Welcome to...

Otherwise known as 'what the dumpster-diver throws in our yard'. Ever since we moved here, we have received regular "deposits" from the dumpster thrown over our fence into our backyard. We used to think it was a homeless man who would go through the dumpsters at night and just toss whatever he rejected into our backyard.

I have a new theory now ... I think he is an older gentleman who throws things over that he thinks we will like/use. A WWII survivor of rations possibly. He's a true recycler at heart. A French Greenpeace kind of guy.

Am I right or is he just a lazy clochard who takes things out of the dumpster, peruses it and throws the junk in our yard that he doesn't want, as in 'here, you throw this away again'?

Will we find out who The Clochard is and what his motives are? Help us solve the mystery.

A twist to the story? Since our lifestyle here is pretty spartan, we've kept some of the stuff to use for ourselves. Due to lack of storage space, we've had to be discriminating though. What did we keep and what did we put back in the dumpster? Hmmmm...

Here, I tell all.

Cheap Tennis racket. Ditched it. No one plays tennis here.

Curtain panel. Kept it. Though I haven't found a use for it yet, I do have one curtain panel that covers an open-front cabinet I have in the kitchen (motive).

Purse and some rubber tubing. Ditched them. Okay I kept the tubing for a week thinking there must be something ....

Dead flowers. Ditched them before Jonathan could give them to me for Valentine's Day <g>.

A bag of wet fabric scraps. Ditched them. I don't sew anyway!

A metal rod. Ditched it.

The bottom from a plastic cake plate. Ditched it since I've kept one like it with a lid and have used it once in 2 years.

A baby crib toy. Kept it for the little kids in the neighborhood to play with when they come over. No one has played with it except us.

Wooden seat of a chair. Emily and Erik made a "Fruit et Legumes" sign out of it for their vegetable stand. They had big plans to buy fruit and vegetables from the village or Carrefour and sell them on the side of the road to make money. Little Capitalists. We finally convinced them they probably wouldn't turn a profit unless they bought the items wholesale or grew them themselves. Ditched it after a few weeks without a workable business plan.

Tote bag. Have one already and I never use these like I think I will. Ditched it.

Toilet brush. DITCHED IT! I HAVE THREE I DON'T WANT!

Fishing pole... part of one. Ditched it since we never go fishing anyway.

A pillow with nautical knots and seahorses. Kept it ... washed it... bunched up ... ditched it.

A tired shower curtain rod. Have one shower and one shower curtain rod. Face it, they never break. Same reason you shouldn't buy insurance on your washer/dryer.

Ditched it.

Sweater coming apart at the collar. Kept it, thought about it, realized it would continue to unravel, don't know how to sew/knit, realized it looks too 80's anyway...

donated it.

A blue piece of packing styrofoam. Kept it a couple of days. Would I ever find anything exactly that size? Ditched it.

Best one yet! A coat with a hood and "fur" trim missing ONE button. My size! Washed it, kept it. Go Clochard!

Santa Clochard left these. A table leg, gold paper octagonal plates, broken umbrella ...

...a pink box and some bubble wrap. I must have been a good girl this year! Ditched it all except the bubble wrap. Washed it and hung it up to dry on the back porch and packed some Christmas stuff away with it.

It's Santa! Supposedly, his arms move, he's holding candles, his head rocks from side to side and he plays music. When we rescued him his arm was broken, he was candle-less and he gurgled intstead of playing music. Jonathan operated on him and he works now ... the kids were thrilled! Kept it. When I opened the door and saw this sight, I couldn't help but think of the movie The Santa Clause with Tim Allen. Remember Santa falling off the roof?!

Dirty basket covered in fabric. Ditched it.

This was a Clochard windfall day too. A silver teapot (in the corner) missing its lid and spout ... (it's a cute little silver pot but I don't know what to do with it ... thought about flowers but the holes where the spout was present a problem),

a boomerang...

... and a bag with a Mercedes in it. Really.

See?

A moldy carved gourd thing? Interesting, but ditched it.




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