Day 22 - Burn Barrel

But getting started didn't come without awkwardness. While we were hard at work unpacking and organizing, the previous owner was just a few feet away organizing his own things on the empty lot he also owned directly to our west. Though he previously threatened to “throw all his stuff on the lot so we had to look at it,” we also saw his stash of items slowly get organized into piles that shrunk a little more each day. Some seemed destined for the trash but others had aspirations of another destination. Throughout the first few days of being at the farm, we saw a number of people stop by his treasure chest. Some seemed to be helping him move and sort the items. Others seemed to take them for their own collections. We even had a few people come by and ask about the piles, not knowing they were not ours.

As I watched him pick through the materials most would consider trash, I felt somewhat guilty. Should we have let him use the barn space? Were we being mean for sending him and his stuff to the empty lot? There was an obvious connection between the items and the man. I felt compelled to go help, but knowing we hadn’t connected since that final walkthrough fiasco, I figured it was best to avoid stirring up drama and keep to our side of the lot line. We also understood that if we were to let him rent the barn, there's no telling how long he would have stayed and how arduous the proceeds would be to remove him and his stuff.

Besides picking through his stuff, loading up trunks full, and taking the items away only to repeat the process time and time again, he utilized a burn barrel. The smell of whatever was burning in the still stings my nostrils today. It didn't take long before we realized the wind patterns of this location as the constant smell of burning plastic, rubber, and whatever else was in that barrel wafted endlessly in our direction.

While that stench was anything but pleasant, it did symbolize the end of one era and the start of another.