11/9/03

                We three met in Racine at 7am. Steve had an interesting place lined up on the north side of Racine. We started probing and Craig and Steve found a couple good spots. We started digging and got down to the 3' level. A couple shards, but no whole bottles. Then we uncovered a drainage tile. What we thought were pits were the trench for the tile. It followed the back lot line, turned a corner and headed for the street. It was an old tile, and the hole was full of ash, but glass was sparse. We decided to fill it in and move on.

   Gotcha, you looked in the hole!

                    We stopped to probe a couple different yards. With three guys probing, you can cover a lot of ground. These yards didn't reveal any pits. So, we moved on.

                    Craig had lined up a spot at his brother-in-law's mother's house. When we pulled up I was a little apprehensive. It looked way to new. I figured if it had a pit, it would be screw tops. The guys found a spot, and we prepared to dig. It was getting pretty deep. A local quart milk came out, some local medicines, and screw top fruit jars. I was thinking about filling it in when a couple of Kickapoo Indian Oils came out. The were quite a bit older. Maybe this will get good.

                    I jumped in and started to dig. Steve said "Hey, this base is open pontil". It was a shard but why was it in here? I looked down and there is a different shard. It was an old  turtle ink. A late throw, or was this going to get real old?

                    Steve was next. When he was next, he planted a piece of plastic that looked like a turd. Craig was next, it was killing us. What was he going to say when he found it? He was in there a little while  scratching around. He found it, held it up. I don't remember exactly what he said, but I did snap a picture.

                    We did get one big, square jar with a lid. Seemed like the kind you would see at the store full of candy. Also, a large "The Queen" jar was found. I thought it was 2 quarts, Steve seems to think it is a 1/2 gallon. We will have to do some research(lol).

Turd?  The take  Steve McQueen

                    We left for Kenosha to check out a place the cops had kicked us out of. Steve had permission, there was some confusion of where the lot line was. I had checked with the assessor, he said the lot was 50' wide. We measured, the pit was on the right side. We decided to wait and get written permission. I am sure if we dug again the cops would be there. We didn't want any trouble.

                    We drove around the block to get a better look at three empty lots the are L shaped. Steve noticed a guy in a van and went to talk to him. Mathew owned the lots and gave us permission to dig. Craig found a pit right away. Time was running out. We only had a couple hours to dig before dark.

                    We just got ready to dig when another neighbor, Correy, came around the fence. He wanted to know what we were doing. We told him, then he asked"Come on, what are you really doing?" I always get a kick out of telling people about what we do. He stopped by a few times to check on the progress. He also said we could check out his yard, cool!

                    We got down a foot, this pit was loaded. Bottles on top of bottles. Mathew  came out to see how we were doing. I think he too was a little skeptical about what we were doing.  Like always, I enjoy sharing with people what we do!

                    We found a bunch of J.J.Kohlmans,Purity Soda Water St.Louis, A.Tennesen
blob beer, Martin Krueger Co soda, and a slew of other stuff.

                    The pit was only 3' deep, but was the most loaded pit I have ever dug. It was getting late, we have a few more spots to dig. Mathew said it was fine to come back another day.

  Mathew checking out the progress

    How's the digging?            Thetake