Canner-in-Training

So I'm officially a month behind!! YIKES:::: SORRY! 


5/30/12


We're growing in numbers... Today Katy joined us on one of our rides hunting cans! Three sets of eyes are better than two. Below is Katy's first can...

It only took one and she was hooked. We found several good spots but I was working twice as hard with two people spotting cans for me to climb in the woods to retrieve. We did have someone come out from their garage to ask what we were up to, and after talking for a minute she wanted to help us out. So she plans to leave her cans out for us to pick up rather than put them out with the recycling! We're getting quite a list of houses we go by each week to pick up their cans.

A couple interesting finds today, included a CD among the weeds in one spot as well as a dead snake. But strangely we're not sure what killed the snake, it didn't appear to have been run over. Perhaps we stumbled on a snake that died of natural causes... interesting!

Before running out of daylight we'd collected a good stash... and we think Katy is now a canning addict too!

2.97miles

FAC pitching in

5/27/12


Today after church we emptied the Can Trailer for the first time since our announcement last Sunday. Having only been there for 1 week we were so excited to see how many cans were donated in the trailer. We actually weren't quite prepared-- forgot our gloves and extra bags... but the broom came in handy.

Our friend Jared helped me empty it out... but he made me take an oath that I would provide gloves for the next time! The broom was a lifesaver as you can see...once we got all the bags out of the way there were lots of loose cans to be bagged up.

After we got home we started in on crushing the cans... it's a pretty daunting task but if you take just one bag at a time it's not too bad... Then we recruited Jared's wife, Katy to help out when she stopped by on a walk. I'm sure she had no idea of what she was in for!

It's hard to get a picture to do it justice (it looks like there's not a lot of cans) but take it from me that this first week was a tremendous success with the help of everyone at FAC... A huge THANK YOU for your help so far... and spread the word.

Filled with what?

I'm way behind in keeping up with all our trips... I'll do my best to pump out a post a day this weekend to get back on track!

5/24/12


Today we were a bit smarter by getting out before the sun hit it's apex... plus the neighborhood we work through had lots of nice tall pine trees which gave us lots of shade-- even after the sun started creeping high in the sky.

Often when we scavenge for cans they've been out in the elements for a while... and they tend to collect all kinds of stuff down inside them. I took a picture of one today after I split it open to show you how full they can get.  We also found one today that had a live something in it. We'd hit a particularly good spot (on Scranton street for all our fellow OFFICE fans) and we pitched them out of the woods to gather up and crush once they were all out in the open. Going about my business I was dumping out various amounts of dirt and the occasional cigarette butt when I had one can that didn't want to release what it was holding. Not thinking anything of it I kept shaking it, a little harder now, when a live critter came falling out of the pop top. It scared the snot out of me so much that I jump back thereby making Savannah do the same. We both got a split second glimpse of it's black slimy body before it scurried into the brush as fast as it had fallen from it's displaced hideout. If we had photographic proof, I bet we would be naming a new species right now cause that thing was like no out critter I've ever seen. But without any proof it's simply destined for storytelling in blog-land as it's existence still cannot be proven.

On a bit of a somber note, our grabber lost it's last remaining suction cup on the Scranton stop. So now we're down to the screws on both sides. Doesn't work quite as good as before but it still does it's thing without a single complaint.

Today was a good day-- hitting 5 bags full in just over 4 miles

Heatin' up

5/22/12


Being on vacation we slept in a bit longer than usual so the sun was pretty hot on today's canning adventure... but we did get a little bit resourceful before calling it a day from the heat! After unloading the trailer at church for the first time days before, we realized it was very difficult to reach all the way inside the trailer to remove all the cans. Enter our newly found broom--

We spotted this little treasure just after we started today, so I ran it back to the truck so it didn't encumber the rest of our ride.

You'll notice here the complete lack of shade anywhere along the way. Before we both ran out of water and called it quits, we had a couple other interesting finds. The first is this ancient can, possibly the first one ever made... but if not that, it's definitely the oldest one we've found so far!

And this cool watering can. It was way back in the woods, probably 50 feet off the street. This will probably get a lot more use once I retire from canning and take up gardening. Although it'll be a while before Savannah will let me take up gardening in place of canning-- so for now I'll store it in the garage til it can have it's day.

4.7miles

Who needs a vacation!

5/20/12


Now that we have our trailer drop off at church it's time to tell everyone how to get involved. I was given the chance to speak during the morning announcements to encourage the congregation to bring in their cans. We were able to show a slideshow with several "canning" photos and we're hopeful we can raise tons of money for the church fund.

This was the start of a week's vacation from work...waaahooo!! I had procrastinated just enough on getting our passports that we didn't go on the trip that we'd planned (a cruise), so we started out our week off with the next best thing: a canning ride!  The most excitement we had was a nice size snake Savannah literally almost ran over-- she came within a foot of hitting it, too busy looking side to side for cans rather than at the road where this guy was sunning himself... she was freaked out!

I had a bit of a freak out of my own a little while later. I had a can in my hand that had some dirt inside, as they often do, be then a swarm of huge ants came barreling out of the the pop-top. I didn't quite get a good picture of them cause they were running around so fast and crazy but I dropped the can like a hot potato to avoid getting a swollen hand from these suckers...

This sunday evening ride was 5.2miles

PS... A few posts back when we filled you in on assembling our can crusher, I forgot to tell you about Savannah's eagle eye on the way home from Home Depot. We go over a good size canal people like to fish in on the way home. Just beside the bridge there is a small slope where people launch their small boats and canoes into the canal. Well that sounds like a prime spot for some miscellaneous trash-- as we went by Savannah spotted a bag full of cans down by the waters edge. We circled back around and she was excited to find this ice bag filled to capacity with cans.

We're always on the lookout