Hi All,Just joined this forum after finding it when searching for bottle information. I own a farm that includes an almond orchard. On one part of the orchard there was a house that would have been on the outskirts of an old town that is gone/ moved called "Silveyville". (There is actually a post in this site about someone's dig on our neighbord property down the road that had been the heart of Silveyville. I found it when I first visited this site.). I have a map showing the house as being there as late as 1890 but by a 1910 map it is gone. When ever I have had to dig in the area the house would have been I find remants of old nails or other rusted stuff or old pieces of pottert and glass. So I have always had a good idea where the house was. There is squirrel burrow network(these are ground squirrels) really close to that homesite that is so extensive and deep none of my removal methods have ever been completely effective. Starting about two years ago, when I neglected to keep the popualtion in check it expanded some and starting digging into what must be a pretty big pile of glass. Ever now and then anothe clump of glass and pottery pieces would get pushed up out of the hole. I now have a shoebox full of old glass pieces and china and pottery pieces as well. An anthropologist I know told me that the squirrels are probably digging into the dump or outhouse area. I have noticed also that some pieces of glass show signs of melting partly or completely so some of the glass clearly was burned. I have many pieces of old soda bottles from "Samuel Soda Springs" which had been supplying soda water in the second half of the 1800s and early 1900s. It may be that this is just a dump that formed after the home was abandoneded and that all I will find is broken stuff, but I would love to find an intact Samuel Soda Springs bottle among other things. The anthropologist told me that what I should do is find what would have beent the cellar for the home as many times those are just filled in with all sorts of intact stuff. In my dreams, the squirrels are digging in that cellar which became a dump briefly before the whole site was converted to orchard. Now, finally the old almond tree that the squirells are digging into is dying so I have to take it down, dig out the roots etc. anyways So instead of the usual tractor-based workI have decided to do a more gentle removal of the tree and extensive dig to find the stockpile the squirrels are in and excavate it. Hence, I joined this forum figuring I will find some advice and etc on how to go about this. I assume one gets a shovel, marks the ground a bit and the digs, gently. I will not start of course until the rainy season is over (not that we have gotten much this winter) and I will also need to screen off my sprinkers while I am digging as my orchard watering would otherwise turn the dig into an adobe clay cesspool. Anyways, this is my first post and I guess I will start doing some searches in this forum or just read posts learning about how to go about doing this. If anyone can suggest a good "how to" collumn etc, please point me at it. I will post a few photos of the pieces I have soon.