Week 8 – Lincoln Park…or Linkin Park?

“In the shadow of the day…will embrace the world in grey”

It was a cold and foggy morning… Okay, it wasn’t very cold, but it was quite foggy and the perfect morning for a walk through Lincoln Park in West Seattle.  The mist through the trees was quite beautiful and though we scoured the park we found almost no trash, which made us quite proud. 

We meandered toward the beach where Ben finally found litter hidden in the brush under massive amounts of leaves.  An old Olympia Beer can and another beer can not yet opened!  Lincoln Park is truly magical.  Thank goodness he found the stash because my bucket consisted of one can, a few granola wrappers and a couple of bags of dog poo which I intended to drop off at the nearest trash can and NOT make it a part of my bucket-o-trash.

Ben walked the beach as I walked the path heading towards the Fauntleroy Ferry Dock.  Joggers, moms with strollers, and many dog-walkers as well, all talking about the many events going on in their lives.  We, on the other hand, would shout out the occasional, “Oh, I found a good one!”

This led to groups of people peering into our buckets to see what we were collecting on the beach.  At first when they saw the trash they had a disappointed look.  Then their look turned to admiration and a “Thank you for doing that!” type of vocal praise.  I immediately became embarrassed over the praise and just muttered a “oh, it’s nothing.” 

Ben on the other hand took the opportunity to talk about our blog and gave people our web address and encouraged them to pick up a bucket themselves once a week and talked about how fun and easy it could be.  One lady even said she always carried an empty bag along her walks “just in case” she found anything to pick up…very encouraging. 

I’ll have to follow Ben’s lead and not be so shy in marketing our desire to be green and give back to our communities.  I’ll channel the rock star wannabe in all of us and promote…promote…promote.  The next time you see us we may be passing out business cards!

Week 7 – Dog Day Afternoon

Ben’s daughter Abby (who is fourteen going on 40), was held hostage by the Bucket Brigade this weekend.  We set off for errands and just happened to have our buckets with us at the time.  What a coincidence!  We picked up litter in a primarily wooded area on a winding road with cars occasionally whizzing by. Hartstene Island is teeming with tame deer, goats, dogs, etc., which scare and amaze this Seattle city girl.

Before we reached our destination we spotted a few cans on the side of the road and Ben pulled over while I jumped out and quickly retrieved them for our buckets.  A yellow dog came bounding after me as I quickly jumped back into my seat in the nick of time.  His teeth exposed and heading right for my open window and probably my jugular.  I screamed of course, which is expectant of someone who is just about to get their face eaten off by a rabid cujo-like dog. 

Ben sped off into the wind…protecting his beloved Lori as Abby yelled from the back seat, “Wasn’t that the cutest dog in the world? He totally licked my hand!”  Maybe he wasn’t so rabid after all.  Abby said he wasn’t actually exposing his knife-like teeth but that’s what dogs look like when they smile.  She also said that when their tail goes back and forth in a swinging type manner that is actually called “wagging” and is “supposedly” a friendly gesture. 

Later as we wandered along the side picking up rubbish ever-so-sweetly, we came upon a dead dog on the  side of the road.  Oh no.  We looked for our yellow dog on the way home but Ben assured Abby that he was happily at home with his family.  She begrudgingly believed him.

Two buckets, one dead dog, one traumatized teenager and fifteen minutes later we were done.  We were convinced that Abby would surely revolt the next time we suggested picking up rubbish…ATTICA! ATTICA!

David from Des Moines, IA

It was thirty-eight degrees when I set off with my bucket looking for trash here in Des Moines, Iowa. I decided that a nearby park would be the chosen site for clean up. As I drove to the park I went through an intersection that was littered with multiple potential buckets (maybe next week’s cleanup site). I’m almost embarrassed to write this but it only took me six minutes to fill my bucket. The most interesting thing I found was the 32 oz. bottle of Miller pictured next to me on the bench (no that wasn’t my reward for a job well done). In the six minutes that I spent working my mind quickly ran up against a dilemma I find myself in when thinking about recycling. That is, if I see something at work that can be recycled is it my responsibility to take it home, even if it isn’t mine? What if the object is already in the garbage? Do I reach in a pull it out ala’ George Castanza and the ice cream bar? Now that I’m a member of the bucket brigade I wonder if I’ll find myself in a similar quandary when I see any bit of garbage? More power to Ben and Lor’s idea. – David Lake (Des Moines, Iowa)

Week 6 – Waste, Industrial or Other-Wise

Ben’s parents took us out to a dinner last night to a quaint little Mexican restaurant in Shelton. Whether it was the green chili sauce that he poured all over his burrito (so I wouldn’t steal a bite), or maybe a touch of a stomach virus but poor Ben spent all morning looking greener than the hot sauce.

