Privy Location?

[diggerdirect]

I wouldn't discount the privy, during the winters it wasn't that easy to hitch up the team and wagon to go out to the back forty to dump the trash, and not being limited to a 100 x 60 foot lot it was easy enough to just dig a new hole come spring & drag the outhouse over top of it. many of the homestead pits were just pits, unlined or just a few courses of rock at best around a hole 4 or 5 feet deep. I've only been in a few that I figured were 'dipped', Just have to be persistent about it is all.

That being said, the dump could be just as lucrative if not already dug, and a hec of alot easier to find.

Al

 

[GuntherHess]

Its funny , down in VA there was always a dump behind every old farm house.
Here in Frederick that seems very rare. The Germans seemed to have a tidy streak in them. They either burned or buried all the trash.

 

[RICKJJ59W]

ORIGINAL: GuntherHess

Its funny , down in VA there was always a dump behind every old farm house.
Here in Frederick that seems very rare. The Germans seemed to have a tidy streak in them. They either burned or buried all the trash.

But they didn't fill up their privy's with it []

 

[pyshodoodle]

ORIGINAL: diggerdirect

I wouldn't discount the privy, during the winters it wasn't that easy to hitch up the team and wagon to go out to the back forty to dump the trash, and not being limited to a 100 x 60 foot lot it was easy enough to just dig a new hole come spring & drag the outhouse over top of it. many of the homestead pits were just pits, unlined or just a few courses of rock at best around a hole 4 or 5 feet deep. I've only been in a few that I figured were 'dipped', Just have to be persistent about it is all.

That being said, the dump could be just as lucrative if not already dug, and a hec of alot easier to find.

Al

They used sleighs in the winter.

 

[diggerdirect]

They used sleighs in the winter.

True that, [8|] matter of fact we still use them today, My Amish friends around here have them, my parents had a team when us kids were growing up.

But if you've ever drove one through a field in deep snow you'd know what I mean, and the horses wouldn't thank you either. []

I think its pretty much common knowledge village & city privies tend to yield more than their country counterparts, but there are plenty of exceptions to that rule. Country pits I've dug seem less often to be dipped also. Alot of times when a new pit was dug the old ones seem to have been used for trash until they were full. In a homestead thats over 200 years old there's no way I'd pass up looking for the privys. They are most often alot harder to locate tho.[]

Al

 

[RICKJJ59W]

ORIGINAL: GuntherHess

rent a front end loader and take the first three feet of soil off everywhere, you are bound to find something.

LOL and what he said. You can never go wrong with that advise []

 

[RICKJJ59W]

Every farm privy I ever dug sucked. I am just giving advise from experience. I am not saying there wont be anything in a farm pit. I am just saying they suck [] and I dont dig them anymore. But I will dig the dumps.Try one out see what happens. You may prove me wrong I hope you do. Good luck.

 

[sandchip]

Great points here, all of you. Plenty of food for thought.

 

[permaspooked]

Disapear for one night and my thread explodes. lol. Well taking the first three layers off of everything is out of the question, My family would kill me. The property is heavily used for vacation. Ok im gonna try to answer the questions and respond to everything if i dont im sorry and im not ignoring any posts.

Behind the barn is a field with a buffer of overgrown grass and one of those bratt trucks rotting away full of shotgun shells. lol. Finding a dump sounds interesting. If i remeber correctly as a kid me and my cousins would follow a creek a half a mile down stream eventhough we where told not too, Stupid parent rules. Anyways the stream basically cuts throught the ground creating cliffs on the side, basically really steap hills,

I remeber one area where junk and litter was thrown down the side, I believe that was from the neighbors property thow. Could this be one of those dumps? My family burned alot of there trash not sure how long we have been doing that but ever since i could remeber, ancestor could have done the same? My next trim out there i will def do scoutting.

Disappointing to hear farm privys dont yield alot of cool stuff, I really wanna get my hands on a privy.

 

[pyshodoodle]

Cool stuff is just in a different location most likely! And probably easier to dig! Yes, people used to dump along creeks a lot. and tree lines and walls, gullies... out of site, out of mind.