Mother load of copper

Cubed copper at calgary metals. 3529 lbs. Wow. I wish that were mine.

I support Canadians

I bought a daffodil today to show my support for Canadians living with cancer.
www.iambigbang.blogspot.com

More and more

More and more I see a need for us all to adapt a minimalist approach to living. Less is more. The less I have, the better I feel. I feel that as I learn to love myself a little more with each passing day that I find less of a desire to search outside myself for love. I used to think I could find love outside myself through people and material things. I was terribly wrong. Now I give more love to others and my environment. If I meet a person that is lacking in inner love, I try to help if they are willing to listen but I am aware not to allow my love to be mined as a natural resource for wasteful consumption.

I was thinking

If people did not have such a ferocious ever growing appetite to consume more than they needed,  and if manufactures could just maybe start building products with intention the world could have a chance to save our fading planet.

A few thoughts on the prairies

I was knocked back. Way back when I found that scrap buyers in Saskatchewan and all the way up to and including medicine hat payed very little for scrap. When I asked why I was told that it cost more to transport the steel to the end user. However; these Province's were doing their part to recycle general waste from commercial and residential source but had similar needs for waxed card board and food waste.

Calgary is huge

A whopping 1.2 million people. Wow.

Calgary now

To busy scraping to post the last few days. Sorry. No luck in Saskatchewan and Manitoba mainly because buying prices to low. 35.00 to 60.00 a ton. I know!!! Wow. Crazy low. So I drove right to Calgary from thunder bay

Try as i may

Try as I may I have not been able to get any scrap donated from Walmart or home depots.

Home depot supports Habitat for Humanity

Home depot public recycling bin

Sport chek recycling

A recycle container in Sport Chek

Recycle truck in saskatchewan

Did well scrapping today

I received some scrap today from Michael's and Canadian tire in Thunder Bay. I would like to thank the two managers  ( James from C.T. and I am sorry for forgetting the managers name at Michael's )  for their generosity. It made a great big difference in a good way toward my scrapping initiative expenses. Everyone in thunder bay have  been so so helpful. What a nice city. I look forward to returning some day.

A longer stay in thunder bay

Ya you may have guessed it. I am staying just a little longer in this nice town. It snowed on Sunday morning so I decided not to drive the highway. I took a walk about instead and low and behold I found some more scrap to save. I had to wait till Monday to retrieve it because most stores where closed yesterday for the celebration of Jesus's recycling.

A Sunday To Relax Write and Ponder

I am just relaxing today. I have spend all day at Starbucks talking and writing. I was inpired to write a new poem from the last fellow that I met, Brian G. Spare. I called the poem " Inner Spirit, Outer Man "

Its theme is of renewal, recycling and sharing. Hope you like it. Happy Easter Everyone

Inner Spirit, Outer Man

The place that I was searching for

I need not look outside no more

It was here inside me all along

Quiet, still and strong

Good and kind is what I am

Inner spirit, outer man

Self sustaining and complete

Standing tall upon my feet

Made from recycled word

That I have red, felt and heard

From book, God and human form

Since the day that I was born

With an inner eye that’s clear

Free from busyness, stress and fear

The power of Love fills me whole

Lighting my mind, body and soul

Now I give to others in need

By writing words for them to read

For inner light so they can find

A place inside their inner mind

That’s quiet, still and strong

Where there’s light the dark will flee

Good and Kind is what they’ll see

Inner spirit, outer man

Self sustaining and complete

Standing tall upon their feet

Made from recycled word

From book, God and human form

Since the day that they were born

With an inner eye that’s clear

Free from busyness, stress and fear

The power of Love will fill them whole

Lighting their mind, body and soul

They will give to others in need

By writing words for others to read

Written by: Michael K. Englmann

March 31, 2013

AKA: BigBang/BlueSky Igniter

michaelenglmann@shaw.ca

Recycled words

I just met a very nice man at Starbucks. His name is Brian G. Spare Phd and he was working on his book. He is writing the story of his life. We talked for some time and at one point he told me of his personal creed. It is based on a poem written by a usa writer called Max Ehrmann written in 1927. The title of his poem was called Desiderata which means " desired things" in Latin. I went on line and read the poem. It help to re enforce my own beliefs that paralleled this poem and the poems I wrote. Poems can be read over and over again by endless eyes and every time have the potential of sparking up a new beginning. So in a way the words are being recycled again and again
To read my poetry go to my other blog at: www.iambigbang.blogspot.com if you can't find it then go to Google.com/blogsearch first.

Jesus recycled

In a sense Jesus was recycling when he rose from the dead. Its snowing in thunder bay this morning.

Silver city recycling

I when to see a movie alone and am proud to see Silver city theater doing their part. Good going

Another great idea by Starbucks

I just noticed that Starbucks offers this reusable coffee cup that is made of 90% recycled material for 1.00. They said it last for about 30 refills and you get s .10 cent discount off the price of your drink every time you use it. Wow, that prevents 30 paper cups from bring tossed into the landfill sites for each person using one. Unfortunately, this sStarbucks store only gets 15 of these cups to sell at a time. They said they are always on back order. Strange. Anyway, I think I will buy one and give it a try.

