Haunted Garden Shed Clean-Out & First Peas Dinner!

After fortifying myself with a delicious brunch with Amanda, Matt, & Adrienne, today I tackled the cleaning out of the Haunted Garden Shed (the slightly creepy room under the final back extension/porch-sunroom-thing that is full of weird stuff & random junk left behind by previous owners, & that we don't ever go in).

As it turns out, there is a hole in the wall, under the floor, that goes to the open area under the neighbors' deck -- a very nice way for urban nighttime critters (raccoons, possums, & yes, rats) to get in & out. When Mr. Bunkport comes to replace the fence this month, he is also going to cut back the floor of the Haunted Garden Shed & block up that hole, so I wanted to clear space for him to do that. No critters allowed on Mars. Unless they are willing to pay rent.

Here's the a photo from when we moved in:

And here it is, after two hours:

I took out two large, black trash bags of junk, found some gardening stuff we can use, & also set aside some other neat electrical fixtures & old jars that might be fun to decorate this space with, when it someday becomes our indoor/outdoor hybrid patio area (!).

Most of the gardening stuff belonged to Jackie, the previous owner, & was in the half of the room nearest the door. The back half of the room had much older stuff in it -- lots of wires, old lamp parts, jars full of nuts & bolts, & electrical bits & bobs. Clearly this had been someone's place to tinker.

Back in that older area, I also found interesting clues about the history of the house: a set of bank statements & cancelled checks from 1950 and some receipts from the early 50s belonging to Mr. John E. Davila, & two tickets to a long-closed amusement park on the ocean, called Whitney's Playland on the Beach:

Also, I found this old binder where Mr. Davila kept his monthly expenses for the latter half of 1950:

The neighbors told us that Jackie had a husband who died shortly after they moved in -- despite the last name difference, I think it must be Mr. Davila, but then again, I think that 1950 is too early for Jackie Duenas & her husband's purchase of the house. Such mysteries!

I also found this cat collar. The tag says the cat belonged to the people next door (not the current owners). Weird & Creepy.

Lastly, I found lots & lots & lots of raccoon poop. Especially under the workbench in the corner. Lots. The bad news about raccoons is that they choose a location for a 'latrine' & use that same location over a period of time. The good news about this particular latrine is that it doesn't seem like it's been used recently. I was wearing a lead-rated dust mask & heavy work gloves throughout this little project, but still, I thought it was best to leave it alone.

Inspired to learn more about the people who lived here before us, I finally sat down to take a look at the newly indexed 1940 census. I found that a family of 5 lived here then: Mr. Arthur Velvet, his wife Marie, & their three children, Joe (16), Marie (13), & Joaquin (12). Mr. Velvet was born in California, but, interestingly, Mrs. Velvet was born in Portugal. Also an interesting coincidence, Jackie's given name is actually Joaquina. I'll try to find out more about Mr. Davila next, & maybe try to find the house in the 1930 census.

As a fitting cap to a Sunday on Mars, we took in our first real harvest of peas, & Adrienne made a delicious seafood & pea pasta dish for our friend, Mr. Jonathan P. Retsky, & me.

Thank you for the delicious dinner, Adrienne!

Also, Adrienne was hard at work this weekend repotting plants & preparing to do wonderful things in the Front Yard Patch. Stay tuned for more on that soon!