Sunday 22 May 2016

Unearthed

There is much awareness about being environmentally conscious and recycling, composting, repurposing. It is not acceptable to throw garbage out your window as you drive down the road from the fast food joint. It is imperative that you follow the blue box guidelines and schedule for your municipality. We are (on an individual citizen basis) more aware of how we treat our earth.

Today, as I was trying to finish a task on my to do list, I discovered that not everyone has cared as much about "garbage" pick up. I was doing the last round of clean up on a flower bed up against the east wall of our house, digging out remaining lily of the valley roots, cranes bill roots, and tiny bulbs of what I call grape hyacinths but may be mistaken. For every couple shovel fulls  of soil that I turned over and hunted through, I easily found a couple of nails, screws, pieces of broken glass, or plastic.

Here is a sample of what I unearthed.

Some nails are recent, others are square nails of a much older vintage. It was rather shocking to find the head! Of course it is from a Fisher Price little person (part of my childhood)! I was excited about the coin, but alas, it was a 1993 penny.

In all the years that I have been digging in the dirt, I have found many things. I often find pieces of plates, cups, or crockery. I almost always find square headed nails. I have wanted to find native arrow heads made from chipped stone, but I have never been that lucky. There was a collection at the farm that I presume were found in the fields, but that was in a different part of Ontario.

I could never understand the pieces of plates and such. Why were they just tossed outside? It's not like they would break down and become part of the earth again.

I know some gardeners read my blog, so please share some of the unusual things you have unearthed.

20 comments:

  1. We've found a couple of odds and ends. A bottle, a couple pieces of what I assume is pottery. But, a couple of years ago I found a multi-colored marble. I made a joke of that one since it always seems I may just be "losing my marbles"! :)

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  2. An extra marble. I think we could all use one! -Jenn

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  3. After years (as a boy) of looking for arrowheads on the farm and never finding any, my husband was so excited when our son found one in our garden! That was probably 15 years ago and the most exciting find to date!

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    1. Oh neat!! I remember finding them fascinating and just feeling so special, holding one in my hand. -Jenn

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  4. There were no rubbish collections way way back - and people made no rubbish anyway as nothing came in multi layers of packaging. Where I lived as a child there had been 6 very old cottages from the 1600's and we turned up all sorts of things. Everything broken would be buried in a pit, mainly crockery and glass. We found all sorts of pottery and broken clay pipes.

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    1. I just can't compete with the history of England! I doubt any homes were even in this area in the 1600's. That would have been fun to find those things as a child. -Jenn

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  5. I can relate a short story of a unpleasant find. Before we bought this piece of property, the building on it was a dump of a rental. Not so nice people came and went with regularity. Our nearest neighbors have told us over and over how happy they were when we bought the place. (I think anyone might have been an improvement over the shady characters living here for many years.)

    Anyway, one day while digging in the dirt, we found what looked to be the remains of a dog collar with an identification tag still attached. Our neighbors' phone number was on it. When we took it to them, they shook their heads and said that at least they were glad they finally knew what had happened to their dog. So sad.

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    1. our house was a rental as well.That is sad about the dog collar. Thankfully, I've not found anything like that. -Jenn

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  6. How interesting! I never have understood how china and silver get tossed out and buried. The saddest was finding the dog collar. How could they not have known? Great post today Jenn! Have a great week!

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  7. I have found lost gardening tools :) I tend to carry all kinds of stuff around the yard with me when I'm working outside and forget things in flower beds. Does this count? I can't for the life of me think of anything else even though I know I have found weird things!

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    1. I've read that you should paint your tool handles a bright colour so you notice them when you leave them out. I guess that only works with wooden handles, but now I have plastic or rubber handles as well. I am bad for not putting my tools aways because I always know I'm going to be out in the garden again soon. -Jenn

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  8. The most exciting thing we have unearthed here on the farm is a 3000BC stone axe head. We regularly find old stone spinning whorls, which I believe are still used in some parts of the world.

    But our lane gets littered with rubbish thrown from car windows - bottles, fast food cartons, crisp packets and the like. Every now and then I walk down the lane with a bag and collect it all up.

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  9. Oh that is exciting! I am not sure what a spinner whorl is, however. I will look it up later. -Jenn

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  10. Saw you on Martha's blog and had to come and visit! When I was a little boy growing up in the country, I once unearthed a very old glass Coca Cola bottle :)

    P.S. I would love to follow your blog but I cannot seem to find a follow button?

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    1. Welcome! The only follow button is see being offered by blogger is a google + one and I find when I click on those for other bloggers, it just takes me to a google + page, but not to their blogs, so I am hesitant to use that one.
      I remember how good Coke tasted from bottles as a kid. -Jenn

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  11. I only ever dig up cat poo from the neighbour's cat who has taken a liking to my garden. Which is why I wear gloves while gardening.

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  12. I found two half dimes (that is what they were called) from 1832 and 1856. Lots of lost marbles. The worlds best old brass sprinkler, buried a foot down. I still use that. It is 10 times better than today's sprinklers. An old mule shoe. Gosh, maybe I need to get back out there and start digging. I've found some pretty cool stuff. Thanks for the great question.

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  13. I don't know Bonnie, I think you might be the winner, here. Do you know anything about the history of your property? -Jenn

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