Diggin for Old Stuff in Isle of Wight and Surry Counties

I grew up in California and the only old stuff on the West Coast we ever looked for was bottles and gold. There’s a lot more to look for as you head East. Some of it is formal as reported in this newspaper article about the grave of Col Joseph Bridges at St Luke’s Church ( http://www.historicstlukes.org/ ) near Smithfield: http://www.dailypress.com/news/local/virginia/dp-va–colonialbones0130jan30,0,5731774.story

 

A short video about the same topic is at the same dailypress.com site. A link posted here will not load the video…

Much, though, is informal, such as fossils along the James River shorelines, and varying concentrations of civil war relics. The fossils are easily found and in great supply in more places than this one river and most are unspectacular. The civil war relics require more work, use of a metal detector, some digging and oftentimes permission from a property owner. Once found they, too, are mostly unspectacular, always corroded, and often of indecipherable origin. I prefer the fossils. They’re easier.

Some of the informal stuff is troublesome, such as the remains of a 400 year-old English colonist with thigh-length leather boots that began to surface as the riverbank of some private property eroded. He was removed and taken to a suitable burial site. You’d never find anything like that in California.

More of a problem is a group of folks devoted to mapping lost grave sites in the county who show up at your front door asking to probe your front door for a half dozen purported graves. They tried to get a bill passed in state legislature that would punish property owners who refuse to assist in such grave mapping. The bill died a quick death.

At what point does honoring graves pass from the revered phase where markers, fences, artificial flowers, cemetery signs and respect are required, to the historic phase where we dig ‘em up, store them in crates in museum basements or laid out for all to see? The revered phase requires sensitivity. The historic phase lets you build houses on top of the bones or dig up church floors to retrieve them. We decided we didn’t want our front yard probed, to stay in the dark about what lurks out there. We don’t bother them and expect them to do the same. That doesn’t apply to four million year old Chesapecten Jeffersonius mussels ( http://www.dailypress.com/extras/solutions/sol092303.htm).

At least we aren’t troubled by Roman artifacts cropping up in farm fields in Europe: “Oh, crap. Busted another tractor part on some damned chariot wheel!”

 

Antiquing in Virginia

Antique stores are spread throughout the Hampton Roads area of Virginia and gravitate towards small towns. Wealthy areas around Washington, DC, have places like Ellicott City and Haymarket, MD, with numerous shops grouped together. We country cousins only have one or two such shops in most small towns. Smithfield has several nice ones. Nearby Wakefield also has several, though less polished, but likely to contain rustic treasures.

Williamsburg, though it contains an entire antique town of Colonial Williamsburg, mostly sells replicas of antiques. However, north of town are several excellent small shops and one antique mall with hundreds of vendors. Some of these buy directly from old homesteads and farms. One helps older couples downsize or dispose of house goods when they move into smaller quarters. A few take items on consignment. One near Smithfield on Rt 256 sells new and antique furniture, including imported antiques from Europe and China.

Some of these places advertise online or in daily and weekly newspapers. They also produce local fliers and pamphlets showing related businesses nearby. So, find one and you’ll find literature pointing you to others in the area.

The goods sold are diverse and shopping for them provides an opportunity to explore these small towns. Farm-related items are more common as are civil war artifacts, military items and a scattering of marine or maritime items. A number of military bases serve the area, a major port, and NASA research center which influence the type of collectibles and antiques to be found.

The places to start are downtown Smithfield, downtown Poquoson, along Rt 460 from Suffolk to Wakefield and Rt 60 a mile or two north of Williamsburg. Colonial Williamsburg and nearby Jamestown, as noted, carry many colonial reproductions.

The Scourge of Gumballs

Gum trees in Isle of Wight and Surry counties produce seed pods we call gumballs. The balls are golfball-sized green-to-brown spiky balls with hard cores, like miniature WWII maritime mines. They roll underfoot like ballbearings and on hard surfaces can be treacherous. They decompose over several years just like pine needles or other tree debris, except the hard centers are the last part to go, making them treacherous to the end, unlike pine needles. They don’t mulch either; just shoot out of a mulching mower like bullets, or lurk in the grass catcher to emerge from decomposing leaves . At least mowing will group them together. Blowing will get them off to the side; vacuuming can jam a smaller machine. Raking or hand picking are other, tedious, collection methods. The only great thing gumballs are good for are biodegradable filters in the bottom of planters, and for traction in snow. Throw a bunch on a snow-covered sidewalk or driveway and traction will be greatly improved until the snow’s gone and the ballbearing effect returns.

