Gallon jugs

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PibbleMama

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Hey all, been a while since I've posted, haven't done much over the winter, but spring is finally here and much to my husband's chagrin, I'm rip roaring ready to get out and add to the already overwhelming collection in my garage!

Here's my question for you all. With it being a mild winter, my son's were able to explore the woods on the hill above my parents new farm and they have come across quite the hodge podge of treasures.

One thing they keep finding, fully intact, are one gallon glass jugs. In all the spots on the other farm we dig at, we have never remotely come close to finding any gallon jugs intact (lots of pieces and handles). But here around my parent's they seem to be plentiful.

Any idea as to why they would be so abundant and intact? Geographically, the area is steep hills and wooded with dense underbrush. While there's a barn on my parents property, it was never a working farm. It's a fairly spread out area. There's a very old stone fence that surrounds my parents place, hubby and I did find a lot broken bottles like they dumped them down the other side of the fence.

It's just bizarre up there, lots of old junk and old plastic bottles too. I'm intrigued, can't wait to explore more.
 

PibbleMama

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Right, pictures would help. Let's see if I can figure this out. Please ignore the nosey dogs!

My sons found this one, not sure how close to the most recent find. This one they found a few months ago.
gallon2a.jpg

Same bottle, other side:

gallon2.jpg

Same bottle, bottom:

gallon2abottom.jpg

This one we just found on Sunday:

gallon1.jpg

I believe there is another one or two that they brought home, but I'm not sure where they've been stashed (the garage somewhere!). There were definitely more up there that we couldn't get to without the right tools to hack away at the underbrush and since it was a spur of the moment hike, we certainly weren't equipped. The bottles certainly don't appear to be terribly old, I just find it so odd that there's so many.

Totally unrelated to the bottles, and a completely separate section of the property, we were actually checking out part of the very dilapidated rock wall (now picture this: this hill goes up probably at about a 35 to 40 degree angle if not steeper and is heavily wooded, the wall must have been quite wide or tall at one time but now resembles more of a very long pile of rocks in a structured line going up the hill quite a ways). I just don't see how being so steep, it was of much use back in the day. At any rate, there was a tree that had fallen across the wall from the opposite side of the property probably at least ten years ago. On that side of the property, we found a lot of broken bottles, jar shards, and such mixed under the tree, amongst the rocks of the wall, amidst the roots of some of the plants growing amidst the wall. And resting right in near the top of the wall, was this little bugger, the only intact thing we found:

vial.jpgvial2.jpg

What do you make of that? Prior to my parents owning the property, it had been owned by the editor of the local newspaper, but he and his wife had done nothing with the woods themselves, they'd only improved the house and immediate grounds. Prior to that, we don't really know much history on the place. So strange!

If anyone has any thoughts on the gallon jugs or this odd little laboratory vial, fill me in!
 

CanadianBottles

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I'm guessing they may have been producing something on the farm and bottling it in those jugs and then dumped the whole lot of them in the woods when they stopped. Maybe maple syrup? Or someone was experimenting with making wine? Or moonshine ha ha! They aren't the sort of thing you usually find a whole bunch of, I don't think they're bleach jugs. They look like the sort of jug that held soda fountain syrup or various bulk products from the hardware store. They look quite modern, late 60's or 70's I'm thinking.

The Miles bottle is a medicine bottle from this company https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miles_Laboratories
 

whittled

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Some kids like the sound of breaking glass, maybe the sites with the busted ones fell prey to that.
Farms used a lot pf pesticides and motor oil but I remember the brown jugs for that.
The Miles looks like Alka Seltzer.
 

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