Starbucks recycling

I just talked to a very informed staff member at Starbucks in Thunder bay that told me that there are two drop off places for recyclable materials in town. The member told me that they take their own sorted recyclables to the drop offs themselves because the a company called Recool charges way to much for commercial scheduled pickup of recyclables. Way to go Starbucks.
In my last post I wrote that someone at a commercial location told me there was no such service. Mmmmmm. What's up with that? Eh.

Pop can donation bins

All around thunder bay you will find these donation bins for pop cans. Very cool.

A recycling bin

This bin was out side a Sears store in thunder bay

Some recycling needs in Thunder bay

I heard from reliable sources that Thunder bay is in need of a facility that could process non recyclable food waste. Currently it is being disposed of in the local land fill.

There is also a big need for a way to recycle waxed card board and no pick up service is in place for of commercial recyclables, especially from restaurants so most of the stuff goes into their garbage bin. One manager from Boston Pizza told me that there used to be a recycling drop off center in town but closed years ago. He said that they don't have time to drive the distance to a place he thinks takes is about 20 min away.

That being said, the flip side is there is a lot of great things that local businesses are doing on their own to recycle there waste. We need more big businesses to take time out to recycle.

A frozen river

I could not believe that this river is still frozen. Its called the Neebing Mcintyre floodway in Thunder bay

Thunder Bay ( second entry )

Hey everyone. Thankyou for reading my blog. Its nice to have your support.

I am leaving Thunder Bay on Sunday Morning after I enjoy a nice cup of Pike Place Coffee at one of my fav coffee shops, StarBucks.

I would like to thank all the kind people that went out of their way to help me by listening to my story and donating scrap metal.

Thank you Patti ( Manager ) at the TravelLodge for letting me have a shower and take a swim in your pool.

Thank you Rocky ( Manager ) at Montana's Cook House for treating me to a delish dinner.

Thank you to the Guys at Minute Muffler for all the scrap metal and for repairing my exhaust for next to nothing.

Thank you Lorne ( Manager ) at Laine and Fairbairn Radiator and Gas tank repair Shop for fixing the hole in my gas tank for free and for giving me some scrap metal.

Thank you Guys at LakeHead Motors ( Dodge Dealership ) for giving me a large amount of scrap metal.

Thank you Shawn ( Manager ) at Real Canadian SuperStore for giving me scrap metal and a 50.00 gift card to help me with food expenses.

Thank you to Gorg ( Manager ) at SafeWay for giving me 40.00 in support of my jouney.

Thank you to Mel ( Manager ) at Metro for giving me some scrap metal.

Thank you Bob ( Manager ) at Bob's Fireplaces for giving me some scrap metal

Thank you Guys at New Method insulation and Supply for giving me a little scrap metal

Thank you Michael ( Manager ) at Victoria Inn for giving me some scrap metal

Thank you to the guys cleaning up the Sports Mart that closed down for the scrap metal.

Thank you to April at Part Source for showing interest in my jouney and visiting my blog.

None of this would be possible for the Hard working fellows at Harbour Metals who bought the scrap I collected. Thank you Guys

Thank you to StarBucks for all the delish coffee and great conversations and moral support.

Thank you to the wonderful older gentleman that I met at StarBucks one morning who gave me 20.00 in support of my journey. I think his name was Larry.

Thunder Bay is filled with a lot of kind people. Thank you again to everyone.

Scraping a Across Canada ( Taking Form )

Scrapping Across Canada ( Taking Form )

Scrapping Across Canada is an idea dreamt up by Michael Englmann. His intent now is to heighten  awareness of better recycling practices across Canada in order to help greatly reduce and some day maybe even eliminate individual and commercial carbon footprints left by current out dated and inefficient waste management practices, thereby; insuring the continued well being of our precious environment for thousands of years to come.

Michael is the owner of  ihaul Waste Management Incorporated  ( www.ihauljunk.ca ) and has been involved in the recycling of waste for over 20 years. His idea includes the development of a website that would serve as a central hub for people all across the Canada and the globe that are interested in getting  new ideas on how to get involved  in recycling or just improving their current recycling practices. The site will be a buffet of great ideas and educational information including advertisement from companies and individuals that are offering and practising efficient recycling systems big and small. The site would also include a great forum for everyone to share their ideas.

Michael new this would take a lot of work to collect and compiled all the knowledge to date on current practices abroad. He figured that the best way to collect this information would be to experience it first hand by driving across Canada and seeing for himself.

So, Michael Englmann being the kind and compassionate soul he is dropped what he was doing to volunteer his time to take on this daunting task. It did not matter to him how long it took because he knew in his heart that it was the right thing to do in order to protect our planet.  He thought of it as taking one for the team. 

He decided that he should take this journey on his own. He said this would serve two purposes. The first one would be to reducing travel expenses as he went about collecting the valuable information for the purpose of renewing Canada’s scrap polluted environment and second to renew his own body, mind and soul that he considered to be infected with large amounts of polluting scrap that resulted from being exposed to 20 years of high stress levels, exaggerated busyness and fear.

