Merry Christmas from the C4C Crew

Hello, friends:}

On behalf of the Canning Crew--- Merry CHRISTmas!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JESUS!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

We hope you are having a wonderful holiday--remembering the reason for the season:) 

Last year, Olsen was caught staring at our nativity scene below the Christmas tree. I love that even HE knows the REASON for celebrating!!! 

This year we changed up our decorations---Travis started with our outside lights about a week ago (at 11:30pm!!!!!)! You can see Olsen helping him- LOL! I helped a bit (with the ladder) but most of the time was in the garage writing C4C blog posts! 

This year, we also had our sweet friends, The Nunez family, come over to check out our Christmas lights and decorations. We snapped this picture of the kids looking at the nativity. PRECIOUS!! These KIDS really do know the REASON for the season!! LOVE!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JESUS!!!! 

Many blessings and Merry CHRISTmas from the Cans4Christ crew:}

Another Surprise

12/09/12

We love visiting church on Sunday because we get to see how many cans have been dropped off during the week at the C4C trailer. We love checking out how full it gets! 

This Sunday we found another SURPRISE waiting for us by the trailer. 

The surprise is the baby stroller.

Unfortunately, we cannot recycle baby strollers. We are thinking of making a sign with examples to place near the trailer. We love the donations, but we want to make sure everyone knows this isn't a trash bin. 

We need to clarify a couple of things again... THIS post describes what we "CAN" and "CANNOT" collect in the C4C trailer. 

Items that we CANNOT recycle: 

• cat food cans
• soup or vegetable cans
• tuna cans
• aluminum foil (although it's "aluminum", it cannot be recycled)
• aluminum/tin cooking containers
• newspapers
• food wrappers, etc.
• juice boxes

So what do we, Cans4Christ, collect??? ALUMINUM CANS! Any aluminum can--soda, pop, beer, tea, etc. We don't care what brand or what liquid it once had inside....we just need CANS:) 

photo credit

More Surprises: We keep getting cat food tins and soup cans....we cannot take these and they leave a mess in the trailer (bees, bugs, and a smell). 

Please only drop off ALUMINUM cans!!! 

Again, we are so thankful that you are giving to our can ministry--and we are thankful that you want to help! So please keep collecting and donating aluminum cans for the First Alliance Church of Port Charlotte, FL building campaign.

If you would like to donate weekly--you can find our Cans4Christ trailer at the FAC campus. Or email us {cans4christ at gmail dot com} to set up a donation pick-up!!! 

Already??? With 2 Surprises!

12/7/12

You would think that we wouldn't be visiting the Recycling Center any time soon because of all the cans we recycled HERE and HERE and HERE! We just visited there on the first of the month. 

However, we received a phone call saying that the Cans4Christ trailer was full and needed to be emptied! 

While working, we heard some noises coming from the bags. I was a bit nervous to check it out... but Trav wasn't:)

SURPRISE #1: He found out that there were SEVERAL bees in many of the bags! We had to quickly close those bags so the bees wouldn't get us. YIKES!! 

Not sure you can see them, but the black dots in the white bags are bees! They were in SO MANY bags!!!

We loaded everything up and did not get stung! Praise the Lord!!! 

We headed to the recycling center....SURPRISE #2!! I cannot believe how many pounds we had collected toady!

Total pounds of aluminum cans recycled today: 114 

Total pounds recycled for C4C as of 12/07: 2,537 pounds!!!!!

Congrats everyone!! Cans4Christ is doing awesome!!! Keep collecting your cans and random metals:) 

Walking, A Full Wagon, and FUN

12/6/12

I love when I get to go canning with my friends! Today I was joined by Tami and Jacob [age 5]!! Jacob has joined in the fun before-- click HERE to see the story! It's cute:)

Before we went on our Thursday night route, Jacob wanted to go for a walk. So Tami pulled him in his little wagon. He would shout out "CAN!!!" for almost every piece of liter we saw. LOL! It was cute! We are training him well; we just need to make sure it's a can that he sees before he shouts out:)

Our walk took us around our neighborhood, which is part of our route. Jacob saw some cans in a bin and wanted to pick them up. He filled his little wagon bin right up! LOL!

We finished our walk with enough light to continue our route, and Jacob went right along! He had many jobs-- first he was our bagger (that means he had to open our bags up). 

He also was a collector-- finding the cans in the bins! He is a TRUE CANNER:)

I'm not sure if you can see it, but he has his own canning gloves that are just his size! How cute!! 

