How many of you found garbage buried around your place from past owners?

[ericm979]

Fence wire is probably worse though.

There were so many old fences on our place in CA. I made a lot of dump runs. Old air photos showed that a lot of it was pasture in the '40s and 50s. It's forest or thick, and I mean really thick, brush now.

When we moved in we went exploring. My wife discovered a trash pile under some bushes. It was winter so there were no leaves, making it easier to see. She had to crawl through the bushes to get to the pile. She found some old pots with holes in them and a 1946 license plate.

Then a week later she found that the bushes she'd been crawling through were poison oak.

 

[ponytug]

There were so many old fences on our place in CA. I made a lot of dump runs. Old air photos showed that a lot of it was pasture in the '40s and 50s. It's forest or thick, and I mean really thick, brush now.

When we moved in we went exploring. My wife discovered a trash pile under some bushes. It was winter so there were no leaves, making it easier to see. She had to crawl through the bushes to get to the pile. She found some old pots with holes in them and a 1946 license plate.

Then a week later she found that the bushes she'd been crawling through were poison oak.

What a welcome to the neighborhood! I lived for a while in your old neighborhood, and looked after my parents cocker spaniel for a year. (Well, ok sent it through canine boot camp for the year. Ill behaved doesn't begin to describe it.)

On one of my first hikes with him towards the coast, as we got back to the car some folks turned up with a big, not very friendly Rhodesian ridgeback cross, so I scooped my dog up and held on to him tight to keep him from getting into trouble, or eaten, as neither dog looked particularly well behaved. Two days later, I had a six inch wide three inch high smear across my stomach as the dog had gotten into some poison oak sap. Being used to toughing it out with poison ivy, I thought no problem. Mistake. I went through a couple ounces of topical steroid cleaning that up, and I have had an eagle eye for poison oak ever since.

All the best,

Peter

 

[quicksandfarmer]

Was there a reason you filled the wells? Was it a permit issue, or was it you didnt need them, or where they actively collapsing or similar? Unless forced too, I wouldn't full them, id just leave them be

I was worried about someone or something falling into them. These are old hand-dug wells. Not very deep, it's rarely more than 12' to bedrock here. The one I filled with sand was about 8' deep and 3' in diameter.

 

[Captain Dirty]

One of the misconceptions of my youth was that those 3' diameter, stone lined wells were dug by a 4'10" tall well digger using short-handled picks and shovels. I now realize a hand-dug well was usually an open pit, the diameter of which was determined by soil conditions (see angle of repose) so that the risk of collapse was acceptable. Once water was found, they would continue digging as long as they could practicably remove the water (by buckets or pump). At some point the diggers would lay a stone base and start constructing a cylindrical stone wall, backfilling with stones on the outside (in the pit). This stone provided voids to hold a reservoir of water larger than the diameter of the casing and provide scaffolding for the stone-masons laying up the lining. As the height rose they would use smaller and smaller stones, finer and finer sand, and then clay (if available) or even a tar-paper membrane in a cone around the lining to keep surface water from flowing into the well along the lining. An earthen cone was often extended above the surrounding surface grade depending on the finances of the owner or the patience of the crew.

 

[goeduck]

Was there a reason you filled the wells? Was it a permit issue, or was it you didnt need them, or where they actively collapsing or similar? Unless forced too, I wouldn't full them, id just leave them be

A neighbor still has a dug well unfilled, fortunately there are no young kids nearby. How many critters are at the bottom of it, I don't know. It does have boards partially over the raised portion.

 

[quicksandfarmer]

One of the misconceptions of my youth was that those 3' diameter, stone lined wells were dug by a 4'10" tall well digger using short-handled picks and shovels. I now realize a hand-dug well was usually an open pit, the diameter of which was determined by soil conditions (see angle of repose) so that the risk of collapse was acceptable. Once water was found, they would continue digging as long as they could practicably remove the water (by buckets or pump). At some point the diggers would lay a stone base and start constructing a cylindrical stone wall, backfilling with stones on the outside (in the pit). This stone provided voids to hold a reservoir of water larger than the diameter of the casing and provide scaffolding for the stone-masons laying up the lining. As the height rose they would use smaller and smaller stones, finer and finer sand, and then clay (if available) or even a tar-paper membrane in a cone around the lining to keep surface water from flowing into the well along the lining. An earthen cone was often extended above the surrounding surface grade depending on the finances of the owner or the patience of the crew.

Before I filled that well I rented a trash pump and pumped it out, then put a ladder in and climbed down to check it out. What I noticed is that while there was room to stand, it was almost impossible to move without bumping my butt against the wall. The wall was cold and my butt got cold.

There's a Tom Waits song where he talks about it being "colder than a well-digger's ass." I think I know what he means.