Picking Up Some Dog Trash

The dogs have been back pulling their favorite toys from the youngest of the Blue Jay Barrens archaeological sites.  I usually just gather up their litter and put it back near the edge of the junk pile.  I finally got tired of picking up the same items each month, so I took a paper feed sack back to gather up those pieces that are continually relocated.  I just can’t understand why those stray dogs put so much effort into dragging this stuff around.

This seems to be the dog’s all time favorite bit of debris.  I’ve found the shoe as far as 200 feet from the pile.  The last dog managed to make two pieces out of it. 

There are several fresh doggie tooth marks in the heel.  This must be a good tasting piece of plastic.

Plastic bottles are another favorite.  Most of the plastic has turned brittle over the years.  The dogs chew the bottles into small bits that can be aggravating to collect.

This aluminum casing from an old radio tube was carried away, but not chewed.  A previous owner of this property worked in a TV and Radio repair shop.  He regularly brought home old TV sets and radio chassis.  Some of this stuff was dumped over the hill and the rest was left sitting around the barn yard.

The dogs couldn’t get the cap off of this whiskey bottle.  It doesn’t look like the contents are all that appetizing.  I used to have a dog that could have chewed up this bottle and eaten the broken glass.  He was like the old stereotype goat that would eat tin cans.  His droppings used to sparkle in the sunlight.

Raised letters warn that “Federal law forbids sale or reuse of this bottle”.  That warning was required on liquor bottles from the end of Prohibition until 1964.  I guess the dogs weren’t aware that they could wind up in Leavenworth for turning the bottle into a toy.

Tire Erosion Control

It’s not unusual for rural properties to contain an area or two that were used as dump sites for trash and other discarded items. Blue Jay Barrens has a few dumps, but of course there hasn’t been anything added to them since I bought the property. I believe that somewhere in their minds these people knew that dumping trash was not the right thing to do. To ease their guilt, they all subscribed to the popular rural myth that dumping junk onto an actively eroding area would stop the erosion and heal the earth. I’ve never had any of these people give me a good explanation of how a pile of trash can promote healing.

When I began managing Blue Jay Barrens, this was a site of active erosion. Water flowing from the hilltop to the right dropped over a low embankment and scoured away the soil as it fell. A double row of tires and other miscellaneous junk concentrated the water flow as it moved downhill and caused tiny gullies to form between the tires. Long deltas of mud formed where the water emerged from the junk. When I began clearing the surrounding prairies eleven years ago, I covered the whole junk pile with small cedars. I didn’t have time to remove all of the junk, so I thought I would just do what I could to stop the erosion and stabilize the area.

The erosion has been stopped and the cedars have decomposed to the point where the tires are once again visible. It’s obvious that the tires were placed in a particular arrangement and not just thrown from a wagon or truck. The tires were set in neat rows and in areas where the eroded area were deepest, the tires were stacked. I suppose the tires were originally placed up against the edge of the embankment, but then the embankment eroded further and left the tires behind.

I have to commend the creators of this tire wall for getting every mile they could out of these tires. Had they been more safety conscious, I would probably have twice as many discarded tires, all having a little bit of tread left.

I packed the gap between tires and embankment with small cedars and then piled cedars about four feet deep over the tires. As the cedar decomposed, leaves accumulated in the resulting void and provided a filter for the water. Now instead of cascading like a waterfall, the water slowly filters through the leaves.

Vegetation has claimed the area downstream of the pile. There is currently no active erosion on this site. If this was a tall grass site, you’d never see the trash. Now that the cedar pile has rotted down to almost nothing, even the short grass does a good job of hiding the dump. A healthy White Flowering Dogwood is helping to camouflage the site.

Some of the material they dumped here has actually provided good habitat for some of the prairie dwellers. I’ve seen skinks and fence lizards sunning on these discarded fence posts. Mice and voles and a variety of insects have found shelter in this pile of timbers.

