has made multiple trips to Canada and the Gulf Coast and everywhere in between, pulled a boat countless times for fishing and recreational cruising and has hauled more dead deer than I can count.

It lives in its own stall in the machine shed, doesn't leak or leave spots on the concrete and started this morning in 14 degree weather on the first crank.  You can tell by looking at it it's pretty clean.  It even has an AM/FM cassette stereo.  In a couple more years I suppose it officially becomes an antique.

At 135,000+ miles it doesn't owe me a thing and at least once a year someone will approach me and ask if it's for sale.  It isn't.  A similarly-equipped Chevy today would cost about what I paid for my first house in 1984.  Scary, eh? 

Changing of the Seasons

Even a routine trip to the town dump today had its own compensations.

The view on the way was absolutely spectacular....

 

Fall Colors

Weekly trip to the Brussels Transfer Station (dump) to drop our garbage and recyclables yesterday. 

On the return trip I made a couple of brief stops to snap some photos of the rapidly changing fall colors.

We're likely a couple of weeks shy of peak color - yet it sure is fun to watch unfold....

Government Open For Business

With the government shut down and Democrats and Republicans blaming each other it is refreshing to know that local government is open for business.

I loaded the pick-up with four barrels of recyclables and went to the dump.

Dump Run

Trip to the dump today.  

Unlike city dwellers - who enjoy curbside garbage pick-up - in rural America you have to haul your trash and recyclables to the town Waste Disposal Facility (the dump).

If rural America had curbs none of this would be necessary.

Brat

The tiny town of Brussels, WI was a happening place today.

After my monthly trip to the Brussels Waste Disposal Facility (the dump) I stopped in town for mail and a small list of groceries.  Yikes!

Craft fair and flea market at the Town Park, tourists jamming-up Marchant's grocery to the point where (for the first time perhaps) all three grocery checkouts were in operation and the Knights of Columbus was holding a brat fry.

Nothing better! 

Dump Day

Periodic Saturdays are dump day.

Without curbside pickup of trash and recyclables people that live in rural America generally haul their stuff to the town dump.  In this case it happens to be The Brussels Waste Disposal Facility.

click on the dumpster to enlarge

Call it what you will it is still the dump.  

The road to the north of The Platz is still called Dump Road because until the four lane highway came through that was the road to the dump.  Nowadays the road north of Hwy 57 is called Orchard View Lane (although it is still the road to the dump).  But I digress.

I offloaded the trash and recyclables and on the way home spotted this doe by the side of the road. 

She just stood there watching me while I snapped a picture and as I crawled forward with the truck she bounded into the woods.  

Who needs a trail camera anyway.

Dump Road

Around these parts Dump Road heads south from School Road and makes a left turn east at the northwest corner of The Platz and dead ends at the northeast corner.  The largely unimproved (but gravel) path hardly passes as a road but you can get a vehicle in and out without too much trouble.

Due to it's isolated location at least a half mile from any inhabited dwelling spring time brings with it a trip to collect discarded beer cans.  The young folk like this spot for maybe some beer drinking, perhaps some weed and the whoopee.  Years ago I was bow hunting not far from the road way and I heard a vehicle slowly making its way down the road and stopping about half way along the north property line.  I couldn't see the vehicle but before too long I heard the sounds of whoopee.  The sounds of which interrupted a perfectly fine hunt.

I took a walk up there the other day to clean out nest boxes and found this...

 click in images to enlarge

Wide-open spaces and mulch everywhere.  It would appear that the town had a forestry brush mower clear the right of way along the gravel path.

The clearing is so complete there's no evidence of the trees we planted adjacent to the right of way but they're most definitely gone!  While it will be easier to spot the beer cans there is more room for the whoopee and for trespassing road hunters and poachers to sneak in under cover of darkness. 

Dump Run

Trip to the dump today.  Unlike city dwellers who enjoy curbside garbage pick-up in rural America we do not.  It's probably because we have no curbs.

In polite company we call this: Paying a visit to the Brussels Waste Disposal and Recycling Facility.  

Don't you think it still looks like a dump?

Oddly-enough the old pick-up truck started.  It was really slow to crank and fire-up but it did finally start.  No wonder - it's been sitting in the shed since Christmastime I think.  And it's been horrifically cold lately.  I was feeling really sort of smug about that old, reliable truck of mine.

In any event, I arrive at the dump and dump my three barrels of recyclables and a pile of broken-down cardboard boxes.  I prepare to depart and the battery is frankly just about dead.  Engine won't crank.  The guardian of the dump facility performed a good turn by allowing me to hook my jumper cables to his truck battery.  Vroom! 

So much for smugness.