That will teach you! Never tell the kids they can camp out in the backyard! They must've had a ball judging from the amount of the leftovers! I guess you won't ever make that mistake again! Or let them invite a few friends over! Afterall they did bring their own snacks! Hope you found the escapee from Mouseville... and his/her relatives that might still be there waiting to slip into your house unnoticed when you open the door to bring out the cleaning supplies! Happy Trails, Ed... Or should I ask.... Can you say Burrow?
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1967 Safari Twin "Landshark" w/International trim package
1999 GMC Sierra 1500 SLT FORUMS MEMBER SINCE 12/16/2004 AIR#7110
"My tire was thumping, I thought it was flat! When I looked at the tire... I noticed your CAT!" Burma Shave
Don't feel bad, enduroryda, as we knew what we were getting into. The owner forewarned us about the debris before we even drove down to look at the trailer.
There wasn't any place for us to dump the contents so we hauled it all home with us. Our thought was it would be easier to deal with at home plus we wanted to take our time going through it so we didn't accidently throw out any "treasures." We did find a few treasures like a bag of original Bargman hardware including the missing door knob lock set, a chrome Bargman shut-off valve for the water, all the cast aluminum bunk bed holders, the cast aluminum dump elbow, and all the parts for the water filter.
The top half of the trash in the trailer consisted of moldy cardboard boxes of papers and books as the original PO was a college professor. The bottom half of the trash was also papers and books but these were deteriorated so much by rodents that I had to use a shovel to remove the debris. Also, there must have been critters larger than mice living in the trailer as we found finger sized scat everywhere.
And then there was the smell...arghh...it was awful. I can't even describe it. The smell permeated everything -- my hair, skin, and clothes. I used a high quality mask with special cartridges which filtered out smell, mold, and dust.
I have to ask! Did the PO have an explanation of why it was so full of trash?
I never spoke with the PO who used the trailer for storage because he is a different person from the person I obtained the trailer from. I only spoke with the current PO who inherited the trailer by default when he recently purchased the land it was located on. The story I heard from the current owner was that the PO just picked up himself and his wife and walked out leaving the house, all its contents, the land and trailer (and all its contents) behind quite a few years ago. The house and trailer have been sitting vacant on the land for many years. The PO is now in a nursing home. The current owner didn't know much more about the trailer other than that.
I have pieced together some information by reading some of the dates on the paperwork found in the trailer. The earliest date I found was mid-60's and the latest date was mid-80's. Perhaps the PO moved out in the 80's or else he simply ran out of room to store anything else in the trailer!
The PO was a math and computer science professor who taught at different universities in Massachusetts. I even found a bunch of punch card decks from when he learned or taught programming back in the late 70's. To give you an idea of the extent of "stuff" the PO stored -- he saved every exam book for every student he taught in multiple classes per year for at least five years. What I'm talking about is those light blue "Examination Books" with the lined pages. There were boxes and boxes of these exam books along with associated hand-outs, etc.
Most of the trash is now removed from the trailer. We even found clothes hanging on hangers in the closets!
There are a few locations I wasn't able to gain access to yet such as behind the bathroom vanity and under the refrigerator. Those will have to wait until I remove the interior. Now comes the next "fun" step -- cleaning/washing the interior prior to removal. I figured I would clean it first prior to removing it otherwise my barn will stink from the smell of the parts and pieces.
Attached is a photo of the bunk bed mattresses. Naaaaaasty!!!
Quick Links
Never tell the kids they can camp out in the backyard!
They must've had a ball judging from the amount of the leftovers!
Or let them invite a few friends over!
Afterall they did bring their own snacks!
Happy Trails, Ed... Or should I ask.... Can you say Burrow?
Adventure
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