Sitting at the base of one post was this pile of strange curls. They might be tiny parchments or curls of old tape or shavings from some type of craft project. Actually, they’re curled belly scales from a shed snake skin. I can imagine a Black Rat Snake living here. That probably makes this a less desirable place for the small rodents to hang out.

Dogs and Trash

I can now say that I’ve seen a bear and a moose in the fields of Blue Jay Barrens. The local dogs take all the credit for leaving this bit of trash for me.

I guess it’s not unusual for people to have trouble with dogs getting in the trash. The confusing thing is why they would be interested in trash that’s over 25 years old. This stuff was left by the previous owner and for the most part, was here long before I bought the property. Every month or two I walk by and find that the dogs have once again raided the trash pile and scattered debris in a great circle around the field.

It’s no surprise that they would be interested in this old shoe sole. Dogs have been chewing on people’s shoes for as long as there have been shoes. Even a 25 year old shoe would still taste good.

Pieces of glass jar seem to be odd bits for a dog to carry around, but pieces like this are a dog favorite. Is it possible that the odor of food still clings to the glass after over 25 years of weathering?

The dogs must have had great fun dismantling this plastic bag. I wonder if a little tug-of-war took place. The printing on the bag was quite faded, but the plastic was still pliable. The bag must have been made in the days when plastics were not meant to degrade. The bag came from some hospital in Dayton, but I couldn’t find the piece that had the hospital name on it.

The bits are collected from the field and set back with the rest of the trash. Eventually, I’ll bag this stuff up and get rid of it. Cleaning up this archaeological site isn’t a priority right now. When the dogs are really active, I’ll clean up the lose stuff so it doesn’t blow or wash away. Actually cleaning up the junk takes me a lot of time because I become more interested in examining all of the strange things I find than in quickly cleaning up.

Archeological Sites

As is common in this part of the State, I inherited a couple of old family dump sites when I purchased Blue Jay Barrens. I knew from the beginning that these dumps did not fit the image I had of what Blue Jay Barrens should be, but there were so many urgent things needing done that I didn’t have time to deal with this type of clean-up. Besides, the dumps were old and, except for the aesthetic aspect, were not causing any trouble.

I found a way to get rid of the dumps quickly, completely and without sweat. I’ve learned that the best way to change something is to redefine it. Instead of dump sites full of trash, I now identify these as archeological sites filled with historical artifacts. To make this more than a bit of verbal deception, along with the redefinition must come a change of perception. I had to begin looking at the dump sites as another thing that had to be explored and understood. Oh, I’ll eventually remove all of this stuff, but as I do it, I’ll be thinking about the lives of the people who used this land and how they brought it to the state it was in when I arrived.

These sites support a good population of native vegetation. The hazard is getting tangled in old fence wire or stepping on shards of broken glass or jagged metal.

The previous owner worked for a time in a radio and television repair shop. He brought a lot of his work home with him and some ended up here. I’ve disposed of several dozen TV picture tubes and hundreds of radio tubes.

Some more appliance parts along with automotive supplies.

The old rocking horse was put out to pasture. Looks like it was rode hard and put away broke.

Remnants of the old swing set in the foreground. Farther back you can see the remains of several units from a stacked battery of cages for raising poultry. I understand that there was a brief interest in raising pheasants a couple of generations ago.

Gas brooders used in the pheasant operation. The brooder is seen sitting upside down. When used, a small gas flame from a burner in the center of the hood would produce warmth for the young chicks. The chicks entered through the open ports located around the edge of the brooder. The rectangular framework seen sitting on top of the brooder is the frame from a bench seat out of an old pickup truck. Do you think I could sell this on E-bay?

Some general household trash. I’m particularly impressed by the glass with the 1960’s pattern.

You never know when you’ll need a barrel full of used concrete. I’m concerned that when I do clean up some of this stuff, the bare ground that will be exposed from beneath objects like this will provide a suitable seed bed for some exotic weeds. I’d rather have the trash than the weeds.

Some privycy please.

I know why this trash can ended up here. No one knew what it was supposed to be used for.