1/31/04

    I met Steve in Racine this morning. The bank sign was reading -10. We both agreed we  must be crazy. We headed over to Steve's friend Don's rental. Some great bottles came out of that yard. On the 11/30/03 dig  we found another pit under the fence and next to the tree. A cement slab on the other side prevented and chance of digging or probing from the other side. The frost was minimal here due to  snow cover and cardboard Steve put down earlier. As you can see in the picture, the pit was close to the tree and roots were a big problem. To make matters worse, the battery sawzall we use to cut roots didn't want to perform in the cold. Our plan was to dig a shaft down, and then tunnel horizontally to the booty. Well, we got the hole down to the 5' level. Here we could use the probe horizontally to find depth and layout the sides. It wasn't very deep, we poked and poked. It ends up to just be a shallow ash pit void of any bottles. We did shovel a test hole to it and get some ash out. No glass shards. Bummer.

    The start                     "Can't... move...my.... legs"   

   We cleaned up and left for Kenosha. Matthew's yard and lots have been very productive for us. We had located a pit under the garage, and the leaf pile there left the frost fairly easy to get out. We knew it was going to be the same as above, a shaft straight down and a tunnel over. We got the shaft excavated. I was a little nervous we weren't going to find anything. It sure didn't feel that hot when I probed. Steve started the tunnel portion and some bunk medicines and ketchup bottles were exhumed. I started to lose ambition, then a couple beer shards with the "This Bottle Never Sold" were found. Cool, my favorites, hutches and blobs! Here is where it got ugly. The tunnel was in about 2' where the pit started the pit was 6' across. It wasn't easy to dig trying to reach out in front of you. Then you get to pulling out all this dirt, and it's filling in the shaft. It was funny though, seeing Steve bent up like a pretzel. I heard him laughing at me too! We did find a bunch of different stuff. We got a Schlitz quart blob beer, a Waukesha Wild Cherry Phosphate, a nice crock, Dr. Kilmer's Swamp Root, Milwaukee Druggist, Hurd Kenosha Druggist, fancy perfumes, a small cache of pipes, and a couple whole clams. Steve pulled out a hand blown glass egg early in the game. He has dug these before, and thinks they may have been a motivational tool to get the hens to lay.  We didn't do a very good job of finishing the pit. It was very hard to dig and getting a little dangerous to stick your head in. So, we filled it in.

The shaft            Yoga finally pays off

Schlitz blob         The take

    When I was digging, Steve came over from probing and told me he found a pit. It was in the only probeable spot in the yard, under two leaf piles. I have no idea how he can find these pits. I have been walking back to the truck with him on numerous occasions, and have him stop in the middle of a large yard a say, "I bet there is a pit here." Sure enough there will be one there. I swear his body can detect the subtle changes in the magnetic field over the tops of privies. Now it is 3:45 pm. We have an hour worth of light left in the day. Should we open it or save it? Of course we opened it. It felt pretty good probing wise, but it wasn't a good producer. It had some ABM tonic bottles and a English looking gin, embossed with a still and "Bushmil Distillery"     . That was it. We had it dug and filled in 45 minutes. Just like two turds, we were pooped and on our way.

Getting dark    Take 2