Some people are just pigs slobs (being nice to pigs)...
This is a small section of the front of our property off the main road...
I saw this as we drove by and thought WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?
I got on the mower and rode back up there to see it, this is what I found.
Bags of trash, an old TV (!), a broken chair...
...a fertilizer spreader of some sort, bags of aluminum cans, a round wooden table, and of course a trash can...with that last item, I suppose the irony was lost on them, but not on us.
In honor of last night's premiere of The Walking Dead, what about this?
Do you suppose this kind of sign would deter them? Nah, it would probably just make them dump the stuff and run faster, ha.
So we got on Amazon and ordered several "No Littering / No Dumping" signs, and even one stating that the area is "Under Surveillance". They are metal and reflective so hopefully that will work. They haven't arrived yet, but should be here by next weekend Of course, we do need to get the front cleared out a bit and then put a nice new fence all along the the property edge, but that's going to be quite expensive and thus, a year or two away on our 'to do' list.
We hope in the meantime, the signs will show people that this IS someone's property, but it still saddens us that some people are just lazy pigs.
We hope in the meantime, the signs will show people that this IS someone's property, but it still saddens us that some people are just lazy pigs.
As a native Texan, this is one of the few things that I dislike about Texas--the litter. I think some people in the country dump their trash because they live outside of the city limits which means they have to pay for their own trash pick up. Many will go to any lengths to avoid paying. While walking around our city park the other day, I observed a pickup truck drive into the park and go directly to the dumpster where he proceeded to unload ELEVEN! bags of trash into it. I regularly have to pick up Bud Lite cans and Corona bottles and sometimes even condoms out of our yard where they evidently drive by at night and pitch them out on their way home.
ReplyDeleteI believe Austin County may have randomly installed cameras in some of the known worst known areas for dumping. Not sure if it's working or not.
I hope your signs work. They just might!
Kathy
They don't want that stuff in the car when they go to church in the morning.
DeleteKathy, isn't it sad? It does seem like trash is worse here (or maybe our local governments just don't pick it up quickly enough). Condoms? Eww! And beer bottles and cans stick after a few days in the heat. Ugh. I'll keep everyone posted. Of course, the next thing we have to do is clean it up.
DeleteToo funny about church...probably lots of things dumped just before church, ha.
DeleteAlso meant to add that although it's the right of way and not technically your responsibility, if you can try and keep it mowed and the weeds down, they will usually bypass the mowed areas and keep going until they find another place.
ReplyDeleteKathy
Great suggestion Kathy, thanks!! I will remember that. Keep it cut down it might be less appealing. Thanks!!
DeleteI share your disgust at such despicable behavior, but...the comparison is not fair to real pigs! ;)
ReplyDeleteDuly noted AND corrected in the post. :-)
DeleteWe have the same problem, well actually our neighbour does. Our road is isolated and goes through the national park, our properties border the national park. Our property, luckily, is on a steep rise from the road but the other side of the road, the neighbours side is a gully and all manner of things get dumped there. Our local rangers actually go through the rubbish and investigate the receipts etc, from this they can often locate the dumper and fine them. People don't think about that and often include identifiable items like bills with their name and address or even receipts of big items can be traced via the store they purchased them from. It leaves a very unpleasant taste in your mouth and you feel like you have been violated in a way. We often have to clean up the tins and bottles thrown from passing cars from our front yard and that's enough for me to see red.
ReplyDeleteI love that they go through the receipts! Brilliant! That's awesome. I'd love to see that happen here. Hmm...part of me wants to look through it but the other part doesn't want to have to touch it, ha. And sad that you are by a national park and people do that. Seeing red for sure!
DeleteWe share that sentiment about pigs, lazy slobs, etc. While we rarely have full trash thrown, there are always beer cans, soft drink containers, fast food wrappers, etc. Some of it is because of the red necks that throw stuff in the back of their pickups & it just blows out while driving along. Others toss it out the window. Our little stretch of road is at the edge of the county & always gets cleaned last, if ever. We did drive down the dirt road a few weeks ago, to clear a pipe coming under the road from our branch area & found a flat screen TV that you could only see after you got down in the ditch. Pigs!
ReplyDeleteOh you are so right, I see pickups all the time with crap blowing out of the back end. A flat screen tv? Isn't it amazing what people do? Can you imagine what their homes much look like? Or heck, maybe they are clean since they dump their stuff in our yards, ha.