He figured that the two environments went hand in hand, the one outside us and the one within us. Michael figured that each environment needed the other to co exist successfully. He thought that if we all worked on cleaning our inner environment by being more aware of our thoughts and inner waste management practices we could project more goodness out of ourselves. He thought that our outer environment was a reflection of our inner environment. Both can and should be cleaned simultaneously.

He decided that his trip must be self sustaining  by supporting itself through his given efforts to search for and collect scrap, thereby having all trip expenses paid for entirely by the proceeds that are generated by cashing in on scrap metal that would be donated by individuals and commercial companies showing interest in the program themselves. 

If you are interested in following this story you can visit Michael’s Blog at: www.scrappingacrosscanada.blogspot.com

Please check out his other blog that is filled with his own Pro's and Poetry  at: www.iambigbang.blogspot.com Here you will also find a summary of the book he wrote along his journey called " Imagine Nothing "

If you have difficulty finding my blog please go to: google.com/blogsearch first. This is google’s dedicated search engine for locating blogspot  blogs.

Thank you for your support

Sincerely,

Michael Englmann

416-824-7880 / michaelenglmann@shaw.ca /

P.S. I am looking for sponsors so if you are interested in supporting Michael, please contact him directly. He would love to hear from you.

Thunder Bay ( first entry )

I'm still in Thunder Bay. The people here are great and so willing to support my initiative for heightened awareness of recycling. I will mention the ones that have helped in the next post. I wanted to post some small videos but can't seemed to figure it out just yet. I want to thank April for dropping me a comment after reading this blog. She's a great little gal I met at the Part Source.

My dirty old truck

Yuck

Coffee

I'm just sitting here in Starbucks in thunder bay, having a hot coffee. Pike is my favorite. I love Starbucks because its dark and full of flavor. I'm also partial to consistency and perfection Starbucks is both of these. I will go out of way to find a Starbucks store I love it that much. If I can find it; a Chapters and Starbucks together, even better. I usually park my 68 GMC truck and camper outside for the night so I can role out of bed in the morning for a cup of Pike or 2.

Pic of me enjoying a SB coffee

Scrapping Across Canads ( How this idea came to be )

How It All Began

In short, my story began with me. I was thrown to the curb like a piece of scrap by the woman that I loved. At first I did not see how similar my situation was in comparison to stuff we all throw out, everyday of our lives. Funny enough, I own and operate a very successful junk removal company in Vancouver called ihaul Disposal Inc. ( www.ihauljunk.ca )

I married this beautiful Princess in a small church located in West Vancouver nearly 18 years ago. She was the woman of my dreams and I imagined loving her till the day we died. But unfortunately she had a change of heart and left me for another Prince in London Ontario.

During our marriage we slowly spent less a less time together due to our ever increasing responsibilities that came from our family and three businesses. We became more and more overwhelmed with the responsibilities that we chose to take on. 15 years later we were both stressed to the max. This created frequent confrontations between us both. We both became a product of our environment.

Being a handyman of sorts I figured that I could fix our problems and renew us both back  but I guess my skills in this department were lacking greatly. In the end my Princess left me and moved to London Ontario along with my three beautiful children were she now resides with another man.

I fell into a deep sadness but I continued on. Our home in Maple Ridge was sold for less than cost. I packed what I could into my dump trailer and gave the rest away to nabours and charity. The Princess had already taken all of our Royal Treasure so there was very little money to scrape together for my trip across Canada in my rusty old 1968 GMC truck with dump trailer in tow.

And so my next great adventure began.

For a year and a half I struggled to resolve our problems and renew our relationship. I failed to succeed. I cut my losses and decided it was time to turn my focus on myself if I were to survive. So I let go of the dream of spending the rest of my life with her and decided to go on alone with the rest of my life's journey, I new this would not be easy but I new I could do it now. 

It was at this point that I realized that I was much like a piece of scrap that was thrown to the curb and forgotten.

While living in Burlington Ontario for those 15 months, however;I met some great people. Their friendship help me get closer to renewing my spirit and heart

I packed what little I had, which was very little, and started driving back to my home town in BC on March 12, 2013. I did not have enough for gas or food to make this long trip back so I asked my family if they could help out with a little money. They offered to only help if I got stuck along the way. So I decided to come up with a plan B and make it my Plan A.

The Plan A has become one of my greatest adventures yet. I decided to collect scrap metal in each town along the way and sell the scrap to recyclers. In one way I figured I would be helping the environment and in return the wasteful nature of people would be helping me. It would also give me more awareness to the never ending and growing problem we all face here in Canada and the rest of the world.

The good news is that Plan A is working. It is now March 24th and I have successfully made it to Thunder Bay entirely on the money I have made on collecting scrap metal. The money has paid for my food, gas, coffee and some minor repairs. I have even been able to see a couple of movies.

I am now working on an idea to turn this into a reality show and I decided to call it " Scrapping Across Canada". I have one producer that likes the idea but nothing for sure yet. If you know someone that can help me make this dream come true please contact me by email at: michaelenglmann@shaw.ca or by phone at: 416-824-7880.

I will try to update this blog as often as I can. I can use all the help I can get.

Sincerely,

Michael K. Englmann

To be continued.....see part two