I tried selling them on eBay figuring crafters in places that lack gumballs will covet them, but received no bids and zero views. If you don’t recognize the trees, look for the balls when shopping for a home to determine if this challenge will be in your future.

Smithfield Times, Weekly Newspaper for Isle of Wight and Surry Counties

This newspaper focuses on IOW and Surry County and provides excellent coverage for those counties. The current issue has articles on the controversial Pinewood Heights neighborhood relocation; seizure of a local Smithfield restaurant under eminent domain so a rescue squad building can be erected; news about employment decline and concurrent population increase; a major turnover of county personnel in IOW, and increased water costs in Smithfield to correct excess fluoride in ground water.Other items of interest include a problem of floating caskets during floods, an annual homeless count scheduled, revision and reissue of a book, The Guide to the Buildings in Surry and the American Revolution, by James D. Kornwolf, available this year at local outlets in support of the big 400^th anniversary of the Jamestown Settlement.  Also, the paper always has interesting letters to the editor, sports, obits, crime.  Color photos are frequently used and illustrate this is a state-of-art periodical.  Unfortunately, only three articles of the current or last issue can be viewed online at smithfieldtimes.com.

Weekly newspapers are, of course, an excellent resource of local information for anyone interested in settling in the region they serve.  One web site to locate them is http://www.weeklynewspapers.com/reviews.html.  The site doesn’t include Smithfield Times for Virginia, and is far from complete, but is one place to begin looking.  For example, another for West Virginia, http://www.wvpress.org/newsonline.asp, has five times more weeklys listed than the weeklynewspapers site has for the same state.

 

Immigrants in Isle of Wright and Surry Counties

IOW and adjacent Surry county have small populations, 33K and 7K respectively, so outsiders stand out. In some circles that means anyone who doesn’t hunt, or farm, or have an ancestor that fought against the North, own a chainsaw, wear a baseball cap or drive an American car. In other circles it’s anyone who’s not an American Indian. The most recent addition is Hispanics. A small, but sudden increase occurred after Hurricane Isabel, perhaps bought on by a great number of outside repair and tree removal crews that swept through the area. For example, our new roof was installed by a crew of Hispanics from Alabama who stripped and replaced asphalt shingles for a 3200 sq ft house in 8 hours – impressive work effort. Meanwhile the number of Mexican restaurants and variety of Hispanic foodstuffs in supermarkets have increased. Several years back a part- time Spanish radio station appeared at 1050AM on the AM dial. It’s now a full day version, 7 days a week and runs a job listing program weekdays during 8 – 9AM.

A few representatives of most other nationalities are scattered about the region mostly because we are accessed by many paths with many military bases, nice beach area, and plenty of tourists that bring people in from all over for extended visits. Locally, however, the only other big change in the last 10 years has been conversion of convenience stores to ownership by middle easterners. The first one was claimed by Egyptians while a neighbor believes four of them, which is about half the total in Isle of Wight and Surry counties, are all operated by Pakistanis. My Egyptians identified themselves as such. I’m not sure how the neighbor identified the Pakistanis (he’s not himself of middle-eastern origin).

African Americans, of course, aren’t immigrants, but since this is the subject of conversation, it may be appropriate to plug in a link for a guide to local African American heritage sites: http://www.dailypress.com/news/local/briefs/dp-26857bf0jan18,1,4711678.story?ctrack=1&cset=true.

