Grabber makes it's debut

4/23/12


In the five plus years of being married there's one thing that I know as truth. I don't always grasp it right away, but in the end, given enough time for life to prove her point-- Savannah is always right! To this point in our canning adventures every can has been retrieved by hand... it may have required some extreme body contortions, sticking a hand through spider webs, or brushing up again any number of plant species (some of which have been poison!). And from the get-go Savannah has suggested a Grabber.


Given my analytical tendencies I can't simply buy the first one I come to in the store. No, no- I had to read up on all the different types on Amazon and analyze half a dozen reviews before making a purchase. But today was the day... I heeded the late Billy Mays' advice- The Gopher handy helper that reaches so you don't have to!


My world just got a whole lot easier and my back is thankful that I finally listened to Savannah! 

We once again took the bikes on the truck and parked in an area where we'd had good success on our first trip ever (back when we had to ask for more bags). In fact we parked in this same spot the evening before and started our methodical coverage of every twist and turn in the surrounding streets!

One street in particular today was just covered in cans... little tiny pieces. The county mower had minced up dozens of cans on the street and we had a go at collecting every last one of them. I think we filled an entire bag and a half with just these little pieces.

Once again I don't have any official data from the last two nights. We've been in such a race against the sun to load up all our stuff before it's completely black out. We went about 8.5 miles in the two trips and we have steadily increased our stockpile.

We're branching out

4/20/12


At this point we've officially covered all the roads in our immediate vicinity. The last few times we've gone out it takes us several miles to reach what we call "new territory"... that is roads that we haven't already hit for cans!  In fact this last Sunday we went out right after church, during the heat of the day. That was not a good idea at all. After we'd gotten about 4 miles in Savannah started feeling quite weak and dizzy. I ended up pedaling home to get the truck while she sat along the side of the road, off in the shade. 


Today, we started out by loading the bikes up on the truck and headed out to Atwater Park. This was our first mobile trip... We picked this area so we could swing by our friends' new home during our ride.

On the very first street we saw a couple bags in the woods about 30 yards apart. Both of them were filled with empty cans and we were off to a great start with thirty or more cans within 5 minutes of unloading the bikes. Here's a photo of one of the bags... it really shocks me that we've found several of these types of trash ditches in the few trips we've made.

We had a good time visiting with our friends at their new house for a bit before heading on our way. We even scooped up a few cans from them before leaving. We ended up back at Atwater Park just before dark. We stopped and watched some of the little league baseball game going on before loading back up and heading home. We had such a good time we forgot to record our distance traveled and I have no idea how many cans we got. Good times were had so that's the main thing.

Ask and you shall receive

4/13/12


We headed right back to the same area where we stopped yesterday. We'd reached our carrying capacity and had to retreat home before covering the entire neighborhood so we went back to continue our tour. But today was a bit different... we found a few cans the usual way, along the side of the roads however it is recycling day in our area on fridays. So instead of hunting for the cans, today they were neatly placed in blue bins at the ends of most of the driveways.


Now I have to admit raiding recycling bins did not, and still does not, appeal to me. I can remember growing up when people would stop to rummage through our trash pile that had been placed by the road for pickup the following day. Despite my reservations, when we came across the first bin that had a large stash, Savannah was more than willing to go up to the door to ask if they'd mind us scavenging their cans. I was less than enthused about now asking for permission to rummage. A few more houses down we hit a few more, each person more than willing to allow us to scoop up their cans. After about four or five trips to the door and I was feeling a little more at ease... probably from the excitement of all the cans we were getting with so little effort.


We reached our capacity after finding one house that had the entire bin filled to capacity with cans... and they had already been crushed! It was all we could do to get them all on the bikes. I think we both had bags hanging from each handlebar as well as Savannah's basket filled to capacity. On our way home we saw a few more that were heaped with cans so we were headed home to make a quick drop off.


At our first stop back out we met Vicky when we knocked on her door. She was eager to hear about what we were collecting the cans for and quickly offered to reserve her cans each week for us to pick up instead of placing them out on the curb. We are so thankful for her help! (Savannah returned the following week and got an entire trash bag full of cans!)

After taking a midday break, we went out for one more round just before dark. In the three different trips today we went about 16 miles and got a lot of cans.

Right before dark, just about ready to call it a day, we stumbled on this little surprise. Our second sealed can, still full of it's original contents--  puzzling why these get tossed out! And a little North Port Canning fact: Despite having no official numbers to report, Natural Ice is by far the most common can we find on our outings. Needless to say I learned my lesson the first time and did not hit this one with a shovel!

That's some serious littering.

4/12/12

Ten days have lapsed since our last trip... Easter week was very busy since we were fortunate enough to play on both Good Friday and Easter Sunday.  In the time since our last trip we've really started developing the idea of trying to recruit others from FAC in this whole can-recycling idea.  Today we were in yet another new area but it wasn't yielding too much for us. We did stumble on one good spot early on but it was a lot of effort digging them out of the brush.

Most of the morning ride was spent coming up with ideas about how to spread the word about this money raising idea.  We discussed making a website or blog of some sort, videos we might be able to make to show at church to get others involved... funny scenes or dramatizations we could come up with to share the humor and fun we have on our rides. We were laughing it up, mostly laughing at ourselves!

We'd gone quite a ways when Savannah spotted a single can sitting in the opening a vacant lot.  We both walked up the clearing and confirmed it was a can alright... and it had friends!

The next 45 minutes were a blur as we did an assembly line of me filling up the plastic bags and Savannah taking them out to the street to dump in a pile. I kept filling bags and she kept pilling them up. I wish I would have taken pictures in the woods but it looked like cans were lined up side to side covering areas of the ground as big as a mattress. Everywhere we looked we'd find more.

