Out, damn'd slop
After an unplanned, refreshing nap yesterday afternoon, we decided to resume the unpleasant task of cleaning up our yard debris bin, which became a disgusting container of filth and contagion during our failed experiment with the City of Portland's absurd food slop composting program. We had hosed out a lot of the grossness during the week, but there was still a layer of unspeakable foulness all over the inside of the thing, particularly on the bottom. This was a job for the stout appliance we acquired last summer, the gas-powered pressure washer.
It took a while to get the machine started -- we almost gave up, and even checked out the operating hours of a local lawn mower repair place -- but eventually, the engine came to life. And did it ever do the job! The heavy-duty green plastic of the bin responded well to our blasts of Bull Run's finest. And no fluoride residue. The result was a gleaming container. We wouldn't eat out of it, but we'll bet that if you did, you wouldn't die.
We're still not finished with the job -- there's still a little more mucking around to do out in the yard where the foulness fell -- but we're close to being through with the ghastliest chore we've tackled in quite a while. And now that we've got the pressure washer warmed up and running, there are a few other targets whose cleanup we've had on our to-do list for many months. Slime, your hours are numbered.
On the whole, the dry weather's giving us some nice overtime in which to knock out a few of those items that didn't get crossed off the summer checklist as planned over the last three months. Carpe diem.
| Posted at 7:45 AM | Permalink |
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Comments (10)
Congratulations on getting the small engine to tick over. There's only one lawn mower repair shop in town that I know of, and it's a gold mine.
Posted by Allan L. | September 23, 2012 8:05 AM
This illustrates the main reason the composting-everyother-week-garbage-can-picup program is uneconomical. I swear my wife spends up to three or four weeks per month preparing the Green yard bin to receive the few actual food scraps we actually generate in our household. The City said this year that the freaking new garbage regime managed to save us a whopping 89 cents off our monthly garbage bill than otherwise (never mind they raised the garbage bill rate while nearby Gresham without such program reduced their garbage rates).
So, effectively, Portland city hall has conscripted its citizens into almost like slave labor so as to meet some perceived "green-ness" goal (eventhough once has to question how running two to three trucks through neigborhoods instead of just one or two doesn't offset much of any recycling gains; then too if you drive Highway 26 through North Plains to the west end of Hillsboro, you get the aroma of all this endearing green madness.)
The city of Portland is a stifling bad dream when it comes to governance. AND IT"S NOT GOING TO GET ANY BETTER ANY TIME SOON with the two untrusty Mayorial candidates. I am writing in Lavonne Griffin-Valade for Mayor but the darkness of this city hall won't allow her any significant power.
Posted by Bob Clark | September 23, 2012 11:04 AM
That should have been three or four hours per month, my wife spends preparing the green yard debri bin for receipt of food scraps.
Posted by Bob Clark | September 23, 2012 11:05 AM
Lake Oswego is contemplating a food waste recycling fiasco - probably just to keep up with the big city to the North. After all, our planners want to be just as green as your planners! It does seem like there is a competitive race to the 19th century among these youthful thinkers. Gotta get a new city council for sure.
Here's one problem with PDX central planning: The planners want everyone to live in multifamily housing to re-green the suburbs and save the earth for food and energy production. There is no food scrap recycling for multifamily housing - the pain of this experiment is only for single family households. Developers and investors don't want huge, rotting heaps of food waste and critters fouling up their new infill projects. But it's OK for the little guy who has no clout.
Mass rebellion?
Posted by Nolo | September 23, 2012 12:04 PM
You keep saying "we" -- you got Mrs. Bojack out there with ya? Brave woman. Garbage duty always falls on the man's side of the ledger. And bug killing.
Posted by Pom Mom of LO | September 23, 2012 12:30 PM
Is that "foulness in the yard" sort of like a last feast for Stenchy, to signal the end of the PDX-imposed gravy train?
Posted by Tung Yin | September 23, 2012 12:58 PM
I was going to make some clever comment about being late for KP and assigned to the grease-trap, garbage-can detail, but you wouldn't know what I was talking about. Semper Fi!
Posted by RickN | September 23, 2012 7:39 PM
Pressure washers can be fun.
So how does your deck look now?
Be carefull if you do the house, you might blast the paint off.
skip the sidewalk, it will just end up stripes and the gick will come back soon anyway. Exception: use it to write the kid's names.
Car?? yes! finally get those hub caps clean clean clean!
Cheers!
Posted by Concordbridge | September 23, 2012 8:08 PM
Be carefull if you do the house, you might blast the paint off.
Staying away from the house. Doing the garbage bins, the deck, the sidewalks, the fence, the lawn furniture, Stenchy...
Posted by Jack Bog | September 23, 2012 10:15 PM
1: Using a gas-powered washer? You're on the list, murderous fiend.
2: Could you not just return the bin (dirty) to the folks who "gave" it to you?
Posted by Neo | September 24, 2012 4:19 PM