For those who might not get it…
That’s the way water meters are installed here. They’re on the streets in front of the houses, with little metal covers on top of them. The meter reader never has to get off of his scooter.
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it’s to help lift to the cover off your septic tank.
I’ve learned from watching TV news that mysterious objects are most likely terrorist bombs. Better call the authorities to come blow it up before it blows up by itself.
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“Here“ would be where exactly? 
Anyway, this sounds quite sensible to me. I wonder why it wasn’t done that way over here, too. Instead, for decades meter readers had to walk from house to house and ask to see the meters. (These days they just leave reminders to phone in the meter or to send it via internet. Or to collect the reminders, which people can fill out and put on their doors.
It looks a lot like a handmade version the water key I remember my father using for the sprinkler system at our house. I’m assuming they were used up until electronics and times came into play with the sprinkler system. Do you have a sprinkler system in your back yard that is on a timer or is controlled electronically? I’ll bet this was just discarded and forgotten about when your or whoever lived at your house at the time switched over to a more high tech sprinkler system.
But why is the window squeegee riveted to a tab on a hoop? You could just attach the squeegee to the other end of the pole. And that hoop seems like overkill for hanging the tool up when not in use.
The squeegee has to be on one of the ends so it can be inserted into the in ground utility box, and seeing as one end already had a hook used to lift the access door the only viable spot is on the handle. Yes the loop is a handle. If you get a route that is all in-ground meters you could be looking at opening 500+ access doors, if you had to bend down to open each one it would take forever and kill your back and knees. A good reader can open the utility vault read the meter and move on in less than 30 seconds without having to bend down. This “curb tool” as they called it was carried on almost all routes and used as protection from dogs.
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It’s a pull hook. You use them for a variety of purposes, but modern use is primarily in giving a short person a means of closing rolling shutter gates.
That tool is used for removing a cooking pot with a thin wire handle from over an open fire.
I’m going to assume you have a septic tank. I believe this turns a valve to the tank. As I recall, we had 2 tanks and could divert flow from one to another.
It looks like a hoof pick to me.
After riding a horse, it’s a good idea to take a thingie that looks a lot like this and use it to pick dirt, muck and pebbles that get wedged into a horse’s hoof. This keeps the hoof from getting infected and prevents the horse from going lame.
Mark lives in southern California. In Germany you have a curious local custom called “winter”, where you can leave things filled with water outside and the water will freeze and expand, breaking them. They don’t do that where Mark lives, so they’re free to put water meters in more convenient locations.
Most positive that it is a grate lifter. The ones for manholes are beefier, but I recognize this as what came with every house I lived in in Southern California growing up int he 70’s. They open up the small rectangular boxes buried in the ground that have water valves or sometimes electricity/gas meters inside them.
Here’s the “basic version” for sale. Looks like this one was slightly modified, but I don’t think it did anything different.
Still thiink it was for lifting manhole covers. The rubber belt was probably for an additional pair of hands helping to lift. The residue on the “hook” end is probably lime from ground water it rested in for years, or from other detritus covering it.
I don’t think that is necessarily a great hook – it’s not bad as hooks go, but great?
Here is a rather nifty hook – still looking for a great one…
It’s a hitch of some sort. The pointy end hooks onto something and the rubber bit was once attached tot eh “thing to be towed”.
How is it that I’m the first one to recommend Reddit?! 
The fabulous r/whatisthisthing would be happy to provide you your answer, usually with references!
That is a tool for opening water meter boxes, it’s still in use today, watch your meter reader, they will bust out some similar custom tool, like this with custom grip, or it could have belonged to some old man who checked his meter to make sure the water company wasn’t over charging him or some such shit, and it also could be for opening manhole covers, a very similar tool is used with a matching key hole on manholes. I love the over complicated answers from all the arm chair engineers on this thread… hahahahahaha
