mackle
Member
The in-laws' Grandparents 23 acre farm was abandoned in the early 1970's. The 1800's house has collapsed, as have the outhouse and chicken coop. Two barns burned to the ground long ago, leaving no signs of ever having existed. The only still standing structure is a cinder block pump house that was built when they got running water in the 1950's, and the once pasture land is now covered by a full stand of large pine trees. Yesterday, with guidance from the oldest grandchild, (she remembers the area from her 50's childhood), I went out to explore the area.
I've never used a probing rod before, but it's not exactly "high tech" and I'm pretty sure I located the privy cavity. I dug 2 or 3 feet down before I realized this was not a one person, one day job, and decided to come back to it sometime in the future. Moved on the Metal Detecting. I didn't waste too much time on that either, as I soon got tired of digging up old ammunition brass, bolts, bed-frames and assorted other rusty junk. 'Went searching for the old trash dump.
Mary had given me the general direction to go in, and it wasn't that hard to locate. Walking through the pines I came to a high ravine, maybe 30 feet above a small slow moving creek. Paydirt! That's where generations of residents had pitched their items that wouldn't burn... old shoes, bricks, metal objects and BOTTLES. Bottles, bottles, bottles! Protruding from the leaves, dirt and moss that was slowly blanketing the area were hundreds of bottles of various size, color and shape. We quickly picked up and brought home over 30 that we found "interesting" for one reason or another. Not valuable, I'm sure, but very exciting to find. These are most likely from the 50' and 60's... the top layer I'll say. We recovered several old brown glass Clorox bottles of differing size and texture, a large, textured brown Texize bottle, several green bottles of unknown origin, and a host of clear glass items that were unique in design.
My first "pick" was a fantastic day and I can't wait to go back. 'Will probably start digging at the lower end of the bottle dump, assuming the older finds will be on the bottom. I'm also wanting to metal detect the other dump area, where items were burned.
'Still trying to learn how to post pictures... I'll figure it out, but it may take a while.
'Will keep you posted.
mackle
I've never used a probing rod before, but it's not exactly "high tech" and I'm pretty sure I located the privy cavity. I dug 2 or 3 feet down before I realized this was not a one person, one day job, and decided to come back to it sometime in the future. Moved on the Metal Detecting. I didn't waste too much time on that either, as I soon got tired of digging up old ammunition brass, bolts, bed-frames and assorted other rusty junk. 'Went searching for the old trash dump.
Mary had given me the general direction to go in, and it wasn't that hard to locate. Walking through the pines I came to a high ravine, maybe 30 feet above a small slow moving creek. Paydirt! That's where generations of residents had pitched their items that wouldn't burn... old shoes, bricks, metal objects and BOTTLES. Bottles, bottles, bottles! Protruding from the leaves, dirt and moss that was slowly blanketing the area were hundreds of bottles of various size, color and shape. We quickly picked up and brought home over 30 that we found "interesting" for one reason or another. Not valuable, I'm sure, but very exciting to find. These are most likely from the 50' and 60's... the top layer I'll say. We recovered several old brown glass Clorox bottles of differing size and texture, a large, textured brown Texize bottle, several green bottles of unknown origin, and a host of clear glass items that were unique in design.
My first "pick" was a fantastic day and I can't wait to go back. 'Will probably start digging at the lower end of the bottle dump, assuming the older finds will be on the bottom. I'm also wanting to metal detect the other dump area, where items were burned.
'Still trying to learn how to post pictures... I'll figure it out, but it may take a while.
'Will keep you posted.
mackle
