Read a story once about a crew finding a full set of antique silverware and a motorcycle helmet in a pit like that. Paul_stone29 is right, the relief must be huge after dealing with that for months. The smell alone would be something else, like old oil and wet dirt mixed together. You'd need a serious pressure washer to even make a dent in that mess. What was the weirdest thing you actually pulled out of there?

Sarah's acetone and ATF mix is the real deal. You need to let it soak for a few days to really work into the rust. After that, the heat on the seat tube is your best bet to break it free.

That Portland setup sounds like a game changer, honestly. It's wild how just moving notes to their own page can free up so much mental space. Makes me wonder if the real trick is physically separating the "do this" stuff from the "think about this" stuff. My brain always got them mixed up on one page.