Star and I take several walks every day. If we're in wilderness areas we don't see a lot of trash. But most of the time we're parked on the outskirts of a small town. On the outskirts of these small towns people have been dumping their trash for a long time. Only in the last 50 years or so has there been regular trash collection as a city service.
Whenever we're parked in an abandoned area, I enjoy discovering the dump, the area where the past inhabitants took their garbage. All that remains is the metal, their trash that hasn't decomposed. What I find for the most part are rusted cans from the time before aluminum; before pull tops. Now a can is opened by the ring. These cans are all seamed - something modern manufacturing has long since made obsolete. I wonder how old this stuff is. Easily 20 to 50 years old. The other day I found a pile of cans opened with a can opener. Mixed in, were cans with a pull ring, however they were the old style still seamed. The pull ring had not been pulled, the cans were opened from the bottom with a can opener. People are slow to accept change.
About a year before I met Jewel, Itchykaibo fell down a vertical mine shaft. Nevada is known for it's gold production, the largest in North America. This state is littered with abandoned mines.
I was sitting on a rock outcropping when I saw him at the top of a tailing pile near the edge of a shaft. His curiousity had gotten the better of him when he slipped over the edge and fell. I ran to the top of the tailing pile from where he had fallen and could hear his mornful cries below. I was parked several miles from the nearest town, however the road was well graded with several cars passing by every day.
Whenever someone passed, I stopped them and told them my cat had fallen down the mine shaft. After a few days, word had gotten around and a woman stopped by to visit. She lowered herself into abandoned mines searching for treasure and relics. She had a tri-pod she'd erect on the top of a shaft and pulley attached to the winch from her ATV. She put on a harness and hooked herself to the cable winch. Using a hand controller, she lowered herself into the shaft. This mine had caved in from the top where the structure used to dig the mine had broken, clogging the vertical shaft about 30 feet from the surface. Itchykaibo was trapped about 30 feet below the debris, making rescue very dangerous. She could see him below the wreckage. Other people from town were taking an interest and it was decided we'd tie sheets and carpet into a long rope and lower it to him. He'd climb out when he was ready. The next morning before sunrise, I went out the trailer and called to him from the top of the tailing pile, but no response! I didn't hear him below, but then I thought I caught a glimpse of him by the truck. I ran over to the truck, and there he was! Dirty, thirsty and hungry but he was out of the mine shaft and ok.
No comments:
Post a Comment