Just moved the girlfriend to OSU in Columbus, Ohio...

[jays emporium]

RE: Peter Pfeiffer Columbus O. Squat discovery

Stephen,
I say you are to be congratulated for finding a rare squat soda bottle on the surface by just taking the initiative to scout around in a new city.
Are you moving to Columbus or just there temporarily? I assume your girlfriend is a student at Ohio State, or is she working there?
My daughter is applying to Ohio University next year and my wife and I may be moving to the Columbus or Zanesville area in a couple of years. I'm looking forward to some Ohio bottle hunting myself, not to mention the estate sales.
Jay

 

[Plumbata]

RE: Peter Pfeiffer Columbus O. Squat discovery

Thanks Buster, it is hard getting to know this area but it sure is a fun learning experience! I've tried my hand at collecting cans but only when they are in the same areas where the more massive scrap metal items are to be found. There is so much competition for scrap/cans in the alleys and dumpsters that it isn't even worth trying to make money in that way. Scrappers and bums comb the alleys many many times a day, every day, but don't know where else to look. I sure ain't complaining, because I can park by a bridge, wade the creek, and collect 100 bucks worth of scrap rebar (quality #2 steel) in several hours while also looking for bottles and dumps, while all the other scrappers are wasting gas and wearing down their vehicles driving around trying to gobble up the far less profitable sheet metal/appliances being tossed. I will be heading back to Peoria soon to ravage all the many many places I know that have a far greater density of scrap than the spots I've scrounged successfully here, and will hopefully find a few new Peoria area dump sites as I search for new deposits of profitable metals. My plan is to make at least 1,000 per week in Peoria until everything is frozen hard to the ground. Got all my tools there, and 500X as much familiarity with all the ravines, creeks, bluffs, and other junk-filled areas in the county. They don't take taxes out of the payouts either, hehe. I want to put off getting some crappy service job until it is impossible to make ends meet in this more "freespirited" way. Sure I get cut, pinched, and mashed in the face by errant pieces of rusty metal and the foliage trying to keep it in place, but it is far better being alone to ones thoughts while making your own cash (and finding old goodies) which compensates far better than being someone's perpetual pawn working at a restaurant, or even doing many types of manual labor jobs, which i do enjoy. The exercise I get collecting this stuff is phenomenally beneficial, as it involves working muscles that I don't normally use as much, and can already feel the extra strength and endurance this choice in activity has given me. The freedom to absorb environmental information, intuit the broader implications, and learn more about the ways in which the world works is just as valuable as the cash in hand, something I can't say would occur while getting paid a crappy wage feeding people overpriced branded foodstuffs that they don't need out of a cramped modern building made out of plywood and glorified Papier-mâché.

Yesterday I sold a load of scrap for 123.22 and got paid in cash (it seems that PSC on Joyce road always pays cash, it is nice) and it represented 7.5 hours of work, including the time it took to find the squat, pyrite, and a decent bit of of copper/brass which I am saving to sell in Peoria, as I have 3 milk crates overflowing with the same stuff waiting there too and the prices are far far better (up to twice as much per lb in some cases). Also found 15 pounds of lead to take back, and 2 dumpsites, one small but the other I believe is the original dump of the Ohio Dominican University, as it seems pretty expansive and is right next to it's main parking lot along a tributary of Alum Creek. (you Columbus folk pay attention, there are dumps waiting to be dug I tells ya!)

I found a good 30 dollar fiberglass handle shovel while hiking in the woods a few days ago (left mine in Peoria, exactly the same save for the color of the handle) so now I can actually try digging! I scouted via google maps a promising part of town I plan to scrounge in a bit later today which should have some old glass and some good scrap.

Anthonica-
That awesome load of scrap surely was obtained in a manner that falls in the legal and moral gray area, but I love gray areas! [] Heck most diggers have sneakily infiltrated construction sites, railroad grades or abandoned private property to dig bottles, which is scarcely any different, so if I knew that it wouldn't hurt anyone and that it was just gunna be junked anyway, I'd have a hard time turning down that 1,700 bucks! []

Jay-
Thanks for the congratulations, but I am not convinced it is rare yet. It sure would be interesting though, to have my first found druggist bottle be from an entirely unlisted company, my first pontil be that emerald green pickle, and now my first found squat be some ultra rare early soda from a town I imagine has been hammered hard for years. If it is indeed a good one then the bottle gods must like me, lol.

My girlfriend is both a student at and an employee of OSU, having been accepted on full scholarship (plus a small paycheck) as a graduate research and teachers assistant. She has worked so hard at school and has had to manage it along with stressful external setbacks that would have caused me to give up long ago. I came along initially for "just a week" to help get her settled, perform repairs around the apartment, and naturally spend wonderful time together but am finding it difficult to go back, as I don't want to be 400 miles away from my love! Finding a good way to make fast cash here also justified my protracted stay in the short-term, but I've ruined half my clothes, 2 pairs of flip-flops and a pair of sneakers (all my footwear) and really need to get back home and take care of various things, but I will probably be back and forth for long stays here and in Peoria on a regular basis.

