Scavenging to going Green and everything in-between seems to be the norm here at the Stump Farm.
Scavenging, re-cycle,re-use and going Green. Funny how the terms change over time. Though they all mean the same thing to me. Save what you deem will be useful in the future, and then figure out how to put it to best use. Could this also be called hoarding? No.
I guess my scavenging started while I was in the Air Force. I still have an aluminum aircraft records chest, from a B-66, that followed all over Europe and then home. It is now used for storing chain saw oil and tools. When I became a electrician, the scavenging really went into hi gear. I work for one electrical contractor for thirty-four years. They did everything from high voltage power lines to traffic signals. In later years they were known as “Circus Electric, A new show every day”. You can’t begin to imagine the oppertunities to scavenge. Every thing from high voltage insulators from electrical sub-stations, used utility poles, pole cross arms, railroad rails and ties, indoor and outdoor lighting fixtures and all the old bottles I dug up while trenching and drilling holes to set poles.
One of the jobs we had was to install soccer field lighting across the street from the Seattle Arboretum. The site was over the top of a dump that was in use before and after the fire that burned most of downtown Seattle on the 6th of June, 1889. The dump site was a deep gully that opened to the North. They just kept dumping and pushing until most of the gully was full. One of my job was to auger the holes for the lighting poles. The holes were thirteen feet deep. The stuff that came out of those holes was unbelievable. Everything from cupie doll heads, porcelain salt shakers, perfume bottles with the glass stoppers still in place, Owl Drug Company bottles, liquor bottles and ten thousand pieces of broken dishes. I still have the salt shaker.
