What significant things have I done today?

[Griffin NoName]

Went to my aunts funeral. Now I am half dead.

My Dad bumped into someone he knew just coming out of the funeral before "ours", who surprised to see my Dad, said "What are you doing here?"

I so wish my Dad had replied "I've come to be buried of course!" - but he didn't.

Silly questions beg silly answers.

[beagle]

Half cut a very large hedge. One/sixteenth shredded the cuttings from a very large hedge.

[Griffin NoName]

I know councils are getting Tough on Rubbish and Tough on the Causes of Rubbish, but does yours really check how many 16ths you have chopped it into?

Me? Today? Turned down an offer to have free membership of a dating agency for which I was being asked to pay. Yeh, it didn't make sense to me either. (I'd say it was a cold call, but it came by letter, can one have a Cold Letter?)

[Aggie]

Half cut a very large hedge. One/sixteenth shredded the cuttings from a very large hedge.

One sixteenth of the cuttings from half the very large hedge, or one eighth of the cuttings from half the very large hedge?  Inquiring minds want precise answers.

Or perhaps you shredded all the cuttings to 1/16".

[Scriblerus the Philosophe]

Indeed we do.

Finished my first week of this semester and I think I'm going enjoy being horrendously busy.

[pieces o nine]

Weeded the garden(s), fixed the leaking bird bath fountain, and ... in a final burst of energy, successfully pried all the dried-up/rusted-lids/color no longer in use/*seriously old* cans of primer, paint, and stain *and* all the dried-up/cannot-remove-caps tubes of adhesives, household lubricants, and the like from my mom's clutches.

*does little dance of victory*   

I am going to reward myself with ice cream!

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

Weeded the garden(s), fixed the leaking bird bath fountain, and ... in a final burst of energy, successfully pried all the dried-up/rusted-lids/color no longer in use/*seriously old* cans of primer, paint, and stain *and* all the dried-up/cannot-remove-caps tubes of adhesives, household lubricants, and the like from my mom's clutches.

*does little dance of victory*   

I am going to reward myself with ice cream!

Did you properly dispose of the above?  <heh heh heh>

I would strongly suggest digging a honkin' big hole somewhere or other.....really deep.

Or, just wrap in plastic an throw it into the garbage-- then it's someone ELSE's problem, yes?   

'Round hereabouts, they have every year or so, a "bring in your old paint, glue, etc" rally, and people can freely bring that stuff for SAFE disposal.  Some is incinerated.  Most is sealed and buried.

Nasty stuff, some of that...

....significant, today?  Not a darn thing, thankyouverymuch.   (still worked my donkey off, though...)

[beagle]

Half cut a very large hedge. One/sixteenth shredded the cuttings from a very large hedge.

One sixteenth of the cuttings from half the very large hedge, or one eighth of the cuttings from half the very large hedge?  Inquiring minds want precise answers.

Or perhaps you shredded all the cuttings to 1/16".

Revised figures now including today's achievements.
The complete count:

Amount of complete hedge now cut:            3/4
Amount of complete hedge now shredded:    1/2
Number of times shredder jammed up:            5
Number of times thumped shredder:               5
Number of times dismantled shredder:             5

I know councils are getting Tough on Rubbish and Tough on the Causes of Rubbish, but does yours really check how many 16ths you have chopped it into?

The shredding is so we can keep the council out of the equation.  One shredded bag is the equivalent of about 5 non-shredded bags, and it can go back round the base of the hedge to make it grow...

Tomorrow's task is to do the remaining quarter and convince my father to take up Bonsai or possibly Banzai, or just anything on a smaller scale.

[beagle]

Yay. Three days of hedge cutting (and one rained off) complete. Now I don't have to worry about an 85 year old trying to balance precariously ten foot up in the air waving a hedge trimmer. Back to work for a rest tomorrow.

[Aggie]

Did you properly dispose of the above?  <heh heh heh>

I would strongly suggest digging a honkin' big hole somewhere or other.....really deep.

The closer to the groundwater, the better?   

*shudders*

If one really must self-bury, I'd suggest (Canadian) drilling waste methods:

1) Find a location with good, tight clay (no sand!).   Make sure local groundwater levels are sufficiently deep (>3 m) to avoid contact with wastes.

2) Dig your pit deep enough to accomodate at least 5 - 10 times the volume of waste at a depth 1 m BELOW ground surface.  You'll want to pack a metre of clay on top of it at the closeup, so depending on the diameter of the pit, dig to 1.5 - 2 m below ground surface.  We'll assume that it's clay all the way down - normally you'd need to check that there's a metre of clay below the mix zone.

3) Place wastes in pit, mix thoroughly with some of the excavated clay.  Drilling waste gets mixed off at about 1 parts waste to 3 - 7 parts soil, but as raw paints/solvents/etc. are generally nastier, go for 1 part waste:10 parts soil. 

4) Place remaining clay back in hole, compacting as you go.  Place at least 1 m of cap over wastes; mound if possible.


Of course, the US version (Montana) is much easier:

1) Dig pit

2) Put plastic liner in pit

3) Dump wastes on liner

4) Fold edges of liner over centre to 'seal'

5) Backfill pit

[Sibling Chatty]

That's why we takes the nassssty stuffs to teh man in teh little place wif all teh innerestin' containers.

He takes it away...and probably puts it down the storm drain at midnight...

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

Cleaned the birds cage. I should do it more often though.. 

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

That's why we takes the nassssty stuffs to teh man in teh little place wif all teh innerestin' containers.

He takes it away...and probably puts it down the storm drain at midnight...

Years ago, my parent's church was across the street from the last downtown Ford dealership.   (the church is still there, the dealership? ...long gone, thank the stars...)

I used to volunteer with their [the church's] local TV program, and I'd come in early on Saturday morning to key in the little titles at the bottom of the TV screen-- mainly the words to the hymns/prayers/etc.

Anyway, back during the "Ford days" one had to be very careful around floor drains in the church-- they often smelled of paint thinner....

The church and the dealership shared the municipal sewer systems, and on Saturdays, the dealership's paint shop "disposed" of their used chemicals by pouring it down the sanitary sewers.... counting on the lax city "inspectors" to never work on Saturday or Sunday, and almost never on Monday either... besides the ford place was one of the major downtown "players".  Who's gonna upset that apple-cart?

I used to call in complaints, but next Saturday-- the smell'd return.   Gone by noon on Saturday. 

Corruption.  Gotta love it. 

[anthrobabe]

I wanna hear more about this facinating hedge/shrubbery trimming-shredder dismantaling beagle has been up to..........

[beagle]

On the vague chance that wasn't irony  I'll fill in more details.

My parent's house has  a huge hedge down one perimeter. Every year it grows two yards in height. Each year my mother has palpitations as she catches my father standing on the top step leaning right over the other side waving a hedge trimmer, so this autumn I beat him to it as it was a long weekend (with added Friday in my case) here.
It's very boring. The only exciting bit is not catching your hand or the cable in the trimmer, not stepping back to admire your work ten foot up, and remembering to turn the power off before taking apart the shredder and pulling solid lumps of green gunge from the outlet.