DeleteI suspect pigs would behave better. Sometimes I despair about our species. Often if the truth be told.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely!!! And yes, I understand. I despair at times as well.
DeleteUGH!!!
ReplyDeleteDOUBLE UGH!!! :-)
DeleteThey are everywhere...not just Texas.
ReplyDeleteWell I'm not sure if that makes me feel better or not, LOL. Sad but true, right?
DeleteDo not get me started on trash on the road sides. Rural areas and freeways! Geesh as you say bags of stuff, furniture you name it. When I moved to Texas a million years ago one of the first things I noticed was alllllll the litter on the road ways. Now having lived here a lot of years it still just amazes me how trashy the roads are and your picture shows the issues very well in rural areas. On my drive to work I go down two FM roads. FM roads for those who don't live in Texas are rural roads. Though yes some maybe heavily traveled. I have been passing the same mattress yes mattress now for about 3-4 months on a heavily traveled road. I guess the City this road is in doesn't feel the need to pick it up. Then there are other places with just awful amounts of trash similar to your photo. I watched one day at a four way stop, a man got out of his truck and walked around to the passenger side door and promptly began tossing all his fast food bags out of his truck onto the road side!!! Right there at a four way stop and me glaring at him the whole time. I didn't budge even though no traffic was coming behind him or me or the other ways I just was not believing what I was seeing! Ok I am going to stop now because this issue just makes me CRAZY. I have lived in several states and I can tell you, Texas wins the prize for the most litter on the freeways and rural road sides.. sighhhhhhhhhhhhh... not a wonderful thing to win the prize for... :O(
ReplyDeleteAmen, you hit the nail on the head. Remember the Keep Texas Beautiful campaign and then the "Eyes of Texas are Watching" signs? Huge campaigns we had and nothing changed. Yes, the FM roads roads seem to be worst. I once watched a guy through two cans out of the window and there was a police officer coming the other direction and he flipped his lights on. I figured that was score one for the good guys, ha.
DeleteI've lived in several states in my life as well, and travelled through a few others and you're right, it just seems worse here for some reason. :-(
We live less than two miles from a small dump (a clean, well organized site where they actually sweep the grounds and help you). Because we are rural, we do not have trash pick up, so you need to take your trash to this little refuse site. And yet, people still pull over and just dump their trash anywhere there is not a front yard. It makes me so frustrated to be unable to stop it. Let us know how the signs work out!
ReplyDeleteI will keep you posted (no pun intended, ha). The signs should be here this weekend, hopefully, and we have a few electric poles we can affix them to along the front. We'll see what happens. I think the people who dump like that are just lazy huh?
Deletewelcome to my world! we live right in the middle of the biggest tourist area. i keep my place perfectly groomed. i wake up each day to mcdonalds bags, beer cans, cigarettes, etc, thrown in my yard. disgusting!
ReplyDeleteSad! You know, do you think tourists are the culprit? That would be so sad. How disrespectful to a place they don't even live! Wow. :-(
DeleteI disagree about pigs. I've never seen a pig leave bags of garbage or broken appliances by the road. A pig lives on my street. He's quiet and nice and never causes trouble. The first time I saw him I thought he was a chunky dog, but I checked and he's definitely a pig. So I don't want to say that some people are pigs. I will say that some are selfish slobs.
ReplyDeleteLove,
Janie
Love it! Thank you for making me smile and I have corrected the post to not offend pigs. :-) I like selfish slobs. :-)
DeleteI guess I am lucky to live where I do. Although our property fronts a county road we have never had any trash thrown onto it. In fact, there is no trash on the rural roads here at all. I cannot even relate to your post.
ReplyDeleteThat is so awesome. Residents of your area respect things and that's nice to hear. It does restore my faith a bit.
DeleteI live in the city in the Historic District on a 1/3 acre lot, a corner lot. There is a retaining wall outside the kitchen window at the edge of the street. Last night, I stood in the kitchen and watched out the window as a truck paused for about three minutes. I can assure you they were throwing trash up on the four foot wall and into my yard! I had the kitchen light on, and they could see me at the window if they had cared to look. Because you are rural, you get larger trash, but I get just as much as you, just liquor bottle, beer cans, fast food bags that animals open and strew about. The county or state might post a sign for you, saying what the ticket for littering is in your area.