This just shows that ANYONE....ANY AGE....can "CAN"!!! LOVE it! 

Fun was had by all tonight:) 

BRIGHTS!!!

12/3/12 continued

I've said before that I kind of get distracted while canning....but thank goodness for Kates (and our newbie Carolina- see the post about her HERE).

For the past few weeks, I've had my brights on while driving in the dark! I forget to switch back to normal because I get to talking/etc. **I should also admit that I have horrible eyesight (a gene from my dad). Driving at night is not the easiest thing for me....so I tend to put my brights on so I can see better. OOPS! 

For the past couple of weeks and esp. tonight, I've heard "BRIGHTS!!!" several times! Kates and Carolina are yelling at me....but in a good way:) They are just reminding me to turn off my bright lights.

I apologize if I've been shinning my high beams/brights in your eyes!!

ANOTHER Newbie!!!

12/3/12

The Cans4Christ Canning Crew keeps growing!! HOOOOORAY!  

I have to admit that this "newbie" canner was kind of forced to go with us tonight! LOL! Carolina was hanging out at my house and her mom wasn't going to make it back to pick her up before our canning date/time. So I told her that she had to go with me. 

Despite being forced into canning, Carolina did a FAB job (and I think she enjoyed it!!)! She had her gloves on and giggled right along with Kates and I! 

**ETA: I totally forgot the quote of the night!!! While talking about who collects cans and how Trav and I don't ever (or hardly ever) buy cans, Carolina told us, "You can have our cans!" I told her that was super sweet and that she should start collecting them in a bag for us. Quickly she replied, "Oh wait! We don't have cans!" LOL! That was hilarious! I should have recorded it!!! 

She even got out of the truck to grab more cans along the road. 

Carolina's a great fit for C4C!!! I hope she comes back to join in the fun on Monday nights soon:)

If you live in the North Port area and want to get involved with canning routes or collecting cans, let us know!! Please email us at {Cans4Christ at gmail dot com}. 

BIG Recycling Day {trip2}

12/1/12 continued

The past two posts {HERE and HERE} have shared our adventures recycling these random metals and most of these cans from the trailer. 

After recycling 98 pounds of aluminum cans and 93 pounds of "random metals" on our first trip, Trav and I had to go back to the church parking lot and the C4C trailer for the remaining bags. 

HOOOOORAY! All of the bags were there when we got back:) 

Total pounds of aluminum cans recycled for trip2: 52 

Total pounds recycled for C4C as of 12/1: 2,423 pounds!!!!!

Now the C4C trailer is empty and ready for more donations and can collections:) Keep turning in your cans! And keep sending in your random metals too!!! 

BIG Recycling Day {trip1 part2}

12/1/12 continued

Yesterday's post {HERE} shared that we had a HUGE pile of cans waiting for us at the trailer...add that to an already full truck of "random metals" and that equals 2 trips to the recycling center! 

This post is the second part of yesterday's trip. We unloaded the cans that fit in the truck bed first and recycled 98 pounds of aluminum cans! Next up were the random metals. 

When you recycle random metals, the workers have to test each metal piece and figure out what category to place them in and what to give you for prices. Here are some of the categories and the amounts recycled today: 

• White Goods- 57 lbs
• Yellow Brass- 3 lbs
• Copper- 0 lbs (we had several pieces but they didn't total over a pound)
• Extruded- 6 lbs
• Aluminum Old Sheet- 3 lbs
• Die Cast- 2 lbs
• White Goods (again)- 2 lbs
• Big Batteries- 20 lbs

Total pounds recycled today: 93

Total pounds of "random metals" recycled for C4C as of 12/1: 153 pounds!!!!

Come back tomorrow to see what happened when we went back to get the cans from the church:) 

BIG Recycling Day {trip1 part1}

12/1/12

It's been awhile since we've been to the recycling center with our "random metals" collection. Our last trip {posted HERE} was on 10/10/12!! 

During this [almost] 40 day waiting period, the metals have been hanging out near the side of our house. **Trav has mentioned before that our house looked like a junk yard because of the cans/bags in the front....well, if you looked at the side of the house, you might be wondering what hillbillies live here!!! 

Today is the day we take everything in-- included in this "everything" is an old fire pit, shower rack, pool poles, a battery, lots of random metals (faucets/etc.), and pieces from fans. Of course, before we take them in, we needed to make sure we were only taking in metal! 

After disassembling a few of these items...it was time to head to the C4C trailer to collect the cans (that have been sitting there for two weeks!)!! 

