Tire Hunting

Have I mentioned how much yard work is going on in these parts? It's actually kind of cool. On Monday I came home to this:


Every year (well the last two anyway), my oldest friend, Hope (a.k.a. Poopie), who happens to be a master gardener of sorts, comes to town for Memphis in May. She has yet to get me to actually see any music, but she does manage to get me to do other things that I wouldn't normally do.

Last year we went to Stax. This year we went tire hunting.

After mocking my wine bottle plans ("Next May when I visit you're just going to have a big ol pile of bottles in the garage!"), Hope suggested that we make a serpent out of old tires for the monkeys to play on. "You can get all different sizes, bury them to different degrees, and then paint it," she said enthusiastically.

We just happened to be driving down Southern Avenue on our way to Interstate BBQ. As I looked out the window, I saw this:


"Let's do it!" I said. "Today."

Hope and Warren looked at me like I was nuts, but for the rest of the drive each of us pointed out every old tire that just happened to be laying near the road. We spent lunch demystifying the wine bottle plans and discussing serpent designs. On the way home we saw a gigantic tire on the road and decided it was a sign. Of course it wouldn't fit in my car, so we had to come up with Plan B: Operation Work Truck/Garden Gloves.


Having acquired the proper vehicle and gear, we set out on a 2 hour tire hunt that led us to some very interesting industrial and residential areas.


It really is insane how many tires are just laying around town.


We decided to be selective rather than greedy, and ended up with a nice collection of tires in various sizes for our project.


Of course this phase alone was pretty exhausting. Not quite prepared to dig large holes, bury them, and then paint them, we switched to beer drinking and weeding. (Hope mocked, "Next May you're just going to have a big ol pile of bottles and tires!)

Maybe. Maybe not.