I'll Take Anything

Over the past few days we've had a massive cleanup aroun our house. After we cut down the pine in our front yard, we spent several hours cutting down the stump and stacking the wood. Even with all the trimming the stump still ended up weighing well over 300 lbs. Saturday night I was trying to figure out how we'd get the stump into the dumpster Monday afternoon.

While discussing possible solutions with Tara one of neighbors walked by and I asked his opinion. He wondered if we had a wagon that could hold the stump. The weight could be distributed between all the wheels and we could use a ramp to get the tree into the dumpster. "Or," he continued," Your neighbor around the corner has some guys doing work in his yard. You could probably offer them 20 bucks and see if they'll take it for you."

Sure enough, for 30 dollars we had the stump removed.

Monday rolled around and when the dumpsters arrived the neighbors descended with their garbage. Trees, branches, poles, all made their way into the containers. Usually, it's a free for all with everyone rushing to ensure the removal of their piles. This year something different happened. A garbage truck pulled into the neighborhood and two county workers offered to help everyone with their stuff.

"I'll take anything."

That's all he said and then we decided to put him to the test. Eeva brought out her old awning. Dave found a bike. Sally wheeled out her broken down ATV. Then Tara asked about something we had in the basement.

"I'll take anything."

Ever since we bought the house we wondered how we would get rid of the water softener that my mom's parents used. Even though it was still hooked into the plumbing, it hadn't worked for years and the valves were long since closed. I had cut the softener from the rest of plumbing a while ago, but there was no way to get it from the basement. Until this week that is. We decided to see if they really would take anything.

Sure enough they did. I can't believe it, but the softener is gone. This has to be the best haul we've ever made with the dumpster - a 300 lb stump and a 300 lb water softener, unbelievable!