A related problem is that of summer hires by local theme parks that brings its own complications as noted in this next Daily Press article: http://tinyurl.com/2322at

Virginia Crime Data Is Elusive

The Smithfield Times is a weekly paper serving Isle of Wight and Surry counties. Local crime and other problems are well covered in articles, columns and letters to the editor. The Isle of Wight Sheriff’s Office gives crime information to the paper, but not to a citizen who walks in and asks for it. Twenty Virginia newspapers recently tested the Freedoom of Information Act throughout the state and found about half the local jurisdictions will freely provide the most recent two weeks email between a mayor and council members, a previous weekend crime log of incidents recorded by police or sheriff’s office, and from a fire department the recent fire inspections for a school. About half refused to provide such information. These requests were made by personal appearances. A written request through the mail would probably be less productive. Google search Virginia newspapers on the internet for FOIA during January 07 to find more details, or try this Daily Press Hampton Roads newspaper site, http://www.dailypress.com/news/local/dp-09918sy0jan03,1,1885454.story?ctrack=1&cset=true

A good place for statistics for the entire state can be found at a site run by a retired attorney, http://home.earthlink.net/~crankytaxpayer/index.htm

 

Sailing on the James River

A friend took me sailing the other day for several hours, my the first time on the James River. The river is 4 to 6 miles wide where we were, near Smithfield. While commercial shipping – barges, container ships, military vessels – can reach Richmond, about 50 miles upstream, much of the water-covered expanse is too shallow for sailboats, so you have to stay close to navigational channels. Small motor boats are not limited by big keels so local explorers and fishermen prefer them. That’s what you see tied up to and on boat lifts at private piers for homes along the river. A goodly number of sailboats can be found at numerous marinas in the area including those around the James River along with larger motor boats.

We were the only sail boat this day, which is about normal, despite a pleasant temperature, dry weather, but a good breeze, 26 knots, whatever that is. Only about two motor boats were out, too, perhaps because of the wind. However, I live on the river and only see oyster and crab boats on a regular basis, up to 25 in the morning at season height.

My friend remarked that there’s never very many pleasure craft, motor, sail or otherwise (kayaks) when he’s out. So if you like boating for pleasure and don’t like doing it under crowded conditions, this is the place to settle. Also, since many boats are around, a good variety of new and used are available, as well as marine service centers. In fact marinas are one place to look for handyman specials because some folks don’t use and maintain the boat they park there, then fail to pay the storage fees and the boats are abandoned.

While all sorts of water craft are used on the river, such as the kayaks, it’s not a place for the inexperienced boater to learn by trial and error. My sailing friend noted that experienced sailers feel the river is more difficult to sail than the ocean because the wind is affected by the shape of nearby terrain. It’s more variable. Periodically even an experienced water person, but not one familiar with our area, takes a small craft out of a calm mooring area into vicious weather beyond the shelter and drowns. The day I sailed we had air temperature of 72 degrees and water temperature of 50 degrees. If you fell in, you could survive for about 15 minutes. Water chills the body 25 times faster than air and thrashing around in water makes it cool even faster.

Hurricanes in our area have washed amazing amounts of debris into the river. Entire houses, piers, and boats have disappeared along with many whole trees. The only thing that washes ashore in any quantity is wood from dismantled piers — planks, pilings, railings, sections of stairways and little things like soda bottles and Styrofoam containers. The rest, the propane bottles, wheelbarrows, roofs, walls, trees, bicycles, barbecue grills, chairs, play sets, fences, and the contents of a few demolished homes are scattered about the river bottom somewhere. Yet one never hears a news report of anyone encountering debris while water skiing, swimming, jet skiing, boating or fishing. The exception might be broken glass encountered along the shore.

Country Hazards, Critter Types

The other day I found a black widow spider when I unfolded an exercise pad in the living room, a pad my wife had used earlier in the day. Never found one inside the house before except for one in our utility room by the hot water heater. Their bite can make a person pretty sick, but only one case of a person being bitten made the news in the last ten years. I’ve been under my house at least 15 times in 10 years and crawled all over that area where spiders are plentiful without seeing a black widow. They are a reclusive bug and try to stay hidden. If you grew up around them, you’d recognize its helter-skelter silk web that’s stronger than other spiders. The spider is also very easy to identify with its shiny black color and red hourglass marking

The webbing is a warning which is more than a friend had when he picked up a piece of firewood and a water moccasin bit him. His hand only swelled up a little because, as he learned from a paramedic, only a small amount of venom was injected. They explained that the snake can adjust the amount of venom and saw the hand as either a small target or used a small dose as a warning bite…

So county living in the south involves natural hazards. The number depends on housing density. My current neighborhood is a handful of houses with big lots on the James River. The density is low and the only two serious pests not seen or endured, so far, are a rattlesnake and a brown recluse spider. A prior home in a community of 150 homes on a small standard lot near a pond and tidal flats had a couple snakes and periodic hoards of mosquitoes and biting flies, nowhere near as much nature as the present home. Before that our place was in town, Newport News, not close to any water, and we were deprived of any undesirable critters.

