New House Blog: Episode XXXIII - Back Yard Archaeology

Welcome to Episode XXXIII.  In this Episode we are introducing a new feature: Back Yard Archaeology.  This will be an ongoing feature chronicling our efforts to excavate the yard's past and reconstruct (figuratively) the structures that once existed and the reasoning (or lack thereof) and method (or madness) behind their construction (literal).  As this is an ongoing project, we will be deviating from our normal pattern of only revealing completed projects, and we will be providing updates over several episodes (we hope, depending on how well this new feature is received).

Speaking of ongoing projects, we do have some ongoing projects of which we cannot now speak, but we hope to share them soon.  Some of you may know what one or two of those projects might be, and we ask that if you are one of those people, or think you are, you kindly refrain from spilling the beans.

Bish's Office

One project we can speak about is Bish's office.  The paint in said office was revealed in this Episode, but everything was still protected by plastic sheeting and we couldn't really show it off, so to speak.  Here is Bish's office with furniture and computer finally set up.  Yes, I am once again typing on a regulation keyboard and using my awesome Kensington Expert Mouse.  As you can see from the picture there is still some unpacking going on.

Yes, Bish has more Garfields than what you see here.

Wireless Upgrade

Setting up Bish's computer highlighted an issue that we have had since moving into our house: the wireless networking signal is not well-received by the computers in the offices.  This issue is mainly because our wireless router has to be located in the big room, because that's where the Comcast cable comes in, and the computers are in offices far, far away from the wireless router.  To put it simply, we had weak wifi signal in our offices, and our computers were having connection issues.  To resolve this we installed a wifi range extender.  We had never heard of this device (although Bish thought that such a device was theoretically possible) until we went to Best Buy to purchase some long USB extendsion cables.  The range extender works, and now our wifi signal is much stronger in our offices.  No, we won't tell you the SSID (network name), or the type of security we have set up, unless you come visit us in person and need to get on our home wifi.  Here are two pictures of the installed range extender.

From the kitchen side

From the fireplace room side

Happy Cats

Here are some pictures of our happy cats.  We love our cats, and it's important to us that they are comfortable and happy.

Happy Satchmo and Daisy

Happy Mr. Miles

Back Yard Archaeology

And now for the new feature you've all been waiting for, unless you skipped ahead by scrolling down, Back Yard Archaeology.  This first edition of BYA will focus mainly on items that were recently dug up in our back yard.  The first item that was dug up in our yard is a seemingly-random length of romex in PVC conduit.  We first noticed this romex-and-conduit when we first looked at our house, on our very first day of house-hunting.  It was sticking out of the hard, clay-like dirt and we mostly ignored it, but a man can ignore partially-buried conduit for only so long (so far, Bish has done all of the archaeological excavating) .  The time had come to be rid of it.  This conduit-and-romex ran under the dirt for several yards and then stopped: nothing was connected to either end.  Here's a picture, post-excavation.

As you can see, the conduit is pretty beat-up.  Some (most) of the breakage may have been caused (definitely was caused) by my excavating methods.  I am not a trained archaeologist, and therefore my methods may not be quite as gentle and civilized as one would expect to see at an archaeological dig site.

What were this conduit and romex used for?  What, if anything, were they connected to?  What kind of people would bury them so carefully and then abandon them so quickly?  The mystery deepens.  I found another piece of romex sticking out of the dirt, separated from the original dig site by a few feet.  There was also PVC conduit encasing this romex.  Could they at one time have been part of the same contiguous electrical line?  If so, where are the missing lengths of conduit and romex that would have connected the pieces together?

Time for more excavating.  I began to dig, and by dig I mean I used Spike to break up the dirt and then used Longspade to remove the loose dirt.  After digging into the ground around this second conduit I found an artifact, a black plastic-coated handle of some sort. It was buried about six inches deep, and it obviously was broken off from a bigger artifact. More digging revealed the rest of the artifact.  It appeared to be some sort of ancient, primitive tool.  At first we could not make any kind of definitive identification (I showed it to Becky), but we each had our favorite pet theories. A little research revealed the answer.  Here are the pictures of the mystery object.  For full effect, scroll slowly so that you are only looking at one picture at a time.  That will make it seem more mysterious and it will make the final reveal more wonderful (I hope).

 In this first picture you can see the general shape and size of the object.  It is quite rusted and corroded, and one of the handles is actually corroded through and separated from the main body.  I had to speculate as to where the broken handle would have attached, but I think I guessed correctly.

 Here is the device on a round garden/yard brick.  As you can see, under the dirt is a label that is mostly legible.  Removing the dirt is the research I mentioned above.

The truth revealed.  It is/was a manual rivet gun.  I had only ever seen one other rivet gun in my life, and it was brand-new at the time.  Never had I seen one this ancient and corroded.


But who put this rivet gun next to the conduit before it was buried?  And who left it there to get buried?  And why would anyone be using a rivet gun near electrical conduit and romex?  Is that brand of rivet gun still being produced?  Questions.  Questions that have answers.  Answers that we don't know.

Back to the 2nd romex/conduit excavation.  This excavation is more involved than I initially thought it would be.  It seems that the conduit extends under the dirt for quite a ways, and I have only uncovered a portion of it so far, as the pictures below will show.  You will also see in the pictures that the conduit is damaged, said damage being probably (definitely) caused by my excavating methods.  You will also see some electrical tape around some of the romex.  Was this used to join two romex sections together?  My digging also revealed that there was water in the conduit.  How long had it been there?  In what era had it first collected in the conduit?

The mysterious object at the bottom of this picture is merely the blade of our hand spade.

At least it's well-buried.

This is the extent of the excavation so far.  And there's a nice view of that hand spade.

Mmmm....Electrical tape.....

Also excavated were some concrete post foundations.  What were these foundations holding?  Why are they scattered about willy-nilly in our yard?  Why was the supported object removed?  Where is it now?  In the pictures below, you can see one of these post foundations, before and after removal.

The foundation, in-hole

The same foundation, out-of-hole and split in two

As you can see, the foundation split in two when it was excavated.

We actually do have a clue about what these post foundations once supported.  If you look up our house on Google Maps you can see what looks like sauna/hot tub in the back yard.  This is only visible in the 45-degree view of Google Maps, not in the straight-down view.  No we are not going to reveal our address here. If this sauna theory is true it would explain many things, but not everything.  For instance, was this hot tub built according to code?  Did it have the proper permits?  Were the neighbors allowed to use it?

Here are two pictures of some of the random debris in our yard.  What story do these bits and pieces tell?  Who used these items?  Who used them last?  Who left them for us to clean up?

What are these ancient, mysterious objects?

Does their placement have any deeper meaning?

Questions, more questions, and
   bIsh