I found a remarkable rug recently, hanging on a stack of cement blocks behind the barn. The rug is an old, long discarded braided rug, and it has been completely overgrown by a deep emerald moss. The moss follows the braids, so the original pattern is still shows. It is still a beautiful rug, though now not very practical. Mosses are one of my favorite plants. When all the larger plants shut down for winter, mosses keep on growing. If the temperature is above freezing, even if the moss is covered by snow, photosynthesis goes on.

Finding the old rug got me to thinking about other cast offs. This is an old property, and the ground is littered with throwaways, some buried, some still sitting out in plain sight. Some is treasure, some is trash. For instance, there is a pile of old bricks behind the barn. At one time, you could grab one if you needed an old brick, but now poison ivy has claimed the pile. If you start digging almost anywhere on the farm, you uncover cow bones buried in the soil. They are small pieces, scattered around, not in a neat pile. When they come to the surface, mice and other small mammals gnaw on them, leaving tooth marks in the bone. It’s a good source of calcium for them.

Some of the other cast offs I’ve seen are bits of metal, old leather tangled in the grass, containers from cow medicine, and of course, more modern litter. My house is just down the road from a store that sells lottery tickets. Consequently, my front lawn is littered with scratched tickets. I check them if they are clean, but so far no winners. I also get cast off diapers and lunch stuff; wrappers, bags, foam containers, beer bottles, coffee cups, and lots of those little one ounce liquor bottles. It is one thing to litter your own property, but quite another to dump it on some one else’s. If I could figure out who is tossing this stuff, I would toss it back.