welp, I just had literally the most successful day in bottle hunting I've ever had.

[Still]

Congratulations on some amazing finds! This is the kind of thing I real enjoy reading about. I cannot get out to dig anymore. I only wish now that I had thought of, when I was digging, about making drinking glasses from the bottles I left behind b/c they were broken. I would have more sweet memories every time I opened the cupboard.

BTW - want to become impervious to poison ivy without spending any money? I used to be a survival camper as well. Find the plant names Jewel weed or Spotted Touch-Me-Not. I have cured so many people with this plant it is ridiculous (used to run a summer camp and cured countless campers). The plant typically grows near water.

Just break the stem and rub the (non-toxic) juice onto the area that was touched with poison ivy. The juice cancels out the ivy oil's (urushiol) ability to spread and cause irritation. This is applied after touching the ivy.

And if you have an outbreak b/c you did not know you were in contact with ivy to begin with, boil a 5 inch bundle of the Jewel Weed stems in water, add it to your bath water, repeat with same stems or new ones.
As long as the infected part is under the water, you can scratch that area until your feel there is no more itch. Even burst the blisters under the water. The ivy is dead...period.

For an already existent case on someone who has large blisters, I strap a piece of the plant stem onto the blister with a bandaid. The blister soon will be gone. Maybe change the stem to a fresh pice after a few minutes if not.

I know it sounds like a fairy tale, but if I break out in ivy, the jewel weed works so well for me that I am done with the ivy in 10 minutes. If I find myself in ivy, I get Jewel Weed, rub the opened stem on the area I know was exposed to the ivy, and ivy cannot show up.

Commercially they had trouble making anything from it b/c they could not find a way to preserve the jewel weed potency over time in an ointment. I used to boil it, freeze the bags of (now orange!) water, and pull one out when needed.


Sorry to be off topic...but I wanted to share this easy tip with fellow diggers...it changed me whole outlook with worrying about ivy.

Good tips!

 

[CCB420]

Well if nobody else will hate outta jealousy, dammit I will, I kinda have case of the red arss, that I don't have such a sweet spot

 

[CCB420]

I'm just being messy, congrats, beautiful spot to be scratching around to boot!!

 

[timeandabottle]

And walking distance from home! Great finds! I like your style of writing and keeping the post alive with each new chapter of it!

 

[jwpevahouse]

Today was amazing.

Background: this area today I dug today I had dug a little before last fall, but I had sort of dismissed because the oldest/most desirable bottles I found near the surface were cool but aren't really my thing. Some 30's 40's art deco sort of bottles. but no cork top or mouth-blown bottles/antique bottles.

Then I found something that convinced me there could be antique bottles about.

View attachment 245225
View attachment 245226
View attachment 245227
View attachment 245228I found this bottle and yeah, I decided to keep going. But after a couple hours I was getting ready to head home....then I saw a familiar shape in the creek, on the creek bed....I reached my bare naked hand in the frigid cold water and....


View attachment 245229
My first found intact Hutchinson bottle. When I realized what I had I started doing this little dance, right there shin deep in the creek. After I examined the bottle and found it to be in "good" shape the water I was standing in had had time to settle and not be so stirred up.
I look down into the water again and at this point the digging is out of the picture. This had become about eyeballing this creekbed looking for more hutches. And wouldn't you know it.....


View attachment 245230

A second hutch, this one even better. When I realize this, my little shin-deep-in-the-muddy-creek dance has turned into something more akin to a football player doing a touchdown celebration while stuck in drying cement. I really hope no one saw me. Anyway, I do even more eyeballing but that's it, no more to be seen.

I walk back home (this place is within walking distance of my apartment) and come back with the proper tools, spend probably 2-3 more hours digging around (sun was fading at this point) and yeah I found.....

View attachment 245231
A smooth Hutch. Probably the best condition out of all of them. I found this one sort of....in the root system of a tree adjacent to the aforementioned creek bed area.

Then as I'm digging the above out of a root system, I see another nice broken hutch sticking out and ....it wasn't broken.

View attachment 245232

I know this all seems kind of crazy or made up and I really should have brought a camera but I stopped bringing them along to take in situ pics because every time I'd take a pic I'd dig it up only to realize it's just a large bottle fragment and wind up deleting the pic. Became unlucky to bring a camera in my eyes. That and I drop things.

But yeah. Best.....Digging.....Day.....Ever.

View attachment 245233

Nice finds, Hutchinson's are always fun to dig. Date 1890 to 1900.

 

[Len]

Moodorf,
WOW! Truly, a day to remember! . ..Glad to see you've done your hw with the background history and maps. Those homeowners may become friendly over time. Paying off in the long run. In any case, this area is your baby for the foreseeable future. Have fun with it and keep us posted from time to time. Congrats!

 

[moodorf]

Thanks for the kind words everyone

Unfortunately, in the year since this thread started I have moved away from the apartment adjacent to this place. It's still within driving distance though. I may go back there at some point.