Over the last two weekends a few family members have finally "dispatched" FILs shed. FIL passed away about 12 years ago and did not use his shed much in the few years before that, and even then the main thing he was doing in the shed was as quiet place to have a couple of fags free from being told off by MIL.
A few months after FIL passed away SWMBO and I tried to get into the (~8 x 4m) shed and just to get into it we cleared out and took a couple of van loads of stuff (glass, tin cans and cardboard) to the recycling centre. There was still an awful lot of junk in there but at least we could shuffle down a sort of centre aisle. SWMBO was looking for his military memorabilia which was not in the house and she found these in a small wooden box in the shed. I was looking for the better tools which I brought back to our place and gave them a basic anti-rust treatment. I knew it was either going to take years for the shed to be tackled or for MIL to pass away and the house be sold before anyone else would tackle the shed and as the shed is just across the road from the beach, stuff was already starting to rust beyond use. The tools are of more sentimental than practical value but there was some 100+ year old stuff that needed protection.
MIL passed away a few months back and as the rest of the family want to sell the house so the shed had to be tackled so two weekends ago we started sorting the stuff. FIL loved his shed and it was such a shame to see how run down it had become. AS you can imagine there was a lot of dust but as the rear window had broken, rain, and needles from the now enormous Norfolk Island Pine next to the shed had blown in and was covering everything. Every open container had at least 50 mm of needles laying on the top, some containers had 150+mm of needles. It was lucky no fire had started in there.
Sorting through all the stuff was like reviewing FIL's life. As well as the tools and unrestored projects, multiple boxes of old fishing gear and dozens of damaged or old tennis rackets. FIL was a keen gardener so there was all that stuff plus an extensive array of poisons, bibs and bobs from his boat, beach toys, and for some reason multiple sets of unused but very rusty BBQ tools. The rusty but still running 60+ year old Alroh mower was taken by my nephew which I was very pleased about.
As I thought would happen, the few remaining tools were mostly rusted beyond use but there was heaps of memorabilia like an array of about a dozen kero lamps, a few rusted beyond use camping style ones but also half a dozen 100+ year old squat enamel ones with tall glass bulb flame screens - still in fair condition - we score one and fortunately the grandies took the rest. There were also 3 actylene miners lamps (complete with Calcium carbide fuel) which look like they be restorable at least to curio status. The Kero lamps and miners lamps are almost certainly from MILs dad who was a lone goldminer 70km out of Marble Bar in the 1920-30's. Amongst the the gardening implements were a couple short picks and a geologists pick which almost certainly belonged to him. We also found a beaut brass telegraph key which apparently was used up north in some capacity and then FIL had wired it up complete with a buzzer to teach his kids morse code.
One problem was curbing SWMBO's tendency to want to keep everything like the 4 X 60+ year old wooden ladders - we can keep pot plants on these!!!! I convinced her to keep 2 and sold the others on GT. SWMBO has been concentrating mainly on stuff in the house. So far the two most interesting things she has found is a 1945 diary kept by her mum and a sailors cap with "VP-day 15 AUG 1945" and the names of MIL's school mates written on it.
It took us a fair bit of time to work out what was what in the shed as a many of the labels on the containers were faded out missing.
Stuff was sorted into containers, Poisons and paints for toxic waste disposal, metal, glass and E-waste for recycling, tools, furniture, curios and tools.
Yesterday I did trips in my van to dispose of most of this stuff so all that remains is rubbish so we will get a skip in to dispose of the rest.
I have all the tools now at my place and will be running some sort of lottery for interested family members. It's terrific to hear that FIL's great grandson is showing some interest in these tools. SWMBO has investigated the military memorabilia and mounted the most interesting stuff in a a deep set frame and given it to her brother as a birthday present.
