JULY 11th Digging Results

Isn't this a grand house! It has everything going for it. The whole house additions and all were pre-civil war era. Then to add frosting to the cake, the backyard was untouched, and in the center of the (small) backyard was a large depression in the shade! Yes, that depression was the outline of a once-in-existance outhouse. I dug this pit with a friend of mine I met a couple of years ago while training him for his private pilot certificate. We started this pit late in the day around 2:00. It was easy digging, mostly ash with 1880's-90's glass in it. There weren't many bottles in this fill layer. This was a wood lined pit and I knew it wasn't the old one.

As Carl was excavating this pit I wandered around the small yard in search of more pits. I found another about 5 feet to the right of the current site. It was under the tarp so we would have to wait till later on that one. Then I started probing close to the house and hit one about 3 feet from the house.
Carl was now set loose on his first (solo) privy dig. I set out to date and possibly dig this spot by the house. There were pieces 3 inches from the surface that were almost pontiled era. I was now very excited thinking I hit the first pit, knowing it would be loaded with pontiled bottles. That wasn't the case though. I did find a nice, extremely heavily embossed WARNER'S SAFE KIDNEY&LIVER CURE close to the top.

It turned out that this was an ash pit just used primarily for discarded ash from the kitchen stove. It was about 5 feet deep with just ash in it. The glass was only on top in the fill they used to cap it. A nice 7" aqua DR. KILMER'S INDIAN COUGH CURE & CONSUMPTION OIL came from the top fill also.

**WE'LL START THE BIDDING AT.....yea right**

Carl found this fabulous crude COBALT CONE INK in his pit. This will make a nice addition to the ink collection. I dug a broken cobalt umbrella over the winter so this is a start! There weren't many bottles in either pit, although the pit Carl was in set a record for the most clay pipes ever in one pit: over fifteen.

**CAUTION: DO NOT VIEW THIS PHOTO WITH A HANG-OVER!!**

These pits were not loaded, but it wouldn't be as fun digging if they were ALL full of great stuff, now would it? I went back the next day to dig the other pit that was under the dig tarp. It was a brick lined pit with stuff dating back to the 40's, all broken for the most part. One DR. OSBORN'S GOLDEN OINTMENT, from the late 60's or early 70's, and one small utility-looking bottle in black glass/dark purple. Not a total loss I guess. There where two broken quart sized green SARATOGA'S that would have been real nice but,...

All is not done, there is a cistern under the last half of the house that I bet will have some stuff in it. It is under the foundation now and must have been closed off in the early years of the house, I hope. Till next time, Scott.