Streaming recyclers among the consuming public

This unwelcome bin began showing up early July 2015 under the 3 year contract with the town government to replace the recycle tubs (18 gallon capacity). Whereas the tubs could hold a week or more's worth of plastics, glass, paper products and metals, these new 96 gallon behemoths may well fill up only every 4-6 weeks. Having fewer stops to make on the route saves the company time and personnel costs, but it falls to the householder to put the eyesore someplace in the meantime. Around this same time a radio talkshow with recyclers in Washington, DC and in Seattle came to the conclusion that the move to supersize the bins did not produce savings as planned because residents grew more careless about sorting and preparing things for the curbside pick-up. As a result, the sorting facility had to filter out the contaminants (non-recyclables). The upshot is that what once just about paid for itself (value of materials equaled the costs to run the service) now ended up costing more to run than the original tub-based system. Going bigger just seems to mean less care, and more consumption.

walking through Clinton County 4H Fair, July 27-31, 2015

The trend to live in cities rather than farms began with the factory jobs offered when industrial power and methods of producing and distributing goods took off in the middle and later 1800s. For middle Michigan, perhaps the process of urbanization was slower. And while automobile factories drew shift workers from surrounding bedroom communities, the local livestock auctions and farm servicing companies carried on until the Great Depression and WWII conscription and war production pulled even more off the farmland. And yet during all these years the 4H movement established itself, originally as a way to introduce new methods and infrastructure to farmers by getting the kids to learn in the local clubs. But the times changed and unified TV viewing experience of a few channels expanded with video tapes and then DVD recordings, followed by a cable channel plethora and then Internet and most recently streaming services. With these competing sources of information and entertainment, the delight from face-to-face, cooperative effort seemed to be displaced or somehow was less insistent than the blinking and beeping electricity-powered sources for spending one's time.
       This walkthough of the fair grounds mid-morning and mid-week (Wednesday) shows a quieter scene that one might have seen 15 or 30 years earlier when summer vacations consisted of local kids looking for interesting things to say, do, or watch.
       Highlights include passing glimpses of the dairy pavilion (left hand side) and the viewing stands (right hand side) while the young people in the ring are showing their quaffed and cleaned animals to the judges for comment and evaluation.

Early July scene mid-week along highway M-115 in Cadillac, Michigan at William Mitchell State Park.

To join the others under the trees and walking distance from the two lakes that straddle the isthmus most people buy, borrow, or rent a camping trailer or RV (recreation vehicle). The section reserved for tenters (people sleeping under nylon or canvas) is relatively small and hard to see by comparison to the wheeled, portable living spaces shown here. The convenience of having a familiar place to sleep, cook, and take care of some personal grooming gives campers reason to haul their trailer north from time to time on the weekend or for whole weeks at a time. It is hard to beat the feeling of certainty and security with light, heat, water and electricity all in one place, especially when the outdoors is less than glorious. And yet there is the view that your means will affect your ends; that is, the manner in which you conduct your life affects the kinds of things that are visible or audible in your experience. By analogy and using the "life is a journey" metaphor, the person traveling on foot v. noisy motorbike v. biplane v. jumbo jet will all have different experiences of a place. So too of camping - the more gear that separates you from the elements, the less of those textures and rhythms will you perceive. Thus to live in or a few steps away from a camper which is neatly parked next to other ones is bound to be a different experience to living out of a tent with few tenters nearby.