We did have a few bags of cans at our house, but last week we took most of them to the trailer (to help with our bug situation).

Check out what we saw when we drove up to the trailer!!!! WOWZA! Our eyes popped out of their sockets--look at all of those cans!!! 

We started to unload the trailer and sort/bag the cans correctly. **IMPORTANT NOTE:: unfortunately, we are still getting tuna/food/cat cans dropped off at our trailer. If we don't sort through each bag, we could be recycling things that are not allowed! We don't want to cause problems at the recycling center--so we take time to unload the entire trailer, going through all the bags, and reloading them. 

Still sorting and bagging....

Finally we unloaded everything (finding enough unrecyclables to fill a trash bag full!); however, it wouldn't all fit in our truck bed!

I guess we will have to stop back by for trip #2! This is what we had to leave behind-- I hope they are all there when we return! 

This trip to the recycling center was really quick--we unloaded the cans first. 

Total pounds of aluminum cans recycled today: 98 

Total pounds recycled for C4C as of 12/1: 2,371 pounds!!!!!

Come back tomorrow to see how much random metals we've turned in today!! <3

It Took A Month...

11/27/12

You might remember THIS post with THIS video.... it was all about how we never EVER have cans (pop, soda, etc.) in our house. We never EVER buy cans! Except for that week in November:}

Well...the cans have been sitting on our countertop for almost a month! I think it's time we crush them and take them to the recycling center! LOL! 

Extended Crew and a Time Warp

11/22/12 TIME WARP

**When I was planning out these posts, I didn't realize that I had skipped this photo from Thanksgiving! LOL!  

Welcome to another edition of the "Extended Canning Crew"!!! Read THIS post for more details. **NOTE:: We would love for you to send in ANY picture with cans or you canning! 

This week we received a photo of our canning friend, Courtney. In THIS post, Courtney went on our Monday night route with us. She is a true canner!! Not only has she been canning with us before, but she looks for cans while walking two children!!! **NOTE:: my goal is to turn her two kids into regular canners:) 

Court's text message: "Most people today are cooking their turkeys and stuffing...we're out canning...almost got a whole 12 pack! Happy Thanksgiving! 

If you would like to be a part of the "Extended Canning Crew", take some pictures of your family or yourself collecting cans, crushing cans, or dropping off cans at the C4C trailer and send them to {Cans4Christ at gmail dot com}. 

**Please include: names of all people in the picture, explain what you were doing and how much fun it was, as well as your email address.

A Little Help

11/27/12

**I have to apologize for another week of blogging hiatus-- we were on vacation again:) 

Sometimes a girl need a little help! Good thing I have Trav here to help with the dirty work {read THIS post to see just how gross canning can be!}. 

Monday Route with a New Idea

11/26/12 continued

It's time again for our Monday Regular Route... this is the first route run since we've been on vaca {HERE and HERE}. Well, not really....we picked up during the week and were gone only on the weekends. It just seems like we haven't been on a regular route FOREVER:)

Not sure if you remember THIS post about our solutions to all the bugs in our yard/driveway/etc. The Canning Crew has come up with another idea to help prevent these critters from coming into our home--we think it might help if we crush the cans right away and then put the bags back into the truck. So after we ran our route, we began crushing. **I have to admit that it looked like we didn't have that many cans to crush...but WOWZA! Every time I thought we had one bag left, three more would pop up! LOL! 

NOTE: So sorry the pic isn't that great! I still think Kates looks beautiful:) 

Great idea, Canning President Kates!! Fingers crossed it works;)

Recycling Trip: Who's Excited?

11/26/12

You might not be able to tell from this photo....

I caught Olsen in a yawn!! ACK--too funny!

How about this one? 

Yup! Olsen's excited to go to the Recycling Center with us today! This is his first time to the center. 

And he did great! On our ride down to the center, he looked out the window:)

And at the center, he went from one side of the truck to the other to look out the windows! 

Left side of the truck

Right side--and then back to the left! Olsen moved so fast back to the other side that I missed him in this photo! LOL! 

The recycling center was the "place to be" today! We had to wait to unload and get weighed because of this back-up. Check out how many bags they had received over the weekend! WOWOWOWOZA! I wish Cans4Christ had brought in that many! 

Those black bags are stacked almost to the ceiling of this place!!! 

Finally it was our turn to recycle, and we had a BIG weigh-in!!!

Total pounds recycled this trip: 94

Total pounds recycled for C4C as of 11/26: 2,273 pounds!!!!! 

Keep turning in your cans! And keep sending in your random metals too!!!