Carry Our Kids' Supplies

The project:
Carry sleeping bags, pads, food and more for our kids on our girls' first backpacking trip.

From Backpackin

Time:
Three hours or so. (Or six man-hours if you count both of the carriers.)

Why bother?
Making their load lighter made their experience better than it could have been had they carried their own stuff. Wait a minute. Their own stuff WEIGHED more than one of them!

Worth it?
Yes!

Feeding Horses and Shoveling Shtuff

The project:
Feed horses while the girls' riding instructor takes her OWN children to Disneyland for a birthday celebration. While I'm there, shovel clean 6 horse stalls.

Time:
An hour.

Why bother?
I'll do just about anything in trade for being around horses. Feeding is easy, and morning feeding brings the added bonuses of horsey yawns and stretches followed by anticipatory nickers from the hungry crowd and finally the peaceful munching.

As for scoopin' - what goes in must come out. They really are manure factories!

Worth it?
Sure, helped her out and got some exercise, too. Had hoped to clean them all out, but ran out of time!

What Comes Around Goes Around

The project:
A circle of deeds that began with a pile of wood diverted from the dump to appreciative ranchers, and ended with a pile of horse manure in my front yard and a clean trailer returned.

Time:
Just over an hour to complete the cycle (plus 20 minutes drive time).

Why bother?
Throughout the weekend and early portion of this week I watched as a "neighbor" down the street filled a trailer with an amazing array of wood as he renovated his backyard, tore down and built a new fence and who knows what other home improvement projects. These weren't rotted scraps, but the remaining 4- to 6-foot segments of 2x4s, some 4x4s, six or eight SHEETS of press board and ply wood from projects new and not so very old, I'd guess.

Yesterday evening I stopped by and asked this stranger if the trailer was dump bound. Sure enough! It seemed like such a waste to me! The girls and I have been riding horses on a ranch where there's always something that needs to be built or repaired. These dump-bound scraps would do the trick.

I explained the situation and asked if I could tow the trailer out to share the goods. After overcoming his astonishment, he was more than happy to turn over the trailer and its contents to me for the morning.

This morning, while throwing and stacking the wood alongside the tack shed, it occurred to me the trailer would be perfect for hauling manure back home. (It's tough to do that in a minivan, and our sandy garden was in desperate need of fertilization - there's plenty of that with so many horses on hand there.) I pulled the trailer alongside our own Bandini mountain and within minutes was ready to head for home where I spread the goodies throughout the garden, then swept out the trailer before returning it, empty and clean, to the grateful wood donor.

No dump fee for him.
Free wood for the ranch.
Free manure for me.
Less material tossed in our landfill.

Worth it?
Are you kidding me! It was worth it just to get the wood for someone else, and to keep the usable stuff out of the landfill! It doesn't make sense to continue buying NEW wood at THESE prices when these NEW bits will do the trick and then some. Saved friends and a neighbor some cash, saved some space in the landfill for REAL trash.

The pile o' poop for my own garden was just a bonus.

Photo courtesy Joi under Creative Commons License.

Open Doors

The project:
Hold open doors for others while out and about.

Time:
Negligible.

Why bother?
Always a fun, easy deed. Fun because people are thankful.

Worth it?
Yes. Always.

Hold a Baby While His Parents Catch a Bite

The project:
While out to dinner with friends we haven't seen in an age, I volunteered to hold the 4-month-old while his parents relaxed a LITTLE bit and enjoyed their meal for awhile.

Time:
20 minutes or so

Why bother?
I was never a baby person, 'til I had my own. Now babies and I enjoy mutual admiration. A funny thing about babies, no matter how small, they seem to know when dinner time is, and they're not afraid to distract their parents from the meal set before them. And parents of infants seldom eat in peace. I thought I'd offer an extra set of hands and a funny face to keep him distracted, if only for a short rest for the parents, and certainly a baby fix for me.

Worth it?
Absolutely. What a cutie! So cuddly, and smiles from baby and parents alike were my reward. :)

Plastic Bag Drop

The project:
Drop off our plastic bags at the recycling spot.

Time:
Negligible.

Why bother?
No matter how much we try, we still end up with plastic bags from packaged grocery products.

Worth it?
Yes, better than in the landfill, or floating through the forest where we've often found them on the breeze.