Why Vagrants are Good, Why Vagrants are Bad

Why vagrants are good:

They go through your garbage and collect all REUSABLE items, like aluminum and bike tires.

Why vagrants are bad:

They go through your stuff and collect all USEABLE items, like your tools that you were using to get the last bit of vinyl off your original pine floor!!!!

Lesson learned:

NEVER, EVER leave tools at a job site, even if you think they are well hidden and small.

At least it was an inexpensive lesson I learned as the tool they stole was about $35 to replace.

It feels a little creepy to know that when I'm not at the house there are people, primarily men who are drug addicts, that are combing through everything there. But there was one good thing that surfaced through them sifting through our trash: CHANEY!

Chaney, a word morphed from "china" and "money", are the fragments and shards of plates from Danish colonial times that children ground and used as play money in games. It's a serious collectors item and local jewelers use them to make fantastic pieces. As an artist I have referenced them in previous work entitled "Collectible".

I think the chaney might have been in some of the trash that was taken out of the house. Pedro, a wonderful man who has been helping out as a contractor, found it with his keen eye. What drew his attention to the bag was how it was knotted, "Ah hah, somebody's been collecting something," he said. He was right. I wonder if these pieces were collected from our site, or another. Regardless, most historic properties in the Virgin Islands have them all over the yard.