Apartment on the curb

I got Karma again today, and I decided to take a walk East of St-Denis for a final look at garbage before I go tree-picking in Kemptville. I should be gone around two weeks in all, so there won’t be as many posts. I’m going to post-date some entries of past garbage I found, so there’ll be an odd thing here and there. Who knows, I might also go out of my way and look for garbage in Kemptville. Never been there, but who knows eh?

Let’s get to it.

Almost everything today comes from this same area on St Joseph near Christophe-Colomb. A couple of guys were cleaning out an apartment and putting all the stuff on the curb. I wish I had taken a picture that showed how much stuff there was total, as there was quite a lot. I feel that this guy may have died, or at best abandoned all this stuff. These two dressers here are quite nice, and the one on the right is a decent antique piece, even if a few handles were missing. I was too far from home to think about that though.


This was what was in the top two drawers of the left dresser. The bottom two had some clothes in it. Some personal stuff, some new dentures in plastic, a pack of flints, and a bunch of coins just casually lying around on the bottom.

Here’s a close up of the coins. Some of them are a bit old, with a 1935 American penny being the oldest. I gave most of these to a friend who collects coins. I like a few and might keep them, or give them away too. I like the ones with pictures of birds on them (New Zealand 1961 Sixpence, Cayman Islands 1982 1p), to add to my small collection of coins with birds on them. That is currently comprised of that 1967 Canada penny with the bird on it – my all time favorite penny.

In these boxes were all kinds of dishes, pots, pans, and cutlery. The guy bringing the stuff from the apartment (who didn’t know who all this belonged too) insisted that there wasn’t anything good in it. I had found some plates though, and he wasn’t too worried about it as long as I didn’t make a mess. He was even helpful, giving me a bag that came in handy later.

I pulled these dishes from those boxes, and a few other things, like a calculator. I remember that my dad had a calculator like that back in the day. It’s a good design. I tried taking it all, but I was too far from home, and it was too heavy. I didn’t really need plates, but there was just about a complete set of dishes, and I liked the pattern on them. There were also a few corning ware baking things and two decent cast-iron pans. I ended up only taking a few things.

I took these two glasses, the plate (I liked that design), and the little vase in the back. There was another glass I brought, but it didn’t survive the trip. I recycled it though, so at least I helped waste a bit less.

I found this pin in one of the drawers. My rough translation is “It can no longer continue like this.” On the edge is written that it was printed for Robert St-Jean, an “agent officiel du Parti Quebecois,” so this pin is probably an artifact from the early parts of the Quebec separatist movement.

I also found this camera tripod. It came in a case and everything. I’ve been looking to buy one, and unfortunately my camera doesn’t fit it, unless I have to buy a mount or something. I’ve never used one of these – does anyone know how to connect it to a generic point and click camera?

This is the only thing I didn’t find in that big pile. I’m not sure if this tin is vintage, or made to look vintage. Maybe I’ll look it up later.

Off day

 

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I got some little blood oranges out of the dumpster. A few of them were moldy, but I salvaged a bunch. There were a few more than seen in this picture, but I ate them. They taste pretty good, but they’re almost disconcertingly “bloody.”

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I found this pan today, a block away from my place. Thanks to K for the tipoff. I don’t trust Teflon very much, but this one seems to be in pretty good shape.

What do you guys think about Teflon? I fear it’s long-term effect on my health, but am I overreacting? 

Odds and ends

It’s the day after and I have a bit of time to look at some odds and ends.

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I’m not sure I mentioned this little milk jug in my last post. I found it near the end, and didn’t really have the time to take an individual picture (the garbage trucks were getting close). It’s a nice piece, and there was a faint mark on the bottom.

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I used some parchment paper and a pencil to bring out the mark a bit more. I learned this technique back in the day from my mom, when we went to graveyards and wanted to read the really old, worn out tombstones. It’s still hard to read, but “Crespots” comes out pretty clear (ironically, a few minutes later I found out through some Google magic that it actually says “Grespots”. Another part reads “Digoin”, which Google says is a part of Eastern France. There also might be a signature; I see a “M. le (??)”. Someone’s trying to sell a pretty similar pot on Etsy for 25$. Not sure I’d get that, but under the right conditions maybe I could get something close. I’ll have to look into Etsy again. It’s seems like a good way to maximize value for this vintage-y stuff.

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I found this shell amongst the stuff. It’s pretty cool, and has some cool ridge action which doesn’t really come out in the picture.

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This is a close up of the Beauce pottery. I like the natural feel of the colors. It seems like Beauce is pretty collectible, so I’m optimistic I might be able to get maybe 5$ a piece, conservatively. I’m going to have to look into Etsy for sure.