County living here requires adjustments just as living at the beach, or in North Dakota. We live near water, so have more snakes, mosquitoes and biting flies. We’ve learned to appreciate non-poisonous snakes and spiders because they eat other, less desirable pests, like crickets, mice and rats. Actually, the poisonous snakes and spiders do the same thing, but make us more nervous. So of course it helps to pay attention where we put our hands and feet, especially in less trafficked areas.

Our dogs are less lucky at avoiding snakes so every couple years one gets bit. When this happens the affected part swells up and they hurt for a few days, then slowly recover. Usually the fur won’t grow back at the fang marks. Antivenom shots exist, but not much is available so it’s rationed for the sick folks and small children to whom snake bites can be fatal. The rest of us just get sick, ache and swell up where bitten.

I’m not sure what eats ticks, but wish there were more of them because they are plentiful during warm weather in the country. The reasons are probably because more wildlife is here, pets wander more freely, and so do people. Several serious diseases are spread to people by ticks along with mosquitoes, so protective measures and self-checking are important.

So why live where so many biting bugs, poisonous snakes and threats like rabies exist? Perhaps because despite the many natural hazards the only one to appear in the press on a regular basis is rabies, usually when found in a raccoon or fox, about once a month, but for a pretty large area.

One guy liked it here in the country because he could mow his lawn on a riding mower in the nude, or at least until passersby complained. His property and the lawn location were too far from public roads for anyone to be sure he was naked, but close enough for people make an educated guess, I guess.

Sludge On Farmlands May Be Hazardous

Municipal sewage treatment plants accumulate tons of sludge or biowaste. County home owners know this as what doesn’t dissolve or digest in a septic tank and must be pumped out every few years to prevent the stuff overflowing the tank and clogging the drain field resulting in a pool of smelly sewage appearing in your yard.

Virginia has been accepting huge amounts of trash from out-of-state as a business for years. The trash goes into land fills. Companies that dispose of the sludge wish to bring it into Virginia, too. They claim the safest way to dispose of sludge is as fertilizer sprayed over the ground on open fields and wooded areas. Some has already been spread in Surry and Isle of Wight, counties were opposition developed. The opponents claim municipal waste contains heavy metals, toxic substances and biohazards that haven’t been neutralized can be hazardous to people living near treated areas and perhaps water above and below ground. It appears that too few objective or adequate studies have been made to resolve the problem. So, if you buy a lot, land, or a home in the country, the presence of sludge may be another thing to be checked.

Go to http://www.dailypress.com/services/site/premium/access-registered.intercept and type in ’sludge’ to find an article on the subject.

Shoreline Erosion Control

The west side of the James River has sections of shoreline that erode at a rate of 1 – 2 feet a year. The erosion is caused by rainfall, slumping of vertical banks and wave action. Many owners have ignored the problem but an increasing number have to deal with it or lose septic drain fields, out buildings, roadways and even houses. Any fix is expensive and requires maintenance. We have 189 ft of river bank varying in height from 28 to 2 feet. In 2005 we had it sloped and the bottom 8 feet (6 ft high) covered with huge rocks on top of woven fabric and buried a couple feet deep at the base for a cost of $60,000. The top slope is grass covered and that has stopped erosion from rain while the rock stops wave erosion at the bottom and any resulting slumping or sloughing.

Our slope should be more gentle, but we had no choice. As a result some of the big rocks have been dislodged by wave action and need to be repositioned eventually. Meanwhile I’m going to try using polyurethane foam to fill in some exposed areas based on some work being done by BASF in the North Sea to use just the foam. It took four 10oz cans of triple-expansion Dow Corning foam over an area about 18 inches square and 2 inches thick, not as deep as I’d like. This foam needs protection from sun and it would be nice if dry sand sprinkled on top would work, but most of the sand doesn’t stick. Also, if you apply too much to damp foam, the weight will affect it. But sand was applied over the entire surface and white paint to half. Now we have to wait all year to see what the result is.