Corraled!

And hey - in my own defense, I grew up in Wyoming where if you needed something - a solution, a tool, a device - often times there was no place to go *buy* it, and sometimes what you needed didn't exist in the first place.

So, you either learned to do without and just deal with the problem continuing OR you came up with a plan and design and built it yourself. My Dad is a master at this to this day.* The man can fix and/or improve just about anything. He's great at problem solving.

So while he was here, recovering from treatments, I told him about an idea I had. See, the wind blows like crazy in this area. New neighborhood = no trees. And no windbreak. And the wind just howls around here.

The part that drove *me* crazy was the fact that I was forever either chasing down the trash cans before they made it to Oz OR losing my spot in the garage to said trash cans so I wouldn't have to chase them down.

Pissed. Me. Off.

Especially when it got cold.

There'd I'd be.... First thing in the morning. Cussing. Scraping frost off the windshield so I could take the girls to school while the damned trash cans were happy in the garage. (And yes - I imagined the stupid things enjoying their relative comfort while I was freezing my ass off. So sue me.)

But those days are gone. Over. Kaput.

Behold! The trash can corral....

And frankly, I think it came out pretty okay! Interesting what one can do with a few 4x4 posts, some shelving materials and a bunch of decking screws. All in all I think I spent $30 and two hours on the project - not too bad. It's a four sided "corral" and heavy - I think those cans will finally stay put. Ha! I win!

WxMan seems to think that it looks a bit "rustic," but what the hell. I don't need it to be especially pretty so long as it does the job and the trash cans don't end up in Oz. And if it ever gets above freezing again I can always paint it, right?

White. In case you were wondering. It's all good...

* Seriously - Pop once developed a cooling system for our house one very very hot summer armed with nothing more than the already present heating system, a car radiator and a soldering iron. It was literally cool.