Who's dug their own garbage pit?

[stevej37]

My older brother and myself were in charge of the task of digging the garbage pit.
It only needed to be done about every third year.

We would start out with a hole about 6 ft diameter and end up with it about a 6ft deep and about 4 ft diameter at the bottom. Just enough room for a shovel.

No garbage pick-up in those days. Anything that could burn was separated so that only food garbage went in.
When it got to a foot from the surface...it was capped with dirt and we started another one in another spot.
The good old days.

The family home was on very heavy/clay ground also....not fun digging.

[mattdavis11]

Send it back to where it came from.

[stevej37]

^^^ The garbage??

[mattdavis11]

All of it.

[stevej37]

^^^???

[mattdavis11]

Lets start with oil. It came from where?

[stevej37]

I agree...just didn't understand your answer....sorry.

[masraum]

I'm surprised it wasn't composted.

I suppose, technically, buried in the ground results in it being composted.

[stevej37]

Maybe to keep the critters from dragging it all over the place?

We fished a lot..so there were always fish guts in there and we would throw a couple shovels of dirt over them to hide the smell.

[tabs]

If you have a thrift addicition you.eventually live in a garbage pit.

[red-beard]

Originally Posted by masraum

I'm surprised it wasn't composted.

I suppose, technically, buried in the ground results in it being composted.

Only with oxygen present. Without oxygen, it breaks down anaerobically and produces methane & carbon dioxide.

[red-beard]

Originally Posted by tabs

If you have a thrift addicition you.eventually live in a garbage pit.

Las Vegas?

[GH85Carrera]

One of the things we did at the aerial photo business I worked at was historical aerials. The company had been in business since 1947 and had aerials of all of Oklahoma over the years.

We often were contacted by an engineer to provide aerials of a house from 1950 to date of a piece of land. More than a few times we would find some farmer's three generation trash pit. Some developer would buy the land. flatten it, and just cover the trash pit full of old water heaters, tree stumps, and general trash under a foot or so topsoil. The house was settling and we could show why. One house was right on top of an oil oil well. The lady flipped on the garbage disposal and her cabinets exploded. We found the oil well was right under her kitchen, it was not sealed up properly.

Before I moved into our house I did a similar historical search of my property. It was a farmer's wheat field, and then a soccer field for a local college.

[Jims5543]

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

One of the things we did at the aerial photo business I worked at was historical aerials. The company had been in business since 1947 and had aerials of all of Oklahoma over the years.

We often were contacted by an engineer to provide aerials of a house from 1950 to date of a piece of land. More than a few times we would find some farmer's three generation trash pit. Some developer would buy the land. flatten it, and just cover the trash pit full of old water heaters, tree stumps, and general trash under a foot or so topsoil. The house was settling and we could show why. One house was right on top of an oil oil well. The lady flipped on the garbage disposal and her cabinets exploded. We found the oil well was right under her kitchen, it was not sealed up properly.

Before I moved into our house I did a similar historical search of my property. It was a farmer's wheat field, and then a soccer field for a local college.

When I worked up in Merritt Island near KSC, there was a development we knew of where the developer knocked all the trees down, then buried them in a large pit.

Anytime someone would hire us to survey a lot in there we would tell them to get a soil boring done before committing to the lot. We never said why just that it would be prudent to do so.

Every damn one of them backed out a deal with the developer to purchase a lot and thanked us for "warning" them.

The developer hated us and tried to steer people away from using us, problem was, you drove past our office on your way to the development.

[stevej37]

Thinking back now...I remember my father stressing that no tin cans or metal went into the pit.
We had a township dump that took that stuff. (they wouldn't accept any food garbage)

We had no problem with that...cans would have just filled the pit faster.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by stevej37

Thinking back now...I remember my father stressing that no tin cans or metal went into the pit.
We had a township dump that took that stuff. (they wouldn't accept any food garbage)

Interesting.

I know that I saw a show once where a guy would find historic maps that included outhouses. He'd then go ask current residents if he could dig up the outhouse pit. He was looking for things like old bottles. It was interesting at the stuff that he'd find in them since I guess a lot of folks would throw trash into them or lose things in them.

[stevej37]

^^^ He probably found a lot of Sears Catalog pages.

[red-beard]

The Ex-Mrs. Beard's father was a bottle collector. He would prospect for old trash pits and "privy's" and dig for bottles. Some areas were more legal than other...Quabbin Reservoir

[stevej37]

I can honestly say that my hobbies will never include exploring old privy's

[GG Allin]

Originally Posted by mattdavis11

Lets start with oil. It came from where?

I've always felt that dumping used motor oil out in the alley, say next to a telephone pole was okay. Just putting it right back where in came from.