This little bit of news helped decide where we would fill our buckets. We decided on the West Seattle Industrial Area for two reasons; it was near our house so we could run home quickly if Ben “pooped” out… and we figured it would take all of one minute to fill our buckets.

It actually took five minutes and two buckets to complete our mission. I wasn’t sure if the refuse center around the corner had anything to do with the vast amounts of waste and debris. Did the rubbish fly off the Waste Management trucks as they went to the dump, or did passers-by toss their rubbish out the window and say, “close enough?”

We drove away thinking how easy it was to fill our buckets today but as we looked back we realized it would require multiple trips before we could even put a dent in that particular area. Now there’s an offer we can’t “refuse!”

Barbara from Nashville, TN

Thanks to Barbara from Nashville, TN for joining the Bucket Head Brigade. She picked up a bag o’ trash in 20 minutes on Sunday 11/9. Check out her blog, she’s doing great things in Nashville.

Here’s a picture of her haul:

And my best guess as to where she helped make the world a cleaner place:

Would anyone else out there in the world like to fill a bucket, bag, or wheelbarrow and join us?

Thanks,

Ben

Week 5 – Our Political De-sign

Ben came up with a great idea about this weeks Bucket Brigade mission, we would take down political signs scattered over various neighborhoods.  Currently political signs are required to come down 72 hours after the election is over but we all know how they can linger, especially in precarious areas of a neighborhood. 

How can a person climb fences and reach magestic heights for the love of their political incumbent only to watch the slow decay of cardboard tacked on lightpoles and trees?  We’re thinking that they probably lost their election and then weren’t too anxious to climb back over those fences or reach those majestic heights after all. 

We tallied the names and looked up the county election results and sure enough 59% of the signs we found lost their election, initiative or levy. Perhaps their dejected hearts couldn’t bear risking a near-death experience picking up signs in the ditch adjacent to a busy road, next time let’s meet in the middle of the road.

Kudos to the Obama and McCain camp, since 4 hours, 4 counties and 2 buckets later we did not find one of their signs which occupied so many areas just a short week ago.  It has been almost a week and we exercised our choices and made our decisions, it’s time to clean up since the party is over.  Signing off…Ben and Lori

Yes we can!

Week 4 ~ Com-post with us!

Out of the ashes of the road the great pumpkin rises!

Click on our poll to vote for this year’s winner of our Pumpkin Contest.  I won last year with a pumpkin displaying a bubbling, bulging eyeball which all ten trick-or-treaters loved.  Since we had only six trick-or-treaters this year we decided to let our readers and fellow Bucket Heads decide.  These two pictures are all we have left of our Pumpkins.  Why?  Because the second the porch light turned off Ben went-a-smashing to produce compost fodder.  The evil glint in his eye was reminiscent of Jason or Freddie.

The next day as we went hunting for garbage we found  a street that looked like Leatherface from the Texas Chain Massacre went on a rampage.  The toilet-paper tricksters and snack-size litterers found their way to a West Seattle street where the residents actually shouted to Ben, “Thank you!” as he unwound the Halloween carnage.

The best part of the day was leaving a tiny bit of room in our buckets for the smashed pumpkins on the road.  Ben giggled ala Igor as he drooled over the dead pumpkin innards and shouted…”food for my compost!”

So don’t forget to click on your favorite pumpkin and also, don’t forget to vote on election day on Tuesday.  If someone can get as excited as Ben about cleaning the road, the least we can do is get excited about someone cleaning up the mess the last administration has left.  Yep, time to clean house…the White House.

4 weeks and 8 buckets later we’re carving a new road…sans pumpkins!

Your contributions

Bucket Heads are those great people who contribute to the enviroment and to our blog. We’ll post your stories and pictures here. Please email us with:

1. Where you filled your bucket(s)
2. How long it took to fill them
3. Pictures of your adventure

Click here to email us with your contributions.

Thanks for helping us help the world.

Ben and Lori