A really rubbish idea

I know this sounds weird but one of the highlights of our last ever hire boat holiday c. 2001 was an impromptu canal clean-up while going through Brum. It started as we left the Black Country Museum and unexpectedly crashed into half a shed. For some reason I felt compelled to pick the wood out of the cut and stick it in the well-deck, to be decanted at some suitable rubbish point later. Well, the bug bit and during the morning we retrieved a gas cylinder, a tyre, a fire extinguisher and a wheelbarrow but drew the line at the washing machine with its concrete insides clearly still in place. When we’d disposed of everything, we got a real rush of ‘feel good’ feelings and a germ of an idea was seeded.

The grand plan was: give up the day job, buy an old working boat, put a winch on the front and scour the BCN collecting rubbish. We could count on high levels of reoccurring crud thus we would never run out of work. And so why are we still shackled to our laptops and not swinging a grappling hook with abandon? Well, scrap prices back then were so low that we could never have made it pay. Fast forward seven years and, of course, they’re now through the ceiling...talk about an idea before it’s time. So, the question is: will five dogs fit in a back cabin or should we go for the butty/kennel option?