Poison Ivy Dump

[Mainepontil]

Here is a dump we found about a year ago. We were actually out fishing and came across this ravine with a nice old dump in it. Started to dig around and determined that it had never been dug.

Found tons of nice bottles and alot of rare broken bitters and schnapps. This dump was shallow and rooty, only about 2' deep.

A few days after first digging Nitro and I started to get a little scratchy After a couple more days FULL BLOWN POISON IVY, all over. Man did it itch!!!!!

So.. do we leave all those good bottles in the ivy?

No, we went back and dug in the poison some more. About 8 more times.

Then a few months later when the ivy cleared from my skin, I went back again with Glassworx. He said it does not affect him.. WRONG. He got a massive case too. But his son managed to find a killer Stoddard whiskey flask in a rare gasoline color.

Here are a few pics of the excavation:


We cleared this entire hillside of bottles. Lots of nice open pontil medicines were broken including a rare N.Wood from Portland,ME. The poison ivy roots were thick and digging was tough.

But the bottles were worth the itch. Here is the flask just showing.

This is Robert with his find, looks thrilled doesn't he? It seems everytime I take him and his father to one of my dumps they manage too pull out the best bottle. Oh well, can't have them all. Besides it gets lonely digging alone.

A few of the finds from the afternoon.

We have not been back to this dump since last June. There is still more left too dig, the flask was the last bottle to come out. It's just the itching was so bad nobody wants to go through the torture again.

I have a feeling though that a long cold winter will make us forget.....we'll be back []

Joel

 

[kastoo]

I don't think the soil will make you itch. Just rake the area out of the ivy put it aside somewhere and dig.

 

[Mainepontil]

The first day we dug here it was covered in snow. So we are quite sure it's not the leaves that are getting us, it's the roots. They are all over the entire hillside. When we dig through them they leak oils which then spread everywhere. But once you get it it seems to be not so bad the 2nd time.

Joel

 

[DOLANBADGER]

Great story and pictures.Get back at'er[8D]

 

[oldshoe4u]

My cousin is severely affected by poison ivy... We cut wood for my grandparents and if he picks up a piece a year later from the pile that had contacted poison ivy during cutting, he gets it. I think he could catch it just fom looking at the stuff, I myself never get more than a few bumps on my fingers... Keep well covered and you might be ok, but its so hard to not un-conciously rub the back of your sleeve acroos you fore-head or even scratch an itch while out digging. Good luck! I'd suffer some poison Ivy for some good digging right now, but the snow is melting quick, theres only about a foot left and where the grass is showing the frost is almost all gone[]. I'm hoping that in another week I'll be out with a shovel!
Thanks for the cool pics!
BOB

 

[WhiteLighting]

man,you guys have "BOTTLE MADDNESS" ----


remember never wipe with those plant leaves.....lol,.....