By Joanna Bastian
Due to a recent, unexpected “slash and burn” event last July that shall not be named, spring cleaning is a bigger task this year than in previous years. Methowians are hard at work fixing irrigation lines and fences, clearing building sites, and replanting trees and bushes.
On our property in the lower valley, as with other areas, the sudden clearing of brush last summer revealed a significant amount of discarded metal litter. The annual Methow Recycles Metal Drive will be the lucky recipient of several rolled up lines of tangled, rusty barbed wire, and some mysterious unidentified pieces of metal.
The Metal Drive is now officially an annual event on the first weekend in May. This valuable fundraiser supports Methow Recycles programs that help property owners clean up their land, and keep recycled goods out of landfills. This year’s annual drive will be held at Cascade Concrete on Horizon Flats Road in Winthrop on May 2 and 3 from 9 a.m.–2 p.m.
The Metal Drive is taking anything made of metal. Appliances like washers and dryers are free to drop off, but anything with a coolant, like refrigerators and freezers, will be charged a $15 purging fee. Wire, like barbed wire, should be rolled up. Anything with an engine, like old farm equipment and vehicles should have as much plastic and rubber removed as possible and all the fluids drained. For vehicles that were destroyed in the Carlton Complex event, contact Methow Recycles director, Betsy Cushman, at 996-2696 to arrange details.
For smaller, miscellaneous items, there is a metal recycling bin at the Methow Recycles site in Twisp. This is only for smaller lightweight items that people may find while doing litter pickup along the highway or around their property. Please check with a staff person before depositing metal at Methow Recycles. This bin is now available year round.
Look for more details at www.methowrecycles.org, call Betsy, email recycle@methowrecycles.org, or stop by Methow Recycles.
Several drainages in the lower valley have recently been outfitted with new signs, detailing the dangers of falling logs, rocks, etc. A glaring omission on the sign is “falling mattresses.”
I very nearly fatally wounded my magnificent husband this weekend with a falling mattress. We had to move a queen-sized bed from one second-story room in the house to another second-story room above the garage. Whoever built our house either had a great sense of humor, or a serious lack of measuring skills. Short narrow hallways, 90-degree turns and stairway banisters make moving furniture a challenge of epic proportions.
As we contemplated how to move the mattress and boxspring out of the upstairs bedroom, I had the semi-brilliant, albeit terrible, idea to shove them over the railing of the second story bedroom porch and husband would stand below and catch them. Like all terrible ideas, we embraced it enthusiastically.
Later that evening I had the pleasure of participating in a Readers’ Theater production at The Merc. Laurelle Walsh directed four hilarious one-act plays that were performed by Andy Miller, Tim Odell, Raven Odion, Frank Vander Wall, George Wooten and myself.
Afterwards someone asked me if I had acted before and without missing a beat, my mister says, “It is non-stop drama at our house!” I should have dropped the mattress on him when I had the chance.