ReplyDeleteGet a broken camera for security, put it in a tree or on a pole and it looks like a wireless security camera.
Maybe you can recycle the trash, using that table for something useful with bit of paint.
Exbf and I decided to take ride in the country. We got out as there was creek way down below. The rooms of furniture down the steep hillside was so sad that we both felt sick. The little trees had caught recliners, dressers and all sorts of stuff. The rest was in a little creek. Sad.
Brilliant idea about the broken video camera! Thanks for that, I will look for one (or two) and the thrift stores. I will see what i can repurpose, take a negative and make it a positive. Thanks!!
DeleteSad story about the furniture and stuff in a creek and the hillside. Wow.
What a mess - that is just awful!
ReplyDeleteGet a game camera and put up a sign “This property is under surveillance”. Get their license plate numbers and turn them in!
Thank you, isn't it sad? Lazy slobs.... ;-(
DeleteI will surely show my age with this comment, "Give a hoot, don't Pollute" which was a television anti-litter campaign that ran in the 70's. This campaign and the crying Indian commercials made a real impact on me as a child as a result I do not litter. Somehow we have been so busy preventing big issues like drugs and terrorism that we have failed to reinforce simple decent behavior like taking care of our earth. Sorry this happened to you.
ReplyDeleteDon't worry about that I remember it well myself. I like that Give a Hoot, totally forgot about that. And the crying Indian, wow, deep memory for me as well. I used to pick up trash whenever I was little.
DeleteYou are very observant about the other issues...decent behavior is lost...and Earth must pay the price, and by default, us as well. Thank you!
1st Man,
ReplyDeleteI'm terrible, I would have me some thick rubber gloves on and I would be going through the garbage to find anything with an address. People are really not to bright, I've found old bills in garbage dropped in the past. Evidence and and owner!!!! One of these when this happens again, I will be delivering garbage to it's rightful owner.
Thank you for that. I am thinking of doing that. And yeah, a little part of me (maybe a bigger part now, ha) wouldn't mind just returning it to its rightful owner(s) :-)
DeleteThink some Texans have emigrated here too...
ReplyDeleteSorry about that. Feel free to send them wherever you'd like...an island offshore would be fine. Deserted...and barren. :-)
DeleteBut your farm is beautiful!
ReplyDeleteAww, thank you for that! Much appreciated. It still needs a lot of work but it's coming along, slowly but surely. :-)
DeleteThere's apparently not enough money in the budget to keep the freeways and rural roadsides clean. Or so I was told by TDOT when I called to report the stovetop that I had to run over on the Katy freeway ($5,000 worth of damage to my car). In my informal studies, I have noticed that the states with the beautiful country roadsides (such as Ohio) also happen to have state income taxes. So there's plenty of money in their budgets for niceties such as regular roadside cleanup and mowing. However since one of the good things about Texas is no state income tax, I'm not sure what the answer is.
ReplyDeleteKathy
Ah, interesting observation. That does make sense. Thanks for that. And sorry about the stovetop (!) it's crazy on the roads here isn't it? Since you know the Katy Freeway, I assume you are local...I dodged a ladder the other day.
DeleteBe safe!
I read one of you responses above about posting your signs on electric poles. Check with your utility company before you do, as most don't allow signs to be attached. Better safe than sorry. Margie in Arkansas
ReplyDeleteI suggested a tree or pole, but did not say electric pole. I was talking about a pole that he could erect, nothing so tall or large as a power pole. I did not see anyone suggest an electric pole. It is illegal here, too, and probably in most states.
Delete1st man, I guess I didn't understand your response to Kate about the electric poles you mentioned. I apologize. No harm intended. Margie
DeleteMargie, Practical Parsimony probably missed my reply that you caught about some poles on the property and I did write power pole (and telephone pole). I thank you for that info, and thanks Parsimony too, about the illegality of it. I will use fence posts instead, ha. Thank you both! :-)
DeleteWhat a lot of good ideas, signs about surveillance, fake camera, mowing, all would work,I would look at the table and chair as a gift from the universe, ha.....youvwere saying that a table and chairs for meals would be good on the porch, might just need a few screws and some paint.....bargain !
ReplyDeleteThanks, we cleaned it up and we did save the table...the chair was beyond repair. Thank you!!!
Delete