has anyone asked to or dug a historical house?

[RICKJJ59W]

ORIGINAL: lexdigger

As far as dealing with the Fact that most people will not Believe you when you ask to Dig for bottles... a picture says a thousand words. I keep a webpage blog and a small photo album for this very reason. Once they see the pictures of the hole, the bottles and the "after" photo of the yard restored to original condition... any doubts will be squashed! That still doesn't mean you will get the permission, but at least they will know you aren't crazy or full of BS.

You got that right lex. I always bring my picture book and a few bottle story's I wrote.

I have been going to this local town to try and get this one house that is being remodeled. It is actually falling apart,and looks like a trash heap.But anyway it is an 1880 home.
I never met the people that own it yet I keep trying to catch them working on the house but I never do. I knocked on one of the houses next to it,but they didn't even know their names. Cool Neighbors [8D] I found out who owned it on the computer. But I never call to get permissions, its to easy to say NO!

Today I took a ride to see if they were there,no luck. I was sitting in my truck with the AC on (cuz it was freakin hot) and thinking where to go next. I looked in the rear view and saw a dude on a bad azz chopper, and black guy with gold chains sportin a due rag drinkin a 4 loco. My first thought was start drivin.But I got out of the truck and ask the black guy if he ever saw the people that live in the trash house next door . I was waiting for "git outta my face" kind of come back. but no it was all good. In the next few minutes I was in his back yard probing for a privy. His kid was having a birthday party so i couldn't stay long.

Like Lex said
The moral of the story---"Always bring your bottle picture book!" It says a 1000 words [] and never judge a book by its cover. You may be in their yard one day.[8D]

 

[lexdigger]

For sure Rick! I always ask EVERYONE if I'm interested in their yard. Little old ladies, the creepy guy peeking out the windows... and yes, even the porch Full of thugs and gangsta's drinking and smoking. You just Never know! Some of the people who SEEM like they would just as soon Shoot you as to let you dig in their yard end up being the Coolest people you will ever meet. Luckily I can adapt to environments and get along easily with most Anyone. The Key is to Be Yourself, Be Honest, and never portray yourself as a Victim!!! LOL

 

[margclearlake]

went to the local "welcome area" here and got 6 or so brochures on historicals and one, the Plum Grove house in Iowa City, Iowa. they say they have digs in May and June and all are welcome to "watch". but really, have they found the privies and of course my fav, the cistern(s). the pic looks like they are diggin up the graveyard. it was built by Iowas first governor in 1844, Bob Lucas and his wife FRIENDLY so maybe there are some good hooch bottles from all the entertaining?

 

[margclearlake]

ok, dont give me grief on this one. there was a row of mid 1800 houses that are gone now and im out trying to find privies or SOMETHING and I find this, cement, in the right area. is it good or is it a laundry pole hole?

 

[lexdigger]

Does not look like a privy or a cistern to me. The only way you will really Find them, unless they are sunken, is with a probe.

 

[margclearlake]

and yep, I like going to digging sites that are open and being worked on with heavy machinery, because I miss alot of stuff happening and figure they noticed if they opened a pit with bottles. which is not true. most machinery guys say they cant really see from up there. but anyway, when I do go, I try to take a guy with me, like the ex husband or something cause the guys always assume Im flirting when im just babbling away about bottles.

The same thing is true with my profession, I have been building high end show cars, myself, for 30 years and people have a hard time believing. I dont carry around the magazines Ive been in, but I did have an envelope with pics of cars under construction which helped a little bit.

im running a junkyard in central iowa now and some guy just brought in old iron toy cars, trains, horses with carriages to sell. they were putting a hog confinement in on the site of an old school and this stuff was buried, he said they managed to break all the bottles. I went to the town looking for the site but they were really protective of it, wouldnt tell me where and said it was already built over. what kind of mean school marm throws away all those toys?

in my cistern I found 5 old rusted guns. didnt know if they were real 22, 38's or toys, even the town cop couldnt tell. but every time I found one I thought about the lady of the house tossing them in to get rid of them.

I just bought a farm with a very very old house that we had to tear down and burn. it never had running water or electricity in it. we dug and probed and brought in excavators and could not find a privy anywhere. the most we got was some shards and sherds were possibly there was small grove.

one more nugget of marg information and then I will disappear for the day. Iv got a bad heart and it was mud season when it got down to the bottom of the 12 foot cistern, and I need to sift EVERYTHING cause i love the small incidentals. so i wasnt able to bucket stuff out so I got ahold of the local wrestling team and had a couple of the pups come over everyday, paid them really well, ($100 a day) to help out. I figure it was me contributing to sports programs. one kid did 15 minutes cause it was too muddy and still got his buck. the kids just lit up when they found a bottle and then it got to be so popular that the wrestling coach and parents were coming by to dig and find.

 

[margclearlake]

speaking of probes, I welded mine and it has a chisel tip on it which I thought was good. some old farmer handed me a tile probe the other day, solid copper with a ball the size of a marble on the end. comparing the two, the ball tip one went way way deeper than I could go with mine in the same dirt and spots. any ideas on that? he said the ball cleared the way or something.

 

[margclearlake]

i think im the only person sitting home posting. gonna go plant some flowers. maybe i will find something when i dig the holes.

 

[lexdigger]

Probe tip should have a ball or bead towards the tip so that the hole it is making is actually bigger than the rod itself. It makes it a lot easier to push in and pull out.

 

[RICKJJ59W]

ORIGINAL: lexdigger

For sure Rick! I always ask EVERYONE if I'm interested in their yard. Little old ladies, the creepy guy peeking out the windows... and yes, even the porch Full of thugs and gangsta's drinking and smoking. You just Never know! Some of the people who SEEM like they would just as soon Shoot you as to let you dig in their yard end up being the Coolest people you will ever meet. Luckily I can adapt to environments and get along easily with most Anyone. The Key is to Be Yourself, Be Honest, and never portray yourself as a Victim!!! LOL

word on that brotha []

Today I just scored the house I was trying to get. Its 1880.The 4 loco dudes yard didn't turn out,but I kind of knew it wouldn't,it was an 1890 house with a concrete pit that was re dug and re used. But it got me into the yard next door.[]

I knocked on a door Friday trying to find out who owned the house "under construction" the lady said "ohh I dont even know their names" I thought that was weird but off I went. Turns out the lady who owns it was the lady who answered the door.

I heard people talking today behind the houses in the alley and found a guy workin on a truck. Long story short he was the son in law to the owner and the wife of the lady who said she didn't know their names.

. Its funny how things work in this hobby. But to make them work you have to be out there,not just thinking about digging privy's and talking about them on here.

Now this place my not turn out,but at least step 1 is done [8D]

we do have some work to do before we can even probe. [8|]