The Joy of Garbage
Our dumpster is located approximately five miles from our place so it’s a task to get rid of our garbage. Garbage in itself is quite the job at any resort but it is one I enjoy doing. Yesterday I got to go to the dump; our dumpster along with others down a gravel road.
The dumpsters are a good source of food for some animals so it isn’t uncommon to see wildlife there. Everyone tries their best to carefully replace their bar above the lids and secure it with a lock. Sometimes it doesn’t work as well as others as some of you may remember from reading last year’s entry about the bear. In any case, some of the dumpsters are a little bit older and rustier than others and some even have holes in them. Critters like to get inside of the dumpsters sometimes trapping themselves.
Yesterday when I pulled up to the dump I noticed it looked quite messy around many of the dumpsters. I took a little bit of time to pick up trash before unlocking mine. I thought the bear may had been back already looking for food and when I started to move my bar away from the dumpster I heard some growling. I stopped what I was doing to listen and then the noise stopped too. I began to move the bar again and the growling started up. I could determine the noise was coming from within the dumpster so I proceeded slowly. I carefully lifted all four of the lids as the critter continued growlling. I couldn’t see the critter so I began to jostle the bags around and finally got a peek at the pine marten who was feasting on our trash.
The pine marten was quite content being inside of the dumpster and had no intentions of leaving. I wanted to get the garbage out of my truck and get back home but I didn’t want to throw it on top of the pine marten. I decided to move more of the old bags around in the dumpster and then took a stick to try to coax the little bugger out. Finally, after way too much fooling around the pine marten sprang out of the dumpster and up a tree.
I quickly disposed of my garbage, locked the dumpster and headed back home. I was grinning at myself as I thought about all of the different encounters I have had while taking garbage. Even when someone inadvertently places fish guts in a bag for 5 days at 100 degrees or white little rice shaped things are crawling over the bags, taking garbage is an experience. As I rounded Moose Pond I saw the two moose drinking from the pond and that only confirmed my thoughts… Ahhhh, the joy of garbage.