Garbage on the Homestead

rofl

Would a chipper/shredder take care of bones? Just a thought, DH found a new toy, and we've been rethinking our trash situation and the subject of bones came up. We too, have dogs, cats and coyotes that would be very happy to find a pile of bones. One of our dogs gets very aggressive if he has a bone. scary!

Trash service is something I've been reluctant to give up. I don't even think we have a trash dump within 40 miles of our house. I must find out though. Because of you all, I am determined to make giving up trash service my new year's resolution for 2006. This will be the biggest lifestyle change for me yet, besides quitting smoking. All that thinking, where does this go? where does that go? maybe I shouldn't buy this it will make plastic trash? Blahhhhh. OK. Done whining.

I'd compost anything biodegradable, if it weren't for the 'call to all predators' having meat and such in the compost bins puts out. I compost what I can, chicken and cat what I can , and the rest goes to the dump.

I was, once upon a time, a vet tech working in an Atlanta ER. I saw one chicken bone stuck in a dogs throat. Just one. What I saw many times were dogs that had chewed up cooked beef bones, and had impactions from what had basically become bone sand and gravel. Not fun surgery, taking out sections of dead intestine. The most common bone problem was more funny (to us, not the dogs) and less dangerous. You know those little round steak bones? Well, somehow or other, a dog chewing on one can manage to pop it over the lower canines and over the lower jaw. I don't know how they manage to do that, unless it's from propping it up on something to try to gnaw the marrow out, and having it pop back on them like a tiddley-wink! Gotta be the right size dog for the bone, though. But, they're easily removed with a bolt-cutter, so only a problem to the stray.

Meg

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All life requires death to support itself. The key is to have an abiding respect for the deaths that support you. --- Mark T. Sullivan

Dogs n cats are omnivores. They eat vegitation also. If you ever see dogs and cats in the wild they will eat the stomach contents first then go for the meat.

IF its smaller than a football its not a dog

yeah, put your garbage in the small plastic grocery bags and drop them off at the gas station. I'm sorry but if they can charge me 50 freakin bucks to fill up my mini van they can take a few bags of garbage. C'mon let's all do it.

My garbage routine begins at the grocery store. The way something is packaged has a big influence on whether I buy it or not. Our town accepts plastics #1 and 2. So, I take #3 to my parent's (in a different town) for them to deal with. Same thing with cardboard. Our town only accept corrugated cardboard. My parent's town collection accepts flattened cereal boxes and the like, so I take ours there.

I also don't use plastic (saran) wrap. Any leftovers go into covered dishes. I had purchased the plastic covers that have elastic on the edges. I bought these probably 15 years ago (WAY before the new ones on the grocery shelf now) and still use them. Easy to wash and bleach.

Plastic bags from the grocery store go back to the store for their recycling bin.

We do not feed any bones to our dog or cats or pigs. We burn all bones that we can.

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Charleen in Western NY www.harperhillfarm.com

A bite of butter greases your track. ~ Gramma Sarah

I compost everything organic. Sometimes I'll get too much offal from butchering, but if I keep piling on junk hay, the smell goes away pretty fast. Just have to get a balance between the greens and browns.

Our biggest problems are cans and plastic. Should be able to cut way back on both pretty soon. Since we moved and I've been pretty overwhelmed here, I've been using disposable dishes and buying a lot of canned foods. Once we switch to washing dishes and get our garden producing, we will be cutting way back on trash. I still only have a kitchen can full a week. Hardly worth 20$/mnth pickup charge. I'm putting up a small fenced area to put the bags in (away from the house) while I'm accumalating enough for a trip to the dump.

What really is a bummer is that someone decided this place would be an ideal 'private dump' and there is a lot of trash I have to haul off. Most of it is covered in weeds and bermuda grass and briers, so I'm waiting till winter to touch it. I'm sure there are snakes under there!

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I believe in God's willingness to heal.

Cyngbaeld's Keep Heritage Farm, breeding a variety of historical birds and LaMancha goats. (It is pronounced King Bold.)

A friend's very wonderful dog died from eating fish bones left out for the cat. I'd always avoided giving mine poultry bones but had never thought about fish till this happened.

Chris

I'm in the same boat. The dumping on my land was done without my permission or knowledge. It seems like the more I haul out the more I find. I pulled up a piece of corrugated tin last month and there was a huge yellow jacket nest under it. Needless to say I vacated the area quickly since I'm mildly allergic to yellow jacket venom. One or two stings will make me tingle and make my chest tight. A bunch of stings would probably kill me. Found a rattlesnake under an old truck hood once but that was more of a neat find than a real hazard.

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Respect The Cactus!