We have a place in town where we go to pick up trash, maybe once every season. Long ago, after reading the book "The Bridge to Terabithia," someone in our crowd named the spot "Sterabithia." So, that stuck.
The creekbed sometimes has water, but in the colder months it does not. We've found the most surprising things: a scooter, a grocery cart, lawn chairs, a table, tons of kitty litter, a broken tricycle, a whole mattress foam, clothes, and endless food trash. It makes for satisfying work, a real sense of progress, although we have to remember that it's kind of disappointing really.
I've learned that the trick to making the trash pick-up happen is to keep a box of trash bags (along with the kitchen sink) in our car. Then when we happen to be in the neighborhood, we're fully equipped and ready. There or anywhere. And everyone does enjoy themselves. After all, we're just outside playing in a ditch. But, I it does helps that the older ones now get school credit for their service work.
And sad but true, until I put the box of bags in the car, we never had enough trash bags to hold all that we find.