When I was gathering my things up in preparation for my eventual return home, I was about to pack that Schille bottle and she exclaimed "No no, please don't take the hutch, I want to keep it here." "Why?" I asked. "Because it will remind me of you when you leave!" She may not be a collector of anything, but because she cares for me she not only knows what kind of bottle it is, but wants to keep it around as a reminder of my quirky ways! 'Bout as cute as it gets, so naturally I gave it to her. When she expressed interest in the squat, however, I was understandably a bit more reluctant, lol. []

I hope your daughter gets in to and does very well at OU, and should you move up this way there will probably be far more antiques available here than there are in Texas. Some nifty old stuff and interesting architecture in these parts, though I must say that I like Peoria a bit more. Home is home.


Some more shots of the squat:

 

[logueb]

RE: Peter Pfeiffer Columbus O. Squat discovery

Steven, Great pics of the Squat. I forgot to ask what you do with the pyrite. Do you sell it or just collect it? The prices on scrap metal fell here, so I haven't sold any in a while. I have a pile down at the trestle dump waiting to be hauled off, but I think that the price of mixed metal/steel/tin ect. is down, so I'm in no hurry to drag it out. Good Luck and thanks for posting. I have always wondered what it would be like to be a free spirit such as yourself. To be free of the constraints of a time clock and a daily routine. To have the time to devote to this hobby that it requires. Maybe when I retire I will be able to enjoy some of that freedom. But for now it's rush here, rush there, squeeze in a couple hours for a dig, no time for scouting new places. etc. Buster.

 

[Anthonicia]

RE: Peter Pfeiffer Columbus O. Squat discovery

@Plumbata: It sounds like you have got a really good thing going for you.... Most of the time I only realize how good things were after the fact when I am looking back at them. Please be careful when you are out and about though, not to be your mom or anything, but people you are likely to run into while scrapping can be far more desperate for what you are after than u are. I don't want to know what that new fiberglass shovel was doing out in the woods do you???

Well, good luck to you, your girl, and all future endeavors!

-A

 

[Brains]

RE: Peter Pfeiffer Columbus O. Squat discovery

so i checked out that clintonville creek for some pyrite, and i actually found some! Quite happy with that, also found 2 busted i-pods, a busted exacto knife, and a bunch of chunks of old and new bottles. Towards the end of one of the litt'ler creeks a found chunks of anoter blob soda, some med bottle, and i think a biters bottle of sorts. I assumed it was stuff some other digger found, but i figured it might be of interest to someone so i put them all in a nice little pile for someone to find.
Theres also some nelsonville blocks and some other interesting bricks, you should grab on of them while your in towm.
Nelsonville say's nelsonville will be on the earth forever! Not the city, just the bricks...

 

[Plumbata]

RE: Peter Pfeiffer Columbus O. Squat discovery

ORIGINAL: logueb
I forgot to ask what you do with the pyrite. Do you sell it or just collect it? The prices on scrap metal fell here, so I haven't sold any in a while. I have a pile down at the trestle dump waiting to be hauled off, but I think that the price of mixed metal/steel/tin ect. is down, so I'm in no hurry to drag it out. Good Luck and thanks for posting. I have always wondered what it would be like to be a free spirit such as yourself. To be free of the constraints of a time clock and a daily routine. To have the time to devote to this hobby that it requires. Maybe when I retire I will be able to enjoy some of that freedom.

I just collect the pyrite, and other fossils and minerals. Got a few thousand pounds of nice stuff that I could try selling someday, but for now I an more focused on cluttering up what little space I have available []. Good to hear that you've been saving that scrap. Not only is it environmentally friendly, it can give ya some quick cash to spend on some bottles not represented in that trove of a trestle dump you've been working (or a lobster/king crab dinner for you and your loved ones).

Some people call it freespirited, others call it silly and lazy. I contend that it isn't laziness, as I am always up to something, but it is often the case that my time is spent on something ultimately unproductive (and thus silly, at times). It works for me because I am not currently concerned with obtaining health insurance, fancy consumer items/electronics, or general security and daily organization, but this will not last in all likelihood. As one goes through life more and more responsibilities emerge, and though I've tried to distance myself from many of them, their presence is still felt distinctly. I love my freedom as much as life itself, but because of this I have neglected opportunities that would have been consistent sources of income and comfort, items which will probably mean much more in a decade or 2 than they do now. With you working hard and sticking to a schedule, you will be able to retire and enjoy a truly carefree life, circumstances permitting. For me it is a sort of guilty indulgence which may come crashing down on me. You have earned the right to enjoy true freedom, whereas I've just been taking it by the cartload at the potential expense of my future. Hobbies are just that; hobbies. It is darn hard to make a consistent living off of them and this economic situation certainly doesn't make it any easier. It may seem appealing or even romantic from the other side of the fence, but I assure you that it has some significant downsides. Still wouldn't trade it for anything, though. []

