digging frozen ground

[rlo]

I live in the south so we don't get a hard freeze usually, but the other day I went out to a farm dump & started digging. in the frozen ground.was trying to get a stoneware bowl out, but it wasn't giving it up. How do you all dig up north in the winter? don't you break a lot of stuff that way? just slowly picking away at the icy dirt is tedious, but to do it & get something out in tact seems miraculous! I stopped, didn't want to damage bowl.

 

[zanes_antiques]

The trick is to get under that frozen layer ASAP. I wouldn't try to pull bottles from the frozen dirt but that's just me.

 

[tigue710]

unfortunately in the winter we have to dig the t.o.c. ash dumps up here, I dont mess with the farm dumps because often bottles are with in the frost and they will break...

If you want to get that bowl out, (i would) cut a whole in the ground about a foot away and dig under it, then break the frost all around about a foot any direction, (if it is no more the 4-6 inches thick that is). Take the whole chunk home and put it some where dry but still the same temperature as the outside air. In a week or to the ice will evaporate away from the bowl and then you can bring it in slowly...

You have to be careful breaking it out because if you start a crack running towards to bowl it will break on the same line sometimes...

 

[rlo]

thanx for all the advice. I'm glad I stopped diggin, I'm sure I would have broken it fo sho!

 

[myersdiggers1998]

up here you don't dig in the winter. the frost is sometimes 2ft. thick, hard as concrete. it's pretty much a usless endevor. i prefer not to use post mall's and pry bars. plus when the bottles hit the cold air it's elcrackola.[]

 

[rlo]

I was thinkin I missed living in the mountains, but now I'm not so sure. we have 4 seasons here, as compared w/ 3 in the mts. ya got fall winter and mud season. I kinda have forgotten the frozen tundra never goes away. glad I'm here in snake, chigger, tick, possum, dillo land. don't get much snow, but then not much time waiting for the thaw.

 

[myersdiggers1998]

up here ,when we get snow it's usually lake affect. a couple years ago we almost set a record, something like 9 feet in 24 hours.one time when i was a teen,it was -50 degrees below zero with no wind. during the blizzard of 1977 wind chills reached -98 degrees below. yes we have winter.

 

[rlo]

brrrrr!