Bottle Digging 'N American Pickin' 3.5: "Well Well Well"
Yesterday, I got some really good use out of an old surplus Czech Army Pick Axe I got out of Sportsman's guide, and for 15 bucks you can't beat it. I also began bringing along my Dad's old potato puller (is that what it's called, does anyone else actually call it that?), which worked great for a while, until the head kept falling out with each pull. So I put that to the side and began scraping away at the ground with the pick, hoping I wouldn't break anything, and hey I did pretty good at that. Ended up finding 2 more 1950's amber colored Clorox bottles with caps.
I also brought along my brother's hedge clippers to cut away all the thorns and poison oak that was hindering my digging (don't worry I cleaned them).
Drowning myself in bug spray, and trying to keep heat stroke at bay I dug around the tree where I found most of the bottles. Mucho rusty cans, an old brush, 1950's shaving cream, and many fragments of old toys. Found Micky Mouse's legs
Micky NOOOOOO
parts of an old 'GEE WEE' rocket ship shaped ball launcher, a toy car's wheel, and a small plastic monkey that looks like it was the cap of bubbles or something.
I also found a headless barbie(?) with a pull string on the back. And like a schmuck I tried it- hey it worked in Planet of the Apes! this one was only in the ground for 70ish years, that one was down for centuries!
Found a few more bottles, some perfume, some old glass soap bottles. They're interesting in shape, hey maybe someone will want them.
with most of the brush cut away I went at the ground with that ol' pick axe. Found some bricks that where really in the ground so I dug around them and found a metal plate. 'Christ I hope that's not a well", the last thing I need is to fall down an old well in the middle of the woods. So I moved a little to the right and kept digging. Found a large- well it sort of looks like what you'd pour OJ into before you put it in the fridge. It looks plastic from the photos, but it is glass. It says " not for reuse" so your guess is as good as mine.
next to it found a nice mason jar
well make that half a mason jar, to the broken pile you go.
I kept digging up car parts and pipes, even some ancient x-mas lights, or what was left of them.
My pick hit something metal and I assumed it was just more car parts, nope. I was a fucking old water pump. Quite the find in my mind, my lady didnt seem too interested when I told her.
This was exciting but also did freak me out a bit, looks like the bricks a part of an old well.
Wonder if there's any old coins around... I have thought about bringing a metal detector around but with all the tin cans and car bits it seems more frustrating than anything. If I have the time I may make a sort of screener out of scrap wood and screen. maybe find some interesting little bits if I take my time with that.
After a little while all I was finding was seashells. And odd thing being that I was quite a few miles inland, guess the joe who dumped all this really liked baked clams. Hey who dosnt.
With the heat getting to me and my water running low, I stowed the interesting bottles into my bag and lugged the pump back to the car. Once I got home I emptied the rest of my Evap-o-Rust into a plastic tote and submerged the pump into it. That stuff works wonders, let me tell you. So I'll let that bad boy sit for a weel or two and I check to see if I can work the handle. Once the rust is gone I plan to paint it, maybe stick it in the tomato garden, maybe see if anyone wants to buy it. Ether way, I was excited about it. And if my dig site is drying up, least the last big find was something cool.
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