We unearthed the top of a barrel buried in the backyard. Matt hit it
while digging holes for squash. The sides of the barrel are in pretty good shape,
paint and words still visible, but the top is rusted through in the
middle.
I am both intrigued and slightly alarmed. I wonder what is in
it and why it was buried. Are we talking nuclear waste, dead
bodies, a burn barrel? What?
All I do know is its going to be a pain
to get it out of there. We planted around it for now, to be revisited
after some regrouping of thought.
We had a barrel like this in front of our laundry room window that was a settling place for the washers rinse water before we hooked onto the city system. The cover collapsed and we dug out enough that we could fill it with some bathroom remodeling debris that a neighbor had curb side and then topped the hole off with potting soil and compost since it is "just lawn"
ReplyDeleteThanks for giving me a logical non-dead bodies in nuclear waste scenario to roll with. Something like that would likely make much more sense. : )
DeleteArchaeology:The systematic study of past human life and culture by the recovery and examination of remaining material evidence, such as graves, buildings, tools, and pottery.
ReplyDeleteYour find and means of dealing with this seems like it has all the hallmarks of archaeology. So, I would say it is an archaeological dig. Man, I hate