Behind the house sits a good sized hill - trees grow (the soil is probably three inches deep in decaying pine needles) and the occasional wild critter gambols through, but other than Bear's mighty chain-saw there's not a lot else going on up there. The kids like to go wander around while B cuts up firewood.
(These are the Easter Bunny woods.)
Between the house and the woods lies the watershed, which stays wet most of the spring and fall. During the summer, though, it's possible to traipse through it and find interesting things - like antique beer cans, twisted bits of unknown metal, or even old bottles.
Part of the area, you see, was the household dump. The place where bottles and cans and rusted out household things were tossed. We've cleaned it out as we've found it, but it's not as though there's masses of stuff around - just bits, here and there, reminding us that we aren't the only ones who've spent our lives on this land.
The children like to bring me back things to ooh and aah over. Blue glass, a Watkins bottle, still with stuff (cod-liver oil??) inside. Small stuff.
And then a few days ago they found the motherlode. Back in the woods. It's huge. It's....oh, here:
I thought it was a Gallo bottle until I saw that it has 'Made In Canada' stamped into the glass on the bottom. And while the top is tightly rusted on, the sludgy blackness inside looks like oil. Motor oil. B thinks perhaps it's gas mixed with oil - for a chainsaw, perhaps? - and now I have no idea what to do with it. Putting it in the recyclable bag seems....well, stupid, and letting something like this (possibly filled with something flammable) simmer in the relentless heat of the dump foolhardy. Pitching it back into the underbrush where it's been for the last forty-fifty years isn't an option.
So help! Whufa I do with this?
13 comments:
Make a lamp out of it.
Try taking it to a motor mechanics, they are bound to have a disposal system for toxic chemicals, Fixit's workplaces certainly did.
Our local landfills have info on hazardous waste facilities (or special days when they will accept hazardous waste), you might try that.
I have no suggestions beyond calling your local refuse/recycling service to see if there's a protocol for (potentially?) hazardous waste, but what I REALLY wanted to say is that OMG we had a place like that up in the woods near one of the apartments where we lived when I was a kid! We called it the Witches' Junkyard because we found a huge black cauldron up there. It was a treasure-trove of neat old stuff. Man, I loved that place!
I'm with Badger on this one...find out if you have a hazardous waste program.
But the bottle is neat! Good find!
Maybe it's maple syrup? Okay, probably not.
Take it to a gas station?
Recycla and the Eco Women say: What Stomper Girl and Ricki said.
Sell it on etsy. It's pretty.
And I'm tired. So what?
It is quite pretty in the first shot. Before reading the post I thought it was a gigantic bottle of olive oile with herbs and a lemon in it... and then I saw the second photo.
hmm...I'm thinking rural Queens County....I'm at the other end...lol....probably some dam good homemade moonshine????....lmao
Hazardous Waste Facilities, though not all areas have them. In our state it's managed at the county level and they have certain days/times that they accept this sort of stuff. Other items they take are oil-based paint, old pesticides,medication, fluorescent light bulbs, rechargeable batteries, etc.
The bottle is awesome, but the insides look gross. Stomper Girl seems to have the right idea.
That jug reminds me of my Grandpas multiple storage sheds, garages and lumber works in Northern Minnesota. He always had a big jug full of some kind of petrol goop to lubricate chain saws, etc. I miss him still.
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