Once we got them all to the street we quickly realized the work was just beginning... we'd have to crush all the cans in order to fit them in the few bags we had with us... So much for being prepared. It's hard to be prepared to find 265 cans in one spot! Setting em up, stomping them, and then bagging them-- a workout that would pay off in soreness the next day for sure. 

I also have to mention that 265 cans wasn't all that was in that spot... There were dozens more in plain site but just beyond our reach. This is when we realized we'd have to get some equipment to be fully prepared for this kind of find! We still plan on going back to retrieve the rest once we buy a grabber that will allow us to finish getting all that is on this lot! What we did come away with so far filled an entire paper grocery bag and 2 plastic grocery bags after being crushed.

Yet Another Record (this one likely untouchable):

3 bags & 8.5miles

A Day of Records...

4/2/12


Today we started off trying to find new territory... It started out quite slow going-- can wise.  As you can imagine there is an inverse relationship to the quality of the neighborhood and the number of cans we collect.  Facts of life.  But anyway, this area today was quite well kept and we were kinda short on cans- although still having a good time.  So after winding down all the backstreets we were just about back to the main street when Savannah spotted something.  Now you remember our last single stop record of 12... let's just say we tripled that!  37 Red Bulls among the weeds.  This neighborhood had been redeemed!  The building campaign that our church is having is set to last 3 years... and when we left this spot we both said  "Surely this new record will last the entire 3 years."


So on to the next area.  It continued to be slow, but we were enjoying the ride since we were in an area we'd never ridden before-- even in our pre-canning days.  We were finding a few here and there when we hit a long street with very little development on it.  Just past a little bend in the road Savannah spotted a trash bag back in a the woods a bit. We've learned that in general where there's trash there's cans so we she made sure I got off to investigate.  When I got close enough I could see that it was a beer carton inside a white trash bag... and there were two.  I kinda figured they'd be real heavy, filled with empty bottles, but once I got a hand on them I was pleasantly surprised-- light as a feather. Cans- and Lots of them.


I picked up both bags and threw them out on the street.  Once I ripped into them we could see the vastness of our hall!  Savannah was by this time dancing in the middle of the street... Singing "The Wonderful Cross". I promise-- I could not make this stuff up! I just wish I would have taken a picture.  So once we got all the cans out I started crushing them.  Let me tell you, it's a tiring job crushing 63 cans back to back to back.  Just for the record, Savannah was likely tired herself still dancing a jig in the middle of the street. Second new record of the day. The previous one lasting less than an hour of the 3 years we'd predicted it would!

End of day 4:

3 bags and 5 miles

PS... In the interest of not going on and on, I'll summarize another theme of this "New Record(s)" day...wildlife abound we saw two giant tortoises, a black snake, were charged by a loose dog twice, and I was mobbed by red ants. Despite our brush with nature we came out unscathed.

Very Eventful Second Trip

3/30/12

Day 2 we were ready and raring to go! The excitement of our newly purposed bike rides had us back on the road, and much more prepared this time!  We started off with great luck in our own neighborhood-- recording our record to date in one spot: 12 cans!

As we continued we stumbled on a vacant lot that was just riddled with trash along the side of the road... one can led to another to another until we were piling them up once again.  Our obsession had taken hold of us at this point that once a can had been spotted all our efforts go into getting it-- no matter how difficult to get to it may be.  So at this stop I spotted a can in the brush well beyond my reach from the front so I decided to go around and try to flank it from the side. As I went up into the lot from the side I stumbled upon a shovel. Yes a shovel just thrown randomly into the woods off the side of the road.  When I picked it up to show Savannah she about wet herself laughing so hard-- that of all things I had found this shovel.  Anyway, after trying to get to the can from the side I realized that I still couldn't quite reach it... but Hey my newly found tool might just pay off seconds after laying hands on it.  So when I reached up under the palm bush to reach for this can, it was then that I realized that it was quite heavy. In fact, I saw it was unopened! So rather than try to drag the full can out of the bush I decided to whack it with the shovel. Not a good idea!! The thing had bulged in the heat of the day under pressure and so when I hit it... that thing exploded. Beer Everywhere... including me! This further put Savannah into a laughing fit. But dedicated as we were, we continued on, covered in beer in search of the next stash of cans.

This is a shot of the action-- get too close and you too might get sprayed!

End of day 2:

2 1/2 bags and 5 miles

Our First Trip Out

3/28/2012


We've recently taken up bike riding. We've ridden the neighborhoods around our house several times over... constantly looking for new scenery.

One day on one of our rides we were talking about the building campaign at our church (First Alliance Church). We were wondering how we could come up with some extra money to pledge toward the building fund when it hit us-- there was free money staring us in the face everywhere on our bike rides.

So on our next ride we took along a plastic grocery bag and started collecting cans. Honestly, I thought if we filled the bag half full it would be a miracle for our first trip. I'll be the first to admit there is a lot of litter around the streets of North Port, but I figured by the time you crush the can flat it would take quite a few to fill a grocery bag. Well just a short time later, and a long way from home, we had filled the only bag we brought with us!

So miles from home, in prime "can-country", we had to turn back because of our lack of preparation or any feasible means to carry our loot back with us. That's when we decided the next person we saw outside their house we'd ask them for another bag! About a third of the way back home we found our target-- an elderly women in her garage working on laundry. I made my announcement down at the end of her driveway, trying my best not to startle her. After explaining our mission she gladly produced a couple more bags and we were back on our way.

End of day 1:

2 1/2 bags and 12 miles