Ox and I have noticed with pleasure that someone else also
cleans up the trail around the pond at Mint Springs. Things in the pond are out of reach; they collect
at the shoreline. We had a previous
adventure fishing a turquoise foam noodle from the pond with assorted home-made
devices fashioned from the detritus in the back of Ox’s Jeep. This time Ox bought for the purpose an eight-foot aluminum pole from a hardware store. We needed to fashion a scoop. I found a sprung mesh lumbar back
supporter in the back pantry. (Some
Burtons never throw anything away.) I
thought it would make an excellent scoop.
Ox remembered that one of our daughters had once owned a butterfly
net. I thought at least that might have gone to the Goodwill;
twenty five years had passed since its last use. Ox found it and attached it to the pole.
Yesterday, Sam the dog in tow, we went fishing. The only other occupants at the park were a
fisherman and his eight-year-old son. We
walked out on the dam and greeted the fishers.
Ox’s back was a little wonky, but as the inventor of the device he
insisted on being the scooper. I was Sam’s
leash holder and the bag man. I had come prepared with a latex glove that I
use when I paint, a dog-pot plastic bag, and a plastic grocery bag. My job was
to pick up the trash with the gloved hand and bag it after Ox flung it onto the path. The first scoop netted an old plastic bag. Among other things our bag included other plastic bags, a port wine bottle (its water-filled weight tore some of
the fabric of the net) , a metallic plastic Doritos bag, a Styrofoam
bait box lid, and the prize, a small plastic mint green ball. We only made it halfway around the pond
before the net and our will gave out. We’ll tend to our net and finish the job another day.
Sam took advantage of our very slow progress around the
pond to roll in two different disgusting substances. He’s due for another bath soon.
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