OUT AND ABOUT

The Valley from the landfill

Mike announced that he didn’t have anything on his schedule for Saturday (Feb. 11) and wondered what we might do. He thought of shopping at Costco, and I added taking our bottles and cans to the recycling site in Lewiston. So, it was agreed. We gathered all items saved for recycling, loaded the Dakota, and headed off to town.

Doing my part

At the recycling site, all items are dumped together, which makes me skeptical that this is anything but a garbage dump. As we tossed our recycling down the chute, I took a long look at what was already there. I saw boxes, magazines, bottles, and cans but also items that shouldn’t be there, such as bread sacks and Styrofoam “carry-out” boxes. I’m glad it’s not my job to sort it. Well, it’s the only site available to us for recycling of plastic and cans, so we’ll use it and hope it’s working on some level.

Interestingly, a gas grill was sitting there as well as some other appliance, bringing to focus again that the problem of disposal relates to virtually everything we own, not just our plastics, etc.

 

Then we went to Costco. Predictably, warmer temps brought the shoppers out, but we were able to navigate. We only had a few items on our shopping list, but seeing a display of rugs (runners) at $10 each, we bought three for the farmhouse kitchen. (Remember the farmhouse? It seems long ago and far away.) But when we came to the vanilla, I suffered sticker shock -- $23.99 for 16 ounces. I put it back, but I can hardly get along without vanilla. I guess I’ll be using that imitation stuff until the price goes down again (hopefully). KW