Privy dig in the soup..............................

[daytondigger]

Met up with a local property owner I know who likes to buy old homes and restore them a couple weeks ago. He told me I needed to come out and "dig" on his latest property. When I got home I checked out the auditor's website and saw this picture.

I then saw it was listed as having been built in 1900. It looked much older to me and Joe says it was built in the 1860's. The first day the ground thawed I packed up my probes after work and headed on over. It didn't take long for me to probe up a brick-liner. The following Sunday Brandon and I started opening her up. Lots of roots, bricks and then the soup! It was holding a lot of water starting at about a foot down. We dug a hole in the corner and started bailing, working the rest of the hole down as the water level slowly dropped. At a foot and a half Brandon starts handing up Dayton Breweries bottles and a broken wine. All together 6 intact beers, a couple broken ones and the broken wine. Then we started seeing decorated yellow ware, things were looking up. It took us several hours to get down maybe 4 feet. We covered the hole up 'til the following Sunday. That day it was me, Brandon, Phil and Chuck tackling this 9 foot wet soupy mess in 20 degree windy weather. It was a nice oval brick liner, but we only came away that day with one nice local mug-based hutch and a few medicines etc. that dated to around the turn of the century. We've been unable to locate an additional pit and I almost think the auditor was right on the year built.

[jrsherman]

Any day digging for bottles is a good day in my book!! That definitely is a beautiful house, either way!!

[HolyDiver]

Looks like fun. WTG

[allen]

looks like it could have
lots of potential.....

[TooManyHobbies]

Is there bacteria hazard down there? ...besides the cavein hazard? I didn't know privies were brick lined, so that's pretty cool.

[daytondigger]

Is there bacteria hazard down there? ...besides the cavein hazard? I didn't know privies were brick lined, so that's pretty cool.

Bacteria has consumed the waste and perished since these pits we dig are 100 years old or more. City privy vaults are lined with brick, stone or wood. The wood ones can be unstable, as the wood has rotted away. Typically, woodliners are fairly shallow and can be dug safely. I've dug a lot of pits and had no problems.
Thanks, Steve

[BuckleBoy]

Awesome!!


Can I see a photo of the bottles?


Do you usually bail out the hole to get the water out, or dig one side lower and stand on the other side?

[daytondigger]

Awesome!!


Can I see a photo of the bottles?


Do you usually bail out the hole to get the water out, or dig one side lower and stand on the other side?
It was 20 degrees out that day and flurrying, we were wet and muddy and as soon as we finished, we did the pick and headed for hot showers and dry clothes. I didn't even think to take any bottle pic's. We ended up with 6 Dayton Breweries crown tops(pre-Pro), a couple Bulls cough syrups from Baltimore(smoothe base), LM Green bottle, a nice "K" mug-based hutch soda (Klee from Dayton) and not much else memorable. We dig a "sippy" hole (don't know who first coined that) in one corner and bail 'til the level drops, then dig down some more and keep repeating the process. Check out www.daytondigger.com for more info, pics and videos. We dug a woodliner yesterday and got nothing intact. No keepers at all, yuck!

[crazyjarhead]

Nice digs ,Steve. You look happy in the bottom of that privy

[daytondigger]

Nice digs ,Steve. You look happy in the bottom of that privy

Yes sir, I felt like a terd in a toilet bowl!!