Hello, my name is Rachael and I am not brand new to the forum, I joined a few years back but have been busy with 3 young kids, the youngest which has a rare chromo condition. The last week I have been really busy cleaning up the basement. We live in a really old house, my husband's grandparents moved it here on logs in the early 1900's. The basement was hand dug of course, and I have uncovered a lot of interesting....stuff. It is hard to know what to throw away, and could be practically useful one day, like carpet squares. The older generation had a knack for hanging on to things. I keep coming up for air, and asking, what is this thing? Today I found a giant copper cellanoid. Back to vacuuming up spiders and crickets.......
Greetings from WNC
- Thread starter rachaelk
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Good luck to you. My wife and I had a 100+ year old home with a dirt cellar. There was a lot of 'stuff' down there. Most interesting stuff. I always felt like Pig Pen from Peanuts when I went down there.
Welcome back to the forum!
Welcome back to the forum!
howdy from a Texan .... and welcome to the forum and family...there's quiet a few knowledgeable folks here that'll gladly tell ya what you need to know,or at least point ya in the right direction and/or give ya a good idea or 2..and by all means jump right on in with any replies you have on a topic.and start new topics if/when needed..
Hello from SA
Welcome back. The advantages of living in East is that most families have homes that are pre-1900's. Very few exist west of the Mississippi and more or less if you have one in Texas, they were built either late 1890's or turn of the 20th century. My moments of reminiscing my great aunt's home in Adirondacks of New York, bring back great memories of what you just posted, old mason jars filled with goodies to strange to eat, old saws, iron clamping's, and the old watchyamacallit. So you've stumbled on a gold mind there.
I guess if and when I ever my children have children, my future grandchildren will wonder what that senile old Grandpa was up to with all the razor wire, ammo cans, NBC detector and protective gear, etc. I am sure one of them will wonder what a small extractor was used for....nah, hopefully grandpa will not get Alzheimer's and be able to pass on the trades. lol...or will I.
Either way, enjoy the fun weekend uncovering that treasure, something to school your children and certainly something to talk about and show at family gatherings. Great picnic conversation piece and works well as a center piece at the picnic table once you get the cobwebs off and clean it up with some rustoleum paint.
Look forward to hearing more about your finds.
I guess if and when I ever my children have children, my future grandchildren will wonder what that senile old Grandpa was up to with all the razor wire, ammo cans, NBC detector and protective gear, etc. I am sure one of them will wonder what a small extractor was used for....nah, hopefully grandpa will not get Alzheimer's and be able to pass on the trades. lol...or will I.
Either way, enjoy the fun weekend uncovering that treasure, something to school your children and certainly something to talk about and show at family gatherings. Great picnic conversation piece and works well as a center piece at the picnic table once you get the cobwebs off and clean it up with some rustoleum paint.
Look forward to hearing more about your finds.
That's great, never thought about showing the stuff off at a picnic! My husbands grandfather was 92 and died about 8 years ago. He was a prison guard, walking 15 miles to work each day. He wasn't a prepper, but I guess you might call him a real life person. One thing here of interest when we first moved in was a pair of ox yokes, that disappeared quickly to one of the relatives. Also a large grinding wheel. The basement is cleaned as of this morning, I can find the floor again, and everything is neatly binned and shelved after two nights of nightmares about it. What is down there.......basement freezer full of cream style garden corn, (cut off 600 plus ears last summer), deer meat, wild hog meat, turkeys (store bought on sale.) 100's of mason jars, the old ones....when I first moved in six years ago I dumped a bunch of food canned in the 1950 to 1970s.....some of it was pretty gross. Wires, coils, carpets, hats, some wierd chemicals I have never heard of, like, clorodane. Of interest in the corner was a large roll of very thick plastic sheets. Another bin had folded thin plastic sheets. Tons of antique glasses and plates and figurines. Tractor tires, spokes, wheels, gears. a tool my husband says is a glass cutter (who knew?) Several tvs had to go and there is water cooler I am debating the potential use of. Don't know if there is any use or not for old vacuum machines either. Of course I added my own stuff, tarps, tents, grills, christmas storage, cast iron, butter churns, stone crocks for sauerkraut, weights, fishing stuff. Now there is room for toilet paper and if worse comes to worse spider webs are at least high in vitamin k.
Howdy from way out in west Texas. Good to have you back on here! Pretty cool story about your basement. I love treasure hunting!
Chlordane was a great termite treatment that was really effective. The EPA banned it as it is still effective after many years. I believe the idea was that if your house that you sprayed it under ever burned down, then the chloridane would get washed down to the water table, still potent. I remember seeing it sell for over 100.00 a gallon after it was banned. Good stuff unless you're a termite.
