Debris Pile of the Month

On the news the other night, they noted that over in New Orleans the trash trucks are hauling the debris out at an incredible pace, and if they can keep up that same pace, they will be able to remove all of the Katrina debris in just under two years. Slidell will not have to wait that long.

We've noticed a funny thing in some of the neighborhoods that have more manageable debris piles like ours. Slowly the piles are shrinking. At first we didn't detect it, but now it's getting very obvious. Most of it is due to the debris owners sticking one bag or two each week into the garbage can which is now being picked up fairly regularly (although they miss a pickup here an there). The garbage collectors will only take what is in the can, so no one leaves their can only half-full. I've also seen one opportunistic entrepreneur driving through our neighborhood picking up all the metal objects from each pile until he had a truckload - metal fence poles, metal roof fascia, chimney pipes, etc. I assume he was getting paid for a load of scrap metal. I was happy to let him pick through our pile and reduce it.

Another reason for the shrinking piles is that people in our neighborhood are starting to take pride in having a nice organized debris pile. (We admit to taking part in this debris organization ourselves). They separate out the tree and limb debris from the construction debris. We make nice neat organized piles of the siding, metal fence poles, cement pilings, neatly rolled carpet, shingles etc. We break down the smaller tree limbs that have had adequate time to dry and are easy to snap. Making the piles a little neater also gives the poor grass a fighting chance at survival underneath. That is really the only reason for living in a suburb anyway -- to take pride in growing grass. (Ha!)

You may have thought I was joking about the "yard of the month" award earlier this month, but our neighborhood really does have a Green Team that actually gives such an honor. I was definitely joking about us winning it though, because even my kids admit that we will never have the honor. They don't seem to care though, especially as long as they are allowed to climb trees.

Apparently now our neighbors are all competing for "Debris Pile of the Month". They'd better watch it though, if they work at it too much, they will reduce the size of their pile to zero, and have to try for "yard of the month" instead. A few people have already managed to accomplish this. In a few more weeks, we will be there too - assuming we can fit that big stump into the garbage can at some point. We already gave our big box of shingles to our roofers to haul away with the rest of our old roof, and our pile is slowly shrinking.

The large pile across the street is shrinking too. The homeowner who rented his house across the street came around today and spent over an hour re-arranging their monster pile. It looks very nice now - at least as nice as a debris pile can look. Perhaps I should nominate them to our Green Team.


Other notes about our family: My youngest daughter is feeling somewhat better. We can see why this has all been hardest for her. She seems to have lost the most in our family. She lost her backyard playhouse (she loved that thing), she lost her dog (when we took it back to my parents), she has also lost a large number of her friends (there are only 13 children in her class now), and she lost her routine at school since her school was one of those that flooded and they spent the first week doubling up some of the classrooms. She will be losing her teacher after December since her current teacher is one of the new hires and is filling in for the regular teacher who has been on maternity leave the first semester. Her current teacher would probably lose her job anyway since she is one of the new hires and they will be the first ones they let go next semester (see note from the school superintendent). These last couple of weeks have been hard. She's starting to adjust though, I hope. She still has her family and a comfortable safe house, so by most standards she has a lot. It's hard to explain that to a six-year old though. I just hug her a lot.

My kids asked if we could put out some of our Halloween decorations. I was thrilled to do something that felt utterly normal, so as soon as the roofers left, we put out our huge inflatable jack-o-lantern lawn decoration. We also dragged all the other Halloween stuff down from the attic (it was all covered in splinters and crud from the roofing nails punching through all over everything). We have more Halloween decor than Christmas decor. The neighbors are all getting excited about our annual Halloween block party that I have hosted for the past 6 years. They are looking forward to it this year more than ever. For some of them, it's the only time they ever really get to interact with the rest of the neighbors.

I am really looking forward to it myself. Our debris pile will probably look really good by then too. :-)