9/20/03 I was on the road by 4:30 am to meet up with Steve and drop my son of at my mother's. We arrived at the dig site at 7:30. Today we are digging at Mr. and Mrs. Sheldon's properties. The first one was suppose to be vacant. We nervously probed for 5 minutes locating a pit directly out the back door. We decided to come back. The guy that had lived there was big and mean. The Sheldon's were coming over a little later to clean up for the next tenants. We decided to wait for them. We drove over to dig the other half of the clam pit..

We found the edges of the pit, spread out the tarp and started digging. After a couple of feet, we noticed the clam shells were not coming out! Good, we were into a different pit. A lot of mid to late 1890's bottles and pieces popped up. There were the typical medicines, jars, and broken pottery. A couple applied local crown top sodas came out as well. Cool, I collect all the local stuff. The pit was getting about six feet deep. We had to bucket everything out. Steve wished we had a ladder. He looked up and notice a wood one sitting in the trash by the curb! This made it a lot easier to get in and out. The pit ended up being 8-9 feet deep. The last three feet were pure white ash, and the breeze kept a constant ash cloud over the pit. I can guarantee we ate a half pound of ash each. Mr. and Mrs. Sheldon stopped by and saw what was going on. I gave Mr. Sheldon a couple bottles I had polished up for him. They came from an earlier dig at the same place. He said he wanted a beer bottle. With that in mind, we headed for their next property.

Steve getting out Deep

We know why they call this Rock County. It is tough locating the pits and even tougher digging. You don't know if you are clunking on rocks or bottles. This pit was only 5 feet deep and contained bottles. Same thing as above age wise and content. We did get a couple more applied crown local sodas. No beers, I will see if Mr. Sheldon will settle for the local soda!

It was 3 pm by now. I still wanted to get into something a little older. I twisted Steve's arm, although not very hard, and he agreed to do one more. We headed over to a coworker of mine. Troy wasn't home but the Liane was there. We showed her the spot, it was in the garden. We didn't want to wreck anything, she assured us there was nothing to wreck. There were a few screw top bottles coming up. Not a good sign. How come we can't catch a break. Steve always brings me up with a story or two about some rare bottles that can come out of these pits. Then he reminded me about the applied crown straight sided coke we dug earlier in the year. "You know the one from Chicago with the cool scrolling". It was very similar to the first pit we dug today. A few feet of ash and a layer down about 9 feet. The first thing to come out of the layer was a neatly decorated spittoon. Maybe this layer is older... Not really. It was about a foot deep and chock full of pottery shards and broken glass. 

There is one more pit there, and we hope Troy will be home to next time. I think he will get a kick out of it like his wife Liane did. My other coworker, Rod, was suppose to hook up with us on the last dig. He must have been busy he never showed. I still have a pail full of bottles for him to pick through!

Troy's back yard   Another deep one

 Sorry I have no "the haul" pictures to show. By the time we got to Steve's van, it was 7:30 and dark. The next month will be busy for me. We will have to rely on Steve for stories and pics. Steve, get your camera fixed. I know you are going to find some cool stuff and we need pics for proof!