WOOD CHUCKING TO THE THEME FROM SANFORD AND SON

Why is it that when I am not near a computer I begin to have my most creative moments...just out and about and bam! I want to write.  It's been way too long since I last posted, and I'm feeling loads of pent up creative pressure.

Okay, this is not "our" pile, but it looks so similar.
Though, you must add the stacked firewood to the side...

After nearly 20 years of marriage, I have to face the truth.  Himself could be a (drumroll) borderline hoarder. (Oh the horror)  

Today I tried to clean up the backyard.  Himself has accumulated quite a wood pile.  Some of it is firewood, cut and stacked (or at least a semblance of a stack), but not all or even half.  The other tumbling wood mass is odds and ends from various house projects.  Saved for other house projects - sometime in the future (when the moon is blue).  These pending projects are obvious anywhere you look around our home, but all require time.  And apparently, and unfortunately, time is not something you can hoard.  Wow, what a concept...time hoarding.  Hmm, I like the idea of that...

Anyway, back to the pile.  Our backyard is only one pile of "junk" away from a scene from the old tv show Sanford and Son.  Today, I found myself humming the show's tune - it is very catchy -  as I tried to re-stack the odds and ends mindful of spiders.  To say it was overwhelming is an understatement.  And with that mess there is, and never will be, an understatement.  

Problem with trying to sort out the "good" wood pieces from the "junk" pieces brings up what may be the bigger problem.  Or at least a plausible excuse for the wood pile in the first place.  What do you do with odds and ends of wood that can't be used for anything?  Throw them out?  Burn them? 

Himself doesn't think burning painted wood is a good idea, and I agree.  So, what do you do with all those bits and odd-sized pieces of painted wood?  Throw them away in the trash can so they can be buried at the dump?  Is that the best environmental end for that painted piece of odd wood?  Trying to be a good steward of our environment, and feeling the guilt of adding to the ever-growing mound of human-generated trash on our earth, leads me to few options.  

Why is it others think nothing of chucking out old wood (okay, how much wood can a woodchuck chuck, if a woodchuck could chuck wood?), along with other still useable items, into the trash can every week?  Do they feel no guilt?  No shame?  Damn their lack of environmental insensitivity...damn their ability to just not care...damn their neat and tidy homes and yards!

I once watched a great video dealing with issues similar to this.  By not tossing these unuseable odds and ends of wood into the trash, I am, or rather Himself is, still "throwing it out" but instead into our backyard "dump".  When put in those terms and since it has to go somewhere, either in the landfill or stay in my backyard "dump", it makes it so much less painful to my environmental ethics (what they are) to just put them in the trash can and have the wood hauled away.   Away where I will never view it again, or fret over it, or trip over it, or be embarassed by it...

Ah, but that leads to the next problem.  Now that I have gotten to the point where I can let the old painted wood "go", I really can't...yet...all at one time.   Wood weighs alot.  And if I overload the trash cans they (the trash guys) won't take it.  So, that means I have to parcel out the old wood, bit by bit, week by week, until it is gone.  Meaning, I am still using my yard as a temporary dump.  Grrr.

Wish me luck in my endeavors.  I may have to hide the "to go" pile so Himself doesn't pull out any pieces that "he can still do something with".  Which begs the question: "Do what exactly?"