Any one ever dig for old bottles?

14 years ago

Last year my brother came and tilled some garden

space for me. All season long we picked shards

of glass out of the dirt. This year we have had

plenty of rain so my husband turned my whole garden

by hand, there is still lots of glass and this

year it seems like the pieces are much bigger.

I had seen a show on the Discovery Channel where

they were digging for old bottles and decided to

give it a try in my own back yard. I dug all last

Saturday and found lots of just broken glass and

what I could identify as bottle pieces and finally

three unbroken bottles! I had a blast! LOL I have

plans to move over several feet and try again just

to see what I come up with.

Has anyone ever dug for old bottles?

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (8)

Marilyn Sue McClintock
14 years ago
Yes, I have done the same as you. Not in my garden but on my back hillside, I think many, many years ago they used it for a dump. However all the soil down several inches is really nice and black and of course there are trees on it now too. It really is fun to find glass and also pieces of pottery. I have another place Amber and I have dug and it is near our creek. At one time it must have been a small ravine and they wanted to get rid of all the glass milk bottles. Too bad it seemed most were broken. Many, many years ago I am told the club house we now have was a milk house and they sold milk and delivered it around the countryside. The name of the milk company was Brock's We never did finish digging there, but I know the location. It is like a little hidden treasure from the past when you find something.

Sue
tobygirl
14 years ago
Yes, we used to back in the 70's, when bottle collecting was very popular around here. We found a lot of really nice old bottles, some hand blown, many cobalt and medicine bottles. We had a lot of fun bottle digging with my siblings and their spouses when we were all young. Thanks for the memory.
Related Discussions
Aquarium gravel, any one ever try this?
Q
Comments (13)
Veronica, you only use a tiny amount of salts, I just put a sprinkle in the melt. It's all locked up in the glass (much like synrock) and should be completely safe (those old fasioned blue bottles are made with cobalt, a normally quite toxic chemical). So I don't think they would affect the concrete in the slightest. fairy_toadmother, what do you want to know? I did it years ago when I was living at home and had access to a blowtorch. But it is fairly strightforward. I don't know where you get good crucibles, I was given mine from visiting an aluminium smelter. Perhaps you could make one from cement, or use a pottery container (stoneware pottery is usually fired at around 1400C, vitreous hotter still). Apparently glass melts at 1000 degrees C, and a normal butane/LPG blowtorch is about 1300 degrees C. I visited a glass factory when I was at school and they just used natural gas to melt plate glass. I had a quick look around and couldn't find any instructions on the web. The basic approach is the same as used for colouring glazes in pottery. Now I think about it, you can probably get suitable oxides from a pottery store for practically any colour. Some colours, Some more colours You can melt glass in a charcoal, coal, or briquette fire with bellows. Granite won't fade because it is coloured much the same way as glass (although with different base substances, often crystals rather than glass). The colours you get from these 'inorganic pigments' are very long lasting, unlike azo dyes commonly used in food colouring, pens, clothes etc. Granite does decompose slowly in the presence of water, but I wouldn't worry about it (it is slow enough that people make kitchen benches out of it!) or even bother with sealant. The granite will out live the sealant.
...See More
Old Weed Barrier Fabric - Ignore or dig up?
Q
Comments (1)
If it were me, I would get up as much of it as I could. I know it's a royal pita, but all it's going to do there is stop the roots of your plants. The nimrods from whom we bought our house put down black plastic which was down about 8 inches by the time we got here. Lord, what a dreadful job. We did the best we could; I have a feeling that there is still some out there, as I found some more last year. Who ever thought this was a good idea? Not a gardener, that's for sure.
...See More
any one ever hear of a pig nut tree?
Q
Comments (10)
I too grew up in Massachusetts. We always picked the pignut trees in the yard. I love pignuts they are very good after they have a had a chance to dry under the bed in a box. It seems we always had lots of nuts to eat around Christmas My dad alwayspicked them and he has been gone for 10 year. = ( I wanted to plant trees in my own yard in Vermont but I have not looked into this yet. Those of you who say this nut is bitter, did you really try the nut? As a kid I would eat the green nut, just because. It was gooey and not really appealing but I will still have to crack one open with a rock and peal the not ripe meat out just for old times sake. Pig Nuts Rock! So does the memory Loving the pignuts and looking to go and pick some in the following weeks.
...See More
7 year old Shih Tzu started digging in chair
Q
Comments (4)
I think he just found a way to play/occupy himself. Maybe he enjoyed bugging you (for attention)while you sat in the chair, or got you to sit in the chair after you've placed the cover over it...Now he's hoping you'll sit there and pay attention to him. He must know that IT got a reaction out of you. Just a guess. Shih Tzus are very smart. Only their owners know their personalities. They're like little people. They communicate with you. My dogs were/are bilingual (Shih Tzu and English-lol) THEY understand me. I don't understand them. Whose smarter??? I would talk to mine and from their reaction, they understood. The Shih Tzu I have left has like fifty balls and knows them by color or description. Unbelievable. I never taught mine tricks. Tricks are for dogs-LOL. From what I've noticed, people do not see them for who they really are. Shih Tzus act kind of aloof with strangers.That makes the non-owners think that they they're just dumb little dogs. Contrary! Anywhoo,I had a Shih Tzu who would dig at my DH's butt, while he was sitting on the rug folding laundry...or just sitting on the floor. It became a ritual. As soon as she would see him sit down on the floor, she would run over, lie down on her side and start beating his behind like she was digging. She had the biggest smile on her face. It was their special time together. He would rub her belly. She did it until the end... I miss her so much. She lived to be 18. The. best. dog. ever.
...See More
oldgardener_2009
14 years ago
My husband used to dig bottles all over the state, found many, had a large collection and sold them for pretty good money. It's amazing how much you can sell them for to collectors.
jemdandy
14 years ago
I haven't dug for bottles, but I've heard of two places that have netted finds: old trash heaps and Pit Toilets -Ewww! At old abandoned or rotted down dwellings, locate the pit toilet and dig. Common bottles in toilets are whiskey flasks.

Pioneer homes often had an outbuilding a few steps from the main house that was used for storage or summer kitchen. These likely contained bottles of many sizes and canning jars.
marilyn_c
13 years ago
Yes, I've dug for bottles. I've always wanted to dig here...there are several old house sites on my property, going back well over 100 years. Some people dug before we got the place...and heard they found a lot of bottles. The ground here though, is very hard clay, and too hard to dig in. The one time I found a good place to dig, turned out to be a dump from just the '50's and it was mostly old hair dye bottles.

However, when they were digging the holes for the piers for my house addition, they dug up an old soda bottle. It says
Houston Bottling Company. When my husband was digging fence posts, he dug up an old thing...can't remember what you call it now...was for putting pleats in clothes...you heated it like an iron. It was dated 1863. He didn't even tell me until the end of the day...probably because he knew I'd want to dig up all around there. He also found an old clay marble one day in the same area when walking out to feed the horses.
socks
13 years ago
How interesting!
bulldinkie
13 years ago
I never dug for bottles but we found a cute perfume bottle complete with stopper lid, pink..Some other bottles
adellabedella_usa
13 years ago
My dad inherited my great grandmother's place a few years back. She died in 1960. I found an old bottle there several years back. I need to ask about where the garbage was.

Any one ever dig for old bottles?

Comments (8)

Marilyn Sue McClintock

tobygirl

Related Discussions

oldgardener_2009

jemdandy

marilyn_c

socks

bulldinkie

adellabedella_usa

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US