An aluminum crutch, a metal golf club and a graveyard of broken dishes

AND a Buzz Lightyear squirt gun...

are all items I found while working in the back yard yesterday. Last year when I started caring for my now husband and my home, I started the big task of de-bachelorizing his pad. It's been quite an adventure. Yard treasures have been a plenty. Tools such as clippers, rakes and shovels were all found around the property under years of neglected leaves. I had the great idea, oh, sometime around last March to use the (what was then small) brush pile in the back part of the yard to compost the leaves and yard debris. As my weed and leaf abatement work multiplied, so did the height of the pile of old rotting yard compost.
Now it's a year later and I've got the fun (not really) task of dismantling and disposing of all this moldy yuk. I've got two big yard waste containers so I've been very consistent about filling them up with as much as I can every two weeks. Yesterday when I started working on clearing the back part of the pile by the fence I found the aluminum crutch, metal golf club, squirt gun and what I would call a TON of broken plates and bowls. Some of the old porcelain is cool and I saved it use later in a stepping stone or something creative. Maybe into some backsplash when the kitchen gets remodeled someday. (okay, maybe that pushes my hippy art to a new level- it could be cool though, done in the right way...I think!?!)
Next week is garbage and recycle which means I'll have empty containers again and can continue my treasure hunt. In working to clear a walkway around the entire pile I'm sure to find more stuff. Finding treasures in the yard is as much fun as finding cash in the washer or dryer.  And it's a good thing I feel like that or it'd be hard to brainwash myself to get pumped to do such dirty physical work.

This is a picture of what is growing on a piece of cut branch on the back of the pile. It looks like it would be hard vs soft like a mushroom, but I didn't touch it. Perhaps when it comes time for its demise I will...

This picture doesn't do the pile justice unless you compare the height of  it with the large waste can and super sized rake nearby. Probably about 20 more can fill-ups to go.....