What odd, interesting things have you dug up while gardening?

[Farm1]

The most interesting thing was in our former house which was a fomer Rectory. It was a revolver, very rusted - black powder revolver by the look of it..

[FragileWarrior]

"JohnS" wrote in news:eo9fl0$vpn$ [e-mail]:

My horse recently demolished a medicine bottle of lovely lavender colored, clear glass. I suspect that one might have had some value.

[FragileWarrior]

OT or not, this was an interesting thread. Thanks for thinking it up, OP!

[Carl 1 Lucky Texan]

You're welcome. At my previous house, I was scanning the front lawn with a metal detector and recovered a 'coin spill'. From the dates on the coins, I suspected a workman lost all the coins from a pocket in some weeds or something. Even had a 1961 quarter - 90% silver.

I put them on my nightstand. The next time I looked over there the quarter was gone! My wife gave it to one of my daughters for school lunch milk!

Also, in the back yard of the same house we we found an old pitcher. Kinda blue with white specks glaze on the outside and white with blue lines marking cups on the inside! We still use it occasionally when cooking!

Nothing interesting at this house yet.

Car;

[Persephone]

When I was a college student on a work-camp program in Denmark, we were digging for Viking objects. About 800 years down, I found a 1942 Dutch penny. Go figure

Persephone

[FragileWarrior]

Persephone wrote in news:lt2dnXSak4_WHjfYnZ2dnUVZ [e-mail]:

Well if we're counting digs, I found lots of 10,000 year old frog and carrier pigeon bones. I missed finding the mammoth tusks by three days. : (

[Johnny Borborigmi]

I have found old toy army men and spacement that I played with as a kid!

[Buzzy]

About 5 yrs. ago, I went to put my watch on to go to work. Couldn't find it. It was a nice one too. A Digital Casio Astronomers watch with the planets that moved and everything. I figured that one of my kids friends snatched it from my bedroom dresser while I was somewhere else. Two years later, after raking up an area where I had a nice pile of mulch sitting under a tarp for the longest time, I noticed a glimmer of light coming from the ground. The reflection of the sun off of something. Half way buried was my watch!! Two years later!!! I took it inside, opened it up and let it sit to dry for a week. Picked up a new battery and sure enough, it worked!! I've bought Casio ever since. The crystal was really scuffed and scratched, but it worked. I have it put away now, but it's still working! :)

[Gardñ]

bigjon in news:1phws3c8v1e35$. [e-mail]:

lotsa toys, broken window panes, asbestos from construction junk, car parts (small), abandoned drains elec conduit,,,,,

can't remember anything interesting.

[Gardñ]

John Bachman in news: [e-mail]:

someone really lost a lot of their marbles.

[William Wagner]

About 50 years ago I found a French knife about 14 inch in my Dad's backyard where I dug/played. Still have it in my kitchen but I turned it into a Chinese cleaver a mistake. This with well preserved wood and carbon steel.

It takes an edge and is used almost daily.

Bill

[Jay]

Funny you should ask...

Last weekend I went to my lower mulch-making pile for the first time this season. I was clearing out overgrown blackberry vines and a bunch of other stuff.

My very old and sick cat went missing in October. She was 16 when we she went missing and had been very ill. As an outdoor cat, I guess she'd done the cat thing and snuck off to find a secluded place to die. Since the house is pretty much a zoo, I'm not surprised she did it outside.

When she went missing we put up fliers and searched and searched, but I knew it was pretty fruitless from the start given that a)she was old, b) she was ill and c)she was just that kind of cat. However, I admit that the not knowing what had happened to her was eating me up. How do you decide when to stop looking?

When I found her, there was not much left but a bunch of fur and bones. (It's been 5 months, after all). She'd crawled in between the wood of the deck and I'd never have found her if I hadn't been standing eye level to the deck and at about sunset when there's enough westerly light to see inside.

I moved Windy's remains and planted her under a brand new Pieris Japonica. I held my own personal service for her and told her what a good kitty she'd been and how much I'd missed her. I had a flat out and very manly cry in the middle of the back yard and buried the cat I got when I was 11.

I guess that's not specifically 'digging something up' in the garden, but it was certainly the most meaningful lost thing I've ever found while gardening.

I'm new here and this is my first post, so hello to all and don't judge me for telling the dead cat story on my first day!

-Jay

[Stuart Naylor]

On Thu, 01 Feb 2007 03:13:27 GMT, Jay wrote: .

I've read this newgroup for years but sorry that I don't post unless I have something to contribute to the group.

[Ann]

Jay expounded:

Aw, Jay, that's so sad - but so nice to find her and be able to bury her in a special place. At least you know she didn't get hit or eaten. Sick cats often go off to die. Thank you for sharing your story.

[Ann]

Stuart Naylor expounded:

If your implication was the Jay didn't contribute something, why don't you go back to lurking.

[FragileWarrior]

Jay wrote in news:rVcwh.833496$1T2.684840@pd7urf2no:

Ah, you told that story wonderfully. You need to post more.

Toward the end of last year I lost two old barn cats (Mother and son) and an old Yorkie that came to me as a stray, too. They're buried out beside the barn. I'm trying to decide what to plant over them this year so that they will remain undisturbed.

[Jay]

Exactly. It wasn't so much sad as it was a HUGE relief. I hated not knowing what had happened to her - this way I could be sad and move on. I was most worried that she'd ended up locked in someone's basement somewhere or something and had starved to death. Hiding out in the garden is a MUCH better way to have gone, IMO : )

-Jay

[Jay]

I'm sorry to hear about your animals....I sometimes think, though, that barn cats have the greatest lives of all domesticated cats these days. All the rats they can eat, a wheelbarrow tour of the property every morning and night, in our case, an egg in the afternoon. Then they pretty much get to do what they want the rest of the day and have lots of space to do it in.

It's great too that you take in the strays. They're my favorites because they're never so people oriented that you wonder how they got born cats by mistake : )

By the way, am I correct in recognizing you from rec.eq?

I've been mostly lurking there for a few years but your name seems familiar. From your other posts, I gather you have drafts and minis? I've got an aging trakehner hothead named Bogart.

Pictured here:

[FragileWarrior]

Jay wrote in news:z2owh.836513$1T2.309219@pd7urf2no:

I inherited the mom and son from an elderly neighbor who was trying to move them away from weaving in and out of her ankles everytime she went outside. I was feeding them in her barn but they tracked me back to the food source and ended up living in my barn for the last year. Just before the cat-son died, he brought home a pair of kittens that looked just like him. One left but one is still here so the cycle goes on.

Yep, until I couldn't stand the req anymore. I decided I had learned from books so far and could continue to do so without the snarks. Cripes, some of them don't even take a breath between shrieks of outrage.

Handsome boy! Looks like a youngster. My boys (and new mini girl) are in the HORSES folder over at:

[Jangchub]

Well, for almost seven years (6 times longer than expected to live) we had an opossum living in our brush pile out back. He was a big old thing and would come out the same time every night, first sit in the mesquite tree, then down to the sunflower seeds, then scouring the entire garden for things to eat. I never minded and now and then he had his armadillo friend join in the eats!

Last week my husband came in and said the opossum was very near the house, about 10 feet from the back door, deceased. He must have just died there. He had no attack or injury, but he lived much longer than this animal normally lives in the wild...if you could call a cushy brush pile with tons of food "wild."

So, my dear husband buried him. I asked him, where did you bury him? He said, in the garden. Yow! So, I am fully prepared to forget by spring and fork up the remains. It's just the cycle of life. Everything dies eventually. Not spiritually, but all physical bodies eventually die.

Victoria