ORIGINAL: Anthonicia
@Plumbata: It sounds like you have got a really good thing going for you.... Most of the time I only realize how good things were after the fact when I am looking back at them. Please be careful when you are out and about though, not to be your mom or anything, but people you are likely to run into while scrapping can be far more desperate for what you are after than u are. I don't want to know what that new fiberglass shovel was doing out in the woods do you???

Well, good luck to you, your girl, and all future endeavors!

Thanks for the good words! I have run into a few skeezy bums in the areas I frequent, but not nearly the number I would have expected considering how many I've seen camping near the Olentangy river. When I trudge through the woods with a long handled estwing hammer in hand, exuding environmental confidence, they seem to leave me alone. The shovel was actually most likely used in the construction of an "illegal" BMX course in the woods of some park property, which really is an incredible investment of time, energy, and creativity to behold. Some of the holes they dug are pretty massive. Found a nice hatchet with a fiberglass handle too, but the fewls apparently didn't know how to sharpen the thing, maybe that is why they didn't retrieve it. Both were probably lost about a year ago, but I don't mind keeping them.

Good luck to you and all those close to you as well!

ORIGINAL: Brains
so i checked out that clintonville creek for some pyrite, and i actually found some! Quite happy with that, also found 2 busted i-pods, a busted exacto knife, and a bunch of chunks of old and new bottles. Towards the end of one of the litt'ler creeks a found chunks of anoter blob soda, some med bottle, and i think a biters bottle of sorts. I assumed it was stuff some other digger found, but i figured it might be of interest to someone so i put them all in a nice little pile for someone to find.
Theres also some nelsonville blocks and some other interesting bricks, you should grab on of them while your in towm.
Nelsonville say's nelsonville will be on the earth forever! Not the city, just the bricks...

Hey nice work Brains glad you made it out there and found some goodies! I've been thinking that some of the dense pyrite clusters/nodules have probably been sorted naturally via the "sluice effect" and have accumulated to a decent degree in depressions in the watery creek-floor. One of those depressions is where I pulled out the large one from Glen Echo park, without any prior knowledge that pyrite occurred in this area. I thought it could have been from some coal dumped in there, but that Clintonville creek demonstrated otherwise. I don't recall seeing any broken ipods in my travels but I've found about 5 destroyed cell phones, and exactly 2 sets of ruined earbuds (bet they'd go well with your 2 destroyed ipods, lol)

The creeklet you found those shards in may be near a nice old household dump so it may warrant further investigation. Coulda been from another digger but it is just as likely that it was from a spot as-yet undug, seeing as when people think of digging up old Columbus glass they probably don't initially jump at the idea of thoroughly investigating Clintonville, even though parts of the area are rather old.

Believe it or not I've already grabbed 2 different Nelsonville bricks for a Bottle and Brick collector friend back home! And is that actually what Nelsonville says about the bricks being the last remnant of their city? If so, that is awesome! []

 

[toddrandolph]

RE: Peter Pfeiffer Columbus O. Squat discovery

I've read all this with interest since I am headed to Columbus today for the second day of some very boring ODOT training. Unfortunately, no time to get out and look for bottles. There is a park along I71 south of downtown that is along the river, I picked up lots and lots of bricks in the woods along the river years ago, there are surely still some there. Athens, Roseville, Sciotoville, Nelsonville, Hocking and others, a nice variety of different names. Nelsonvilles of course come in several different kinds and also different combinations of backwards N and S

 

[Plumbata]

RE: Peter Pfeiffer Columbus O. Squat discovery

ORIGINAL: toddrandolph
I've read all this with interest since I am headed to Columbus today for the second day of some very boring ODOT training. Unfortunately, no time to get out and look for bottles. There is a park along I71 south of downtown that is along the river, I picked up lots and lots of bricks in the woods along the river years ago, there are surely still some there. Athens, Roseville, Sciotoville, Nelsonville, Hocking and others, a nice variety of different names. Nelsonvilles of course come in several different kinds and also different combinations of backwards N and S

Hope that training session went as well as something "very boring" can go!

Thanks for the tip regarding the park full of pavers. I'd like to grab a few more for the collector back home and who knows, there could be some good bottles and scrap there too!

Spent 4 hours today scrounging around the Confluence Park area and found 2 1910s-1930s dumps and 100.45 worth of #2 steel, which paid off the 40 dollar boots I got yesterday (very necessary seeing as all the footwear I had was ruined) and then some. No intact bottles though.