Metal

Every house we have owned 

(THREE now!) 

has had trash and brush strewn about the property when we bought it. 

The first was because it was so old and things had accumulated over time. 

It was built between 1860 and 1890. 

It was also incredibly overgrown. 

You couldn't even walk to the front door when we purchased the place! 

We spent 12 years fixing it up 

(or should I say, saving it.)

It was a "fixer-upper" in every way, in and out, 

but I still love that home with an irrational love.

What can I say? 

It was always flooded in light.

The ceilings were high. 

It was full of angles, decorative touches, and color.

There were tons of "old lady flowers", 

like lilacs, peonies, daffodils, roses, and hostas.

There was room for chickens, a goat, and gardens.

Three of my children were born there,

and a fourth lies in the little cemetery nearby.

Our second home was also a jungle of sorts when we purchased it. 

Multiple kinds of ivy, autumn and Russian olives, and saplings and undergrowth from the encroaching woods had taken it over. No one had trimmed the bushes in years. 

A tree leaned on the house. Waist-high weeds were left standing in the yard. 

A deep carpet of leaves blanketed everything.

Farm and other inexplicable trash was strewn everywhere, things like baby pools, hog sheds, broken-down fencing, balls, toys, sports equipment, trash, food containers, articles of clothing, medicine blister packs, writing utensils, animal bowls, etc.
And the house was full of junk too. 

But the privacy, wildlife, and space were well worth it all. 

And we "christened" that house with the birth of our youngest.

After our five years there, it was very near to being a little piece of paradise.

This time of year I long to hear the sandhill cranes calling to each other as they fly over.

I want to hear the geese splash down on the pond as I wash the dishes.

I want to stand in the twilight near the waterfall, 

watching the sun set through the trees.

I want to hear the spring peepers in chorus 

as I sit in the screened porch after collecting eggs.

I want to see the giant forsythia hedge and many daffodils in bloom 

when I look out the window in the morning.

Obviously I'm posting "after" pictures... 

because I'm homesick for Indiana. 

But to get to the subject at hand, 

our latest home in Colorado has it's share of grunge and trash too. 

It's even overgrown in places- in its own Colorado way. 

Although, our larger problem will be establishing turf. 

There is a lot of bare earth. 

We're consistently foolish... or in this case, 

desperate to be settled as soon as possible,

and brave enough to dive into a place like this.

listing picture from three years ago

There are bits of broken plastic, pieces of dog toys, broken pottery, ripped up stuffed animals, remnants of shoes, crushed beer and soda cans (some chopped up by a mower), ruined books, broken glass, water bottles, floor mats, old fence parts, bailing straps, parts of broken lawn furniture, broken birdhouses, food containers, scraps of carpeting, cigarette butts, bits of grocery and garbage bags, pieces of broken irrigation, large "river rocks",  etc. strewn all over. 

I spent over three hours this afternoon
picking up the comparatively small section behind the house 

and filled a large garbage bag with junk!

Left to deal with are a bunch of carpentry scraps dumped next to the driveway by the house (probably for firewood since neither the thermostat or pellet stove worked when we moved in.) There's an overgrown, tumbled-down wood pile full of painted boards with nails in them! There's trash, fasteners, whirligigs, wire mesh, fence posts, and other leavings where a greenhouse once stood (and then a makeshift enclosed garden was.) Someone let their horse roam at will, so there are huge piles of "horse apples" all over the property, even next to the house and deck. Speaking of horses, the horse barn is full of junk- in fact one stall is full of tires, storage drums, etc. And the interior of the house- well I won't bore you any further with those descriptions.

On a recent Saturday I wanted to look at the pastures and the tumbled-down fence 

(which I hadn't yet had a chance to do) 

and to be outside. 

I set out with my middle boy. 

At the first corner that I came to, 

even with the end of our driveway and kitty corner to the road, 

we hit a snag. 

There is a copse of little scrub oaks along the fence. 

My boy decided to walk through them. 

I decided to walk around them and meet him on the other side. 

When I turned on my heel, I noticed a large, rusty screw on the ground. 

I bent to pick it up... and noticed several more near it. 

Then I realized that there was rusty metal all over the ground around me. 

I picked up what I could easily reach and soon had a large pile.

We fetched a garbage bag and a magnet bar and went to work. I didn't want to ruin any tires whenever it was that we would have to mow the sparse vegetation.

Every pass with the magnet roller yielded many rusty items.

For a long time, there seemed to be a never-ending supply.

But the day was beautiful, my husband was fixing the kitchen faucet which had broken, 

and my youngest was happily playing with his oldest sister. 

So we just picked up as much as we could.

the view from the corner where we collected (The driveway is between the wooden fences.)

There was SO much rusty metal. 

The bag wasn't strong enough to hold it all. 

I had to carry it up to the house in something else.

When I weighed it, there was over 6 ½ lbs. of metal!

I found a nail embedded in a piece of melted glass when we were getting started, 

so eventually I formulated a theory. 

I think that after the greenhouse 

(which I saw in an old satellite photo) 

was ruined in the hail storm that my husband heard about from the insurance agent 

(who knew about it because the roof and solar panels were replaced because of it)

they hauled all of its framing to the corner of the property and burned it. 

What we were picking up was left after the burn. 

This would explain the high concentration of 

hinges, brackets, bolts, nails, corner braces, wire, screws, etc. 

I had already picked up a ton of metal around the fire ring and behind the workshop. 

I picked up quite a few rusty screws and nails in the back yard today too. 

Hopefully I've hit the worst of it, 

but I'll have to haul the magnet bar out there soon to make sure.

Whatever the case, I'm sure I'll come to love it here just as much as I've loved my previous homes. I'm already learning to appreciate the aridity, sunshine, and wind. And no one can complain about a view of the front range, especially when the sun sets behind it. Plus, the house is large, unconventional, and quirky. Those are all good qualities for a sizable family like ours.