Robby Raccoon
Trash Digger
Nothing to get worked up on (Unless you're a birder,) but here's my most recent story of adventure that I posted onto my antiques site: .......I go back down to the site of what was a TOC building-- as SCA glass typically ceases to exist by 1915, the SCA shards I was finding put the building at pre-WW1. Sadly, the construction crews had found the privy first and dug it up, scattering and shattering everything. There had been so many gorgeous plates in it that you would not believe--some almost half-intact even. Pictorial Chinese, cobalt blue design, soft flowers in light colors, etc.
Alas, even the brown insulators-- including one that would have been at least a 'double-decker,' were even shattered-- I'd been there before but never fully walked the lot.
I stop poking around the bank holding up the sidewalk, and I start walking around the lot. One section still has its tile floor down there, but most of it is cement and covered in sand. It's obvious that there had been additions several times. Throughout the lot there are giant pits filled with water and manhole-like holes that drop down several feet--very dangerous, but nothing saying, "NO TRESPASSING."
All around me, twisted cable claws at the sky in rusting agony, and shattered cement walls lie in ruin upon rough, uneven ground. Bricks are scattered about-- a few I brought back as they're TOC-- and glass lies where it had been for decades in basement-corners where the crumbling stone under heavy equipment had shattered it all.
Between one water-filled basement and some still-standing walls, I'm scanning the ground as I search for items and analyze what the company had done.
It appears that they had cast and finished metal products in copper, steel, and aluminum. I was already carrying a grinding-stone that I thought would be an interesting addition when I suddenly saw what looked like a ceramic crucible for metal. Although I could see it wasn't all there, I thought it would be worth going to just to look at it.
As I stepped toward it, I noticed something in the ground--something brown. What could it be?
I look at it better and see the rim, instantly realizing it as the bottom of an insulator. I keep looking at it, trying to see where a side is broken or chipped and wondering if any of its top was left-- of which all the others lack if nothing else.
I take my mini-shovel and step it into the ground, gently lifting out the dirt containing the insulator and lying it aside.
Amazing! It was likely the only one to survive as several other by a couple companies were shattered, and so I stacked their pieces on a cement slab lying in the lot.
Carrying the grinding wheel, the insulator, the shovel, and a cast-iron metal item I forgot the name of, I continue walking rows when suddenly a bird starts screaming at me.
Too focused on the ground strewn with metal items-- most looking like coins, much to my annoyance-- I give the bird no attention until it begins dancing on the ruined foundation of a part of the site. Even then, I keep walking.
Suddenly my eyes pick up just two inches from my left foot 4 very well-camouflaged bird eggs, and I finally get it.
Listening to the bird and looking at it, I recognize it as the endangered piping plover. Whoops! A land-laying species, this bird is endangered because is lays its eggs in often the worst location. Thankfully, the heavy-equipment was focused on the opposite side of the lot near an extant building and many mounds of dirt and casting-molds.
It'll teach me to give heed to birds next time. xD So I walk away quickly, and the bird shuts up.
THEN, I find a manhole that lead to some old pipes and glass shards. I begin to lower myself down as it continues on a ways but suddenly find wasps flying from within the hole. Whoops! Maybe after the snow begins to fall. LOL. Earlier that week, I'd found 1 Patent May 2nd insulator shard and one Signal Insulator shard. To set the scene, it was a cement and 1-story-building waste of here.Right next to the former Muskegon Brewing Co., now Cole's Bakery. Before then came my first porcelain insulator from a site I'd already visited. It was still in its peg and just lying on the ground. So how old are they really?
1921 - 1987 Pinco. Base.
I-T-E Imperial Corps 1953 - 1977. BaseI was just staring at it when I saw it-- trying to figure out were it was broken. Then I picked it up. Now, though, here was something exciting to see pop up with your shovel:
Not sure what the handle is-- looks like bone yet acts like some sort of odd composite. Pre-1950s as I dug it from a '40s dump. Almost everything else wasn't worth bringing back. To set the scene, the dump was in the woods across from here. Some sort of fence-post insulator and part of a radio-strain insulator. Haven't yet looked into either. 1rst is from the dump, other from the lot. Essentially, a lot of porcelain lately!! Help on exact ages?
Alas, even the brown insulators-- including one that would have been at least a 'double-decker,' were even shattered-- I'd been there before but never fully walked the lot.
I stop poking around the bank holding up the sidewalk, and I start walking around the lot. One section still has its tile floor down there, but most of it is cement and covered in sand. It's obvious that there had been additions several times. Throughout the lot there are giant pits filled with water and manhole-like holes that drop down several feet--very dangerous, but nothing saying, "NO TRESPASSING."
All around me, twisted cable claws at the sky in rusting agony, and shattered cement walls lie in ruin upon rough, uneven ground. Bricks are scattered about-- a few I brought back as they're TOC-- and glass lies where it had been for decades in basement-corners where the crumbling stone under heavy equipment had shattered it all.
Between one water-filled basement and some still-standing walls, I'm scanning the ground as I search for items and analyze what the company had done.
It appears that they had cast and finished metal products in copper, steel, and aluminum. I was already carrying a grinding-stone that I thought would be an interesting addition when I suddenly saw what looked like a ceramic crucible for metal. Although I could see it wasn't all there, I thought it would be worth going to just to look at it.
As I stepped toward it, I noticed something in the ground--something brown. What could it be?
I look at it better and see the rim, instantly realizing it as the bottom of an insulator. I keep looking at it, trying to see where a side is broken or chipped and wondering if any of its top was left-- of which all the others lack if nothing else.
I take my mini-shovel and step it into the ground, gently lifting out the dirt containing the insulator and lying it aside.
Amazing! It was likely the only one to survive as several other by a couple companies were shattered, and so I stacked their pieces on a cement slab lying in the lot.
Carrying the grinding wheel, the insulator, the shovel, and a cast-iron metal item I forgot the name of, I continue walking rows when suddenly a bird starts screaming at me.
Too focused on the ground strewn with metal items-- most looking like coins, much to my annoyance-- I give the bird no attention until it begins dancing on the ruined foundation of a part of the site. Even then, I keep walking.
Suddenly my eyes pick up just two inches from my left foot 4 very well-camouflaged bird eggs, and I finally get it.
Listening to the bird and looking at it, I recognize it as the endangered piping plover. Whoops! A land-laying species, this bird is endangered because is lays its eggs in often the worst location. Thankfully, the heavy-equipment was focused on the opposite side of the lot near an extant building and many mounds of dirt and casting-molds.
It'll teach me to give heed to birds next time. xD So I walk away quickly, and the bird shuts up.
THEN, I find a manhole that lead to some old pipes and glass shards. I begin to lower myself down as it continues on a ways but suddenly find wasps flying from within the hole. Whoops! Maybe after the snow begins to fall. LOL. Earlier that week, I'd found 1 Patent May 2nd insulator shard and one Signal Insulator shard. To set the scene, it was a cement and 1-story-building waste of here.Right next to the former Muskegon Brewing Co., now Cole's Bakery. Before then came my first porcelain insulator from a site I'd already visited. It was still in its peg and just lying on the ground. So how old are they really?
Mitch
