3/26/05

    Let me start by saying it was great to finally get out after being shut out by frost this winter! 

    We started out the morning probing a bunch of lots we have had permission on but haven't been able to locate the privies.  Along the way we also found a few new places that were either torn down or freshly boarded up. None of them produced anything dig-able. It was a lot of hard probing, I thought for sure we were going to get skunked.

      Steve came up with the idea of going to his cousin Ryan's house. We had a couple pits there for sure. The ground got hard before we had a chance to dig them last season. The tarps were spread and the digging started. We were pretty bummed out when labeled, newer screw top bunk sauce bottles started to show. We still diligently cleaned her out. You never know when you might get that rare label under glass flask or even the coveted local Billy's scripted Coke. Of course, we wouldn't get that lucky this trip.

Dave and Craig first pit of the year

Steve examining a bunk screw top

    Dejected, we packed up and went to a pizza joint to recoup and enjoy some comfort food. On the way home, we made one last pass by Craig's friend's rental house. Sure enough, Tim was there working on it.  Craig got the go ahead and the probing started. My spirits weren't lifted much when the yard felt like pit everywhere I stabbed.

    Steve and Craig thought they had one cornered along one of the lot lines. I walked over and they were showing me some soupy gray matter on the probe tip. They thought it was ash, I wasn't too sure. At any rate it looked like it would be a wet hole. They got started with the digging and I had to make a trip to the gas station. When I got back the owner Tim and his buddy Bob were leaning over the pit checking out the progress. Steve was down in the hole and Craig was standing there with a Phillip Best  Export Lager bottled by Simon Gates blob beer in his hand. I looked at the pit's edge and saw some more blobs and a few pumpkin seed flask sitting there. Cool! At least it was better than screw tops.

Backyard view of the property

Starting the first pit at Tim's

    The corner Steve was working on seemed to be thick with bottles. He uncovered a few more broken and whole slick blobs. Craig started in with his "Six Pack Theory" of when you find one, you will find there will be at least five more in there.

Close up of the Simon Gates Blob variant

    I was up next and a little excited. I started where Steve left off. There were quite a few clunks as the shovel skimmed along hidden bottles. I found a few blobs stacked in the corner and cleaned them off for an "as found" pic. That is when I noticed a ribbed bottle peeking out.

Stacked bottles and a ribbed one peeking

My first thought was a ringed pepper sauce. I cleaned it off a little more and saw the bottle flatten out, and it sure looked amber. Steve was leaning towards it being a poison. I cleaned it off a little more, took a better pic, and started to work at freeing it.

A little more dirt cleared away.

I had it in hand and before I could wipe and attempt to read it Steve says, "It's a Dr Petzolds Genuine German Bitters." He kills me sometimes with his knowledge of bottles.

Dave after the removal

      Close ups of the embossing

    From there the pit petered out. Most of the bottles were stacked in that corner. We did get quite a few more broken and whole unembossed blobs and one smooth base Shaker Fluid/Valerian Extract.

    We finished up the day by digging  one more shallow pit right next to this one.  It  didn't produce anything of mention and we packed up and headed home.

Steve in the third pit.