When we purchased our property, it had, what looked like, a bit of debris and roadside trash. We soon realized, there is a lot more trash than we initially saw.
After years of overgrowth and decay, leaves and dirt have piled up and buried an immense amount of debris. Jeff and I often wonder… “What the heck did this place look like when the previous family lived here?”
If you have been following us on YouTube, you may have seen our first video in which we provide a tour and overview of this overgrown mess. When making that video, I touched on how much trash we have seen on the property. Years of squatters leaving rubbish behind and trash tossed out of passing vehicles gave us a lot to clean up.
Granted, we don’t know for a fact where all this litter came from, and I am not trying to trash talk (no pun intended) the previous owners. This property has been vacant for 15 to possibly 20 years. 15 to 20 years of squatters have done a number on this place. What we are finding though are items dug deep into the ground. Shoes, kids toys (LOTS of broken up kids toys), compact disk cases, dry-rotted blankets, carpet rolled up and tossed to the back of the property, dinner ware, bowls, mason jars, random pieces of electric fence wire, barbed wire (not from fences… just discarded pieces), an insane amount of two-liter bottles. Actually, our chickens scratched up a 20 ounce bottle the other day! I'm not talking about one of "this" and one of "that"... we are talking multiples of the items listed above. That’s not all though, there is SO MUCH more!
My point being… pay attention to what you do to your property. Real-estate is an investment – no only for you, but it is a legacy that you can hand down from one generation to the next. You really don’t want your grand-kids to run around and accidentally trip over a piece of barbed wire you discarded haphazardly years before do you? What if you do end up selling your property though? Do you really want to be responsible for a cut foot or hand years in the future? Sure, you may not even care… but my hope is that this short rant may have put that little nugget into the back of your mind. That little thought that will now hit every time you, or someone you know, decides that dumping your trash and junk wherever you want is okay because it is your property. Now, I know... This is America, it is your property, and you can do what you want, but being an American with free rights, you should also have American Pride - and we personally take GREAT pride in keeping it clean.
Keep in mind – the property you own isn’t really yours. You purchased it, yes – but it still belongs to this planet. We continue to uncover trash and junk every single day – we get more and more angry with each bit of rubbish. We just became first time grandparents – and the thought that we are unable to let my future grandson run around this property annoys me. It will take years for us to ensure this property is safe. We may even have to excavate the entire top 18 inches (or more)!
Don’t just think about yourself and what is just “easy”. Think about being responsible for future generations.
~Don't trash your property
~Don't trash someone else's property
~Teach your kids not to through trash around
~Don't throw garbage out your car windows
~Wait until you get to a trash can
I know... I'm preaching to the choir, but please share this (nonchalantly of course) to those you think may need to hear it.
Please, HAVE PRIDE in your land – this earth. It is one of the few commodities that we cannot produce more of.
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