Picking Up After Pigs

Thurmond Lake is a beautiful place to visit, mild weather makes it a year round destination for boating, fishing and camping.  Some of the campgrounds have water/electric sites, others are primitive, with nearby water pumps and toilets.  The primitive areas are "Carry In-Carry Out" sites, meaning no trash service.

One campground, despite the large signs at the entrance/pay station informing campers to take their trash with them always has someone that doesn't seem to get the message.  Marti and I have several times this summer had to drive the half hour up to the campground and spend a couple of hours picking up after those "pigs" that can't get the message through their heads.

I can't understand why many people thing the fire ring is also a trash can.  Aluminum cans and glass bottles don't burn well.

In our rounds checking up on the campgrounds, we came across this mess, not only did the camper leave trash everywhere, they left all their equipment behind, too.

Due to COE regulations, we couldn't just pick up the gear left on the site.  Instead, we had to make a second trip to place a Removal sticker on the tent.  The sticker tells the owner to remove the items within 24 hours or they will be disposed of.  

All attempts to contact the owner from the registration paperwork left on the site post were unsuccessful.  Now later this week, Marti and I will make a third trip to pick up the abandoned equipment and spend at least an hour picking up the trash left behind, now scattered over a large area thanks to animals.

It is a tremendous waste of time and resources to have to pick up after pigs, pulling us off of more important tasks to clean up the parks.  We are not fans of these jobs, but we will do whatever it takes to help keep the COE lands up to the high standards they are known for.

Thankfully most everyone that uses the COE parks and campgrounds are respectful and follow the rules, keeping things clean and neat for the next visitor.

Not every job we do here at the Thurmond COE is glamorous, but we're very happy to be a part of the team and enjoy volunteering several months every year.  It's good to give back.

The lake area is in a drought and the water levels are the lowest we've seen in our three years of volunteering.  Grass is growing on the land that's normally submerged.

Now for the latest house build picture.  The house looks bigger than it really is, we chose this model because it is small and on a tiny piece of property.  For our home base, we wanted something that will be easy to keep up so we can still travel around the country.  Don't be fooled by the house next door going up to the right of the garage, it almost looks like it's attached.  Front view:

And the back view:

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.