Our neighborhood clean up and some lost photos

Wasn't it great to have an extra hour yesterday? Although I had many items on my "to do" list for Saturday afternoon and Sunday, I made very little art. Sunday was simply too gorgeous, with a high of 76 degrees F, lots of sun, and very little wind. Added to that, we got an extra hour to play and I decided to hang two loads of laundry on the clothes line (don't sun dried clothes smell the best?), then just sit with Bleubeard and enjoy the day, rather than doing much else.

I'm still missing photos in my camera. Some that I thought I had deleted were on the camera when I downloaded the clean up, but some from the clean up were corrupt. I'm not sure if my card is going or what, but I'm hoping it was just a fluke. Regardless, I thought you might enjoy seeing what I did on Saturday, another gorgeous autumn day in the midwest.

Each fall, our neighborhood has a clean up of a certain area within our association boundaries. I have been very involved for years, and this year was no different. We always meet at the church where our association meetings are held and by 7:30 a.m. over 30 volunteers came to help with this year's clean up.

Young and young at heart showed up to participate.

Although I never eat breakfast, I had some coffee

while others ate hot cinnamon rolls and bananas, drank hot coffee, milk, or orange juice. We always feed the volunteers very well.

I was simply thrilled at the turnout, as can be seen by the full parking lot.

To my knowledge, this was the first year we gathered outside for breakfast. The church must have needed the kitchen.

This is one of two packer trucks I'll be on. It's my job to read the map and point out where the driver needs to go and stop. We divide the designated cleanup area into two parts and each part will have a packer truck. Little did I know at the time that the truck I was in would have the easiest route! The other driver had to take his trash to the dump after only one street.

As you can see, there are cars everywhere, including a tire truck out of camera range that will pick up tires for the neighborhood.

I feel bad because I got a lot more photos at the church which didn't download. I didn't stop to get too many while we were working.

One picture I did get was while I was in the cab of the packer truck. Here you can see the back of the truck from the camera that is attached to the dash. This is the first one I've seen in color, so they have upgraded their equipment.

It always looks like people are standing around, but that is not the case. With this many people, you can only load so much into the packer at one time. That means you take your turn. People who don't volunteer for the clean up are asked to help when the packer truck gets to their house. It's all about community.

Although the people haven't moved much, they are in line with their trash and ready to go.

Here is a picture I took standing on the truck looking through the mirror. These are some pretty big mirrors. There is one below the big one, which has a fish eye.

The driver didn't have to do anything except pack the truck. He is the one with the safety vest on standing by the lever.

I think it's always fun to hang onto the packer. If you've ever been on one of these clean ups, you know they are fun, but they are also hard work. Here the tire truck is getting ready to leave. The tires must be picked up separately and the City doesn't charge to haul the tires away when we have these clean ups.

Here is another view of the tires that were collected on Saturday. I thought I heard around 65, but that may not be correct.

When finished, we all met at a local restaurant and ate lunch. Did I mention how we love to eat?

The food at our table was about ready to come, so I missed a lot of the 29 people who showed up to eat.

I did manage to get a great photo of our President and her husband. And, yes, all those people in the background are also with the group.

Here are some of the lost photos from Friday. I had to take a photo of this piece, because this was as small as I could saw it using my miter saw.

I had the heavy leather fire retardant gloves on at this point because I was removing metal from the fire with my hands.

At least I found the photos of the jar lids, which I can't wait to play with.

And here are the final pieces right as the rain started.