Recycling Old Glass

Several decades ago, garbage disposal wasn't as convenient for country people as it is today. Now we just pay someone to pick up our garbage weekly, or we deliver it to the dump ourselves. I don't know if farmers weren't able to dispose of garbage elsewhere in the old days, but back then it was not uncommon for a farm to have a garbage pile. Usually, that pile would be separated into several piles: metal and glass, compost, and burnables. There used to be a burn pile on our property from the past farmers that owned the place, but the river washed it away (thank goodness). These garbage piles (the metal and glass ones in particular) are still out there, randomly placed throughout the forests of Upstate NY.

 Most of the State Land here used to be farms. When the farms failed, the state took ownership of the land and turned it into State Land, which is just basically free land for anyone to use. Although 50 or so years ago the land was bustling farm land, you can't tell now. The woods spring up quickly here. But occasionally you'll run into some vestige of the once farm. While we're  hiking along, we'll often run into an old road, a rock wall that once marked property lines, a house foundation, an ornamental pond, or a glass pile. One day, we decided to investigate one of these glass piles in the hope of finding some decorative glass.

You've seen old glass bottles at Antique shops. They sell them for $10 a pop! We like the look of antique glass bottles, but weren't willing to pay the price. Well we were in luck. This pile was full of great bottles still in one piece.

 

I obviously procrastinated finishing this job, since it's been 6 months since we did the picking, but a little cleanup (a few of them soaked for a while), add a few corks if you want, and voila! Antique recycled glass as a decoration.