April 2013 – Things I find in the garbage

1964 Chianti, a yard sale and a newspaper article

April 27, 2013April 27, 2013 garbagefinds12 Comments

It’s been a dry week. I haven’t been able to go hunting for trash in the mornings because of the short temporary job I’m working but I also just haven’t found much when I have gone out.

I did come across this pile of trash somewhere in the Plateau, perhaps on Garnier north of Rachel. A woman sitting outside told me it was her neighbours (voisins) stuff. Apparently he called the Salvation Army to pick up the mattresses and a cool bookcase made of wine crates but they didn’t want it out of fear of bedbugs. A passerby took an interest in the bookcase and ended up carrying it home. Glad it didn’t go to waste!

Behind the mattresses in this picture I came across some old, oddly shaped bottles of chianti.

I took 5 bottles in all. The tall one on the right is in the best condition, with minimal (if any) evaporation. The other tall one has a taped-up top and looks to have evaporated a fair bit. The middle sized one leaks from the spout – it may have gotten slightly damaged as I moved it. The two little ones are sealed but one is clearly more evaporated than the other.

The best looking of the tall bottles is marked as “Vintage 1964.” All of the other bottles are from around that time too, with the latest being from 1971.

When I found a bottle of wine from 1982 a few months ago people seemed to think it would be fine, if not the best tasting (I still haven’t tried it, by the way!). However, does the same thing apply for a bottle from 1964?

The other, more evaporated bottles are probably best used as decoration, but I wonder if the better preserved bottles are good to drink.

Let me know what you think!

In other news, the Journal de Montreal (en francais!) did a little story on my trash blog. You can see it here. I’m happy with how it turned out, other than the video which is a horrible example of me trying to speak French! It’s probably not as bad as I think it is, but it’s definitely harder to speak a language you’re not super-comfortable with when you’re on camera for the first time. I think my main problem is that I get lost on certain words, so if I make a specific effort to learn those words I might be okay.

There should be an article for you Anglos soon as well – I’ll let you know when that comes out.

Also, my friends are having a yard sale tomorrow on the edge of the Park by rue Mont-Royal and Esplanade. If the park officials kick them off (seems unlikely but you never know) it would move somewhere near there. I won’t be there during the day, but I’m going to bring some stuff and sit with it from around 4-7PM. I won’t be able to be there earlier, unfortunately, due to my work schedule. Given the short amount of time I have I’m going to bring only a couple of things, and by that I mean my stack of old Cinemonde magazines, my pillowcase of jewelry (which smell a bit like cigarette smoke, which means discounts!), and some other bits of jewelry I’ve found. I may also bring my old newspapers (note that most of the ones that remain are Expo 67 related).

So yeah, if you’re into old magazines and jewelry come on by. I might have something for you.

Leaf’t Behind

April 23, 2013 garbagefinds5 Comments

I’ve seen a lot of bags of leaves (and whatever else accumulates on lawns) out on the curb in the last couple of days. Now that winter’s over it’s time to make your property pleasant to look at!

Unfortunately bags of leaves don’t interest me whatsoever. I have made a few finds, however.

I’m driving a lot for a job and I spotted this pile in Westmount close to Decarie (possibly on avenue NDG) on Friday. In the front you can see a little guitar amplifier that was amongst the stuff. I brought it home and it works well other than an annoying buzzing noise. This should be easily fixable though – I gave it to my room-mate for her to work on.

Yesterday I found the body of an electric guitar sitting on top of a bunch of bags on St-Dominique near Gauthier. It’s in decent shape – just empty. The same room-mate is interested in it as a project so I gave it to her to do as she pleases!

Inside one of the bags with the guitar was a box with a bunch of electronic-type stuff inside. It should come in handy in the guitar project. I have no idea how this stuff works, but maybe I’ll learn a thing or two from watching.

Also on top of the pile of bags was this keyboard. It looks to be in decent shape but I didn’t find the adaptor so I can’t test it. It’s just a matter of time until I find another 9v DC adaptor, and once I do I’ll let you know if it works.

I’m fairly busy with work but I should be able to make my evening runs at least. Soon the garbage will start flowing from the McGill ghetto as some of the kids leave a lot of stuff behind when they move back home for the summer. It was pretty crazy last year and I’m not expecting anything different this time around.

Try throwing this Javelin

April 19, 2013 garbagefinds12 Comments

I came across these bags in the same place I found the kitten picture from my post on April 15th. I thought originally that it was spring cleaning waste but based on what I found today I think someone might be clearing out a house. The items are getting older and more interesting. I took home a bunch of stuff and also left some at the Give Box.

I pulled this old-style metal fan and a few tins (marked Kodak) out of one of the bags. I almost left the fan, which I tested using the outlet outside of a grocery store, at the Give Box but my friend convinced me keep it. It’s got a great baby-blue color and the only problem with it is that the cover is a little busted. I may just take the cover off given that I don’t have any small children running around that could get hurt by it’s metal blades.

One of the tins ended up being a retractable aluminium cup.

This logo was imprinted on the top and bottom. I couldn’t make out what the top part says other than the word “Ever.” Regardless it’s a great tool for camping, though it also may have been something a soldier would use as well.

Also in one of the bags was this “Lady Schick” portable consolette hair dryer. I tested it and it actually works! I can definitely make a little bit of money off this. It’s in great condition for it’s age.

This envelope contained some old x-ray images. They’re marked as being from 1986. My room-mate may use them for art.

I pulled another cast iron pan out of the bags. This one’s a sturdy Canadian piece, marked on the bottom as being by Javelin out of Joliette, Quebec.

I’m not sure why someone would name a cast-iron pan making company “Javelin.” This is truly the opposite of a javelin. A javelin is a light spear and this is a formed piece of a mountain design to cook with. I guess one similarity is that it’s good exercise to throw a javelin and it’s also good exercise to lift this pan from your cupboard to the stove.

Anyways, the only problem was that it was quite rusty. I figured I could fix it up though and took it home.

I scrubbed the hell out of it with steel wool and it, sure enough, ended up being a perfectly fine cast iron pan. I really like the flat design which works really well for pancakes and lots of other stuff I’m sure. I still have to re-season it put I expect it’ll become a fixture in my kitchen.

Finally a little toy that you can shape in all kinds of different ways. I’d never seen one before and I think it’s pretty cool. Definitely better than the Rubik’s cube in my opinion, though I definitely have some bias as I always sucked at them.

Later on I came across these bags just south of Mont-Royal on de Bullion (or one of the streets next to it). Inside the bags was a lot of food, toiletries, and some trinkets such as the plastic turkey on the far left side. I ended up leaving some stuff of the stuff I found in a “safe” location for others to find later.

I found these nice earrings inside their little jewelry box. I think the stones could be jade. These might be great for my Etsy store or maybe a yard sale.

A little bottle made of some kind of metal. I’m not sure what it would have been for – maybe perfume. The top unscrews to reveal a little dipper thing with a flat end.

Here’s a couple of solo earrings to finish us off. The one on the left is marked as being 925 (sterling) silver and the one on the right is marked as 10k gold. The gold one, though I can’t sell it on my Etsy store, still may be worth around 15$ for melt.

It’s getting to the point where I’m finding silver extremely regularly. It’s not worth a ton on it’s own, but if I amass a whole bunch of it I’ll make a decent amount from it’s melt value.

I’ve got to get to work but I’ll be going out later today for sure.