March 4th 2007

What a big freeze we had here in Cincinnati this past winter ! It got cold enough to ice up the big park lake down the road. I'm not talking a skinny layer of ice, I'm talking about lake ice a foot thick, and at least two hillbillies standing around each of two dozen augured ice fishing holes. (I was one of those hillbillies myself) March first hit, and it was if mother nature had flipped a switch.

My new friend Steve Sander was busy during those chilly days lining up some permissions for us to dig. He was hammering them out, and I got a call every other day or so with word of the newest and most exciting fresh permission. Having a slew of ready permissions is definitely the bestest way to come out of the big freeze.

On Sunday March 4th, the heavenly bodies that are our wives all lined up in celestial harmony and a dig was ON ! Mike had some nose hairs freeze up on him this particular morning while walking "Bruno", his doggy, and he was sure it was still too early and too cold, at 22 degrees, to be out digging, especially in the forecasted 30 miles per hour winds.

Steve and I decided to hack it out, and we met near the 1865 former school building, now residence, whose back yard would soon be removing the winters rust from our hibernating probes.

It didn't take long to put the shine back on, but only a single subterranean anomaly was located. Notice how I didn't call it a pit right off ? It was something, but I didn't know what. It probed all funny. We put down a tarp and started a test hole by removing a 2 by 2 area of sod and digging downwards. There WAS some sign, but it wasn't good. Some plastic, some chunks of concrete, etc. At 4 feet we found religious bricks. (They are holy ) And everybody knows that them bricks with holes in them aint old. The probe said we were nearly at the bottom of whatever this was, and we fillderin. We could not stab up any other pits, and figured they were under the driveway. In privy digging, this is about where providence usually pokes in his head and figures something out for us to do. He did. Steve went to the front door of the house that sat behind this old school and put on his yes face. He was still wearing it as he came back around giving the thumbs up.

Right away we noticed a square of sunken earth near the side property line. Another less noticeable one was off to the side of it. The one with the most pronounced "dip" seemed to have concrete looking walls sticking up on one side. As I was probing the other one, Steve ran a line back from it and located another pit about 4 feet away. This one had no depression at all, and my probe confirmed Steve's. It was also a woody, so we figured it for the older pit of the three, and we started a test hole right in what felt like the middle. We got about 4 feet deep and the sign was mixed but mostly 1890-1900 with some aqua shards mixed in with clear ones. A few bottles started popping out, mostly slick druggists, so we decided to remove the rest of the sod and dig this one proper. We took off the sod and started caving in dirt from the top, into a 5 gallon bucket. This speeds things up a bit, using gravity to help things along. Once we had our hole square we began the downward journey once again.

Here is Steve in the pit.

Would you give this guy permission to dig a big hole in your back yard ?

The home owner came out and I wound up knowing him from my High School Daze. "Those were the daze" he said. He was right. We used to party together some back then. We both looked back into the thick fog and reminisced, well... what we could remember anyway. That learnin' is hard stuff !!! As we got deeper, around 5 feet, seeds and solid glass appeared. Mostly broken as usual, with a few whole bottles as well. The age was not really going back past the TOC, and unembossed meds and square polishes dominated the scene. We found a few embossed bottles like some glues, and a pinetar honey. There were at least a dozen "3 merry widows" condom tins in the hole also, along with some beers ( two Jungs / Cincinnati) and some shoe fly flasks. I guess me and the homeowner aren't the only ones who used to party.

As Steve was in the pit, just starting to clear off the bottom at 6 feet, I spied the disk lip of a bottle and called out it's position. Steve dove in after it, and pulled out this.

A cool glass radio candy container.

It says, "Tune In" on the bottom

and has knobs and dials.

We finished up the pit shortly thereafter and fillderin. It was getting late so we decided to return on another day to check for more pits and maybe to pop open one of the square stone liners.

Next weekend we are checking out a tandem permission, two houses from 1865 right next to each other, waiting for the bulldozers.

Wishing all diggers remarkable finds in 2007 !!!