I went out last night and found some decent stuff. First off was this frenetic looking poster that I came across in an alley. I didn’t take it but it’s kind of cool. I feel like the style is familiar somehow.
I saw this old chair on the side of the road. It was in pretty good condition but it was kind of far from home so I didn’t take it. As well, even though my bedbug radar didn’t really go off I get paranoid taking stuff like this as I’d hate to give my roommates bedbugs. Hopefully someone else took the chance!
I found this stuff in the bags above. I didn’t really frame this picture too well, but I found a few plants that need loving, some rusty but effective looking pruners, wire cutters (under some melamine patching stuff), a measuring tape, shower rod, and a length of rope. There’s also a smoke detector that looks unopened. Oh yeah, some lead pellets too, for a small gun I’m guessing.
I kept a couple of the plants. I left one of the potted ones outside my place this morning and it was gone by the time I got back from work. The bigger one I trimmed a bit and put with water in a sturdy glass coffee pot I found on Monday. It seems to be doing fine, though I’m not sure if that’s a long-term solution or not. I’m sure my mom will be happy to help me with that!
The rest of the stuff I put in the broken basket and left by a Bixi (communal bicycle) terminal. I figure it’ll get some good exposure there and a lot of the stuff will be taken to good homes. Bixi stations are one of my favorite places to put things like this.
Down the street I found all this stuff in another black plastic bag. The clay pot I stashed in the alley. The juice container I put with the stuff above. The canned food was all “expired” since around 2006. It doesn’t really matter though, as some canned food has been known to be consumable even after 100 years, assuming the can stays in good shape of course.
I stashed the food in a phone booth. It’s a pretty good place to put things, as it’s protected from the elements and these days only poor people (like me) ever use payphones. This phone booth was on Papineau (a busy and less well-to-do street, at least in this part of town), so my hope is that this food gets picked up sooner rather than later.
I saw these nice wooden chairs. They may have needed reupholstering, but the wood itself was pretty gorgeous. They were far from home and I don’t really have the space anyways, so I didn’t take them. Hopefully someone else did.
I checked out my “dumpster diving” place on Cartier/Mont-Royal and found these avocados. I left a few that were a bit far gone, but still went back with like ten definitely edible organic avocados.
Getting darker now. You’ll have to check back tomorrow to see what I found in here!
Definitely dark now. This is the last place I went to.
Inside one of those bags was a cordless drill. I took this home and took the battery that was left inside the drill out. It’s a bit corroded near the connections, so I’m not sure if that battery will ever work (although I should probably research that). However, there was another battery that came in the case. I put that on the charger overnight and I tried it out when I got back earlier today… and it worked! It’s really clean and doesn’t look like it was used very often. I’m happy about this find, as these things are pretty handy and are also expensive enough.
Anyways, check back tomorrow to see what I found in those bags!
The two plants in pots look like amaryllis. They bloom once a year. The bulbs look to be a healthy size. Here’s a link on caring for them http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/horticulture/m1233.html
The other plant is a type of dracena. You can simply pot the thing. Or, if you want something less scraggly, you can snip the top off, and then cut the stem in segments and root the cuttings. http://hsny.org/blog/2007/08/my-dracaena-is-too-tall.html and http://bit.ly/W6tpqf
You can grow your avocado stones into houseplants too. Instructions here – http://avocadodiva.blogspot.ca/2011/07/post-number-2-how-to-grow-avocado-plant.html
I like the way you spread the wealth hither and yon. 🙂
Corroded batteries are best not used, but if the terminals have any corrosion, it can be cleaned up and the alkalinity neutralized by a half and half mix of lemon juice and water on a q-tip. Then let it dry for twenty four hours. Left behind corrosion from old batteries can make a new or different one deteriorate.
Thanks for the info! There is a bit of corrosion on the terminals. I’ll make sure to clean off what is there.
I recently found out about the wonders of diatomaceous earth. It is natural, made from fossilized coral or something, and yes, has a crazy name. But it kills any bugs with an exoskeleton, and is completely harmless to humans (but make sure you get the food grade kind!!!). I think it suffocates them or something. So basically, if you want to take home a potentially bed-buggy chair someday, you should just buy some food grade D-earth, cover the chair with it, leave it for a couple days, and then vacuum it well, and it should kill any bugs on it. It’s really cool stuff. We recently sprinkled it around the perimeter of our house to try to keep bugs from coming in as it gets cold. So far so good! Just thought I’d share–I’ve never tried it on bed bugs but I’ve read about it in some forums–might be of use to you someday.
I’ve never heard of that… I’ll check it out. The only other thing I’ve heard for bedbugs is to buy one of those heating units and heat the stuff for a few hours, but those are kind of expensive.
Diatomaceous earth and bedbugs http://www.badbedbugs.com/how-to-get-rid-of-bed-bugs/
Here’s an interesting exchange on this subject. http://bedbugger.com/forum/topic/fun-with-bed-bugs-and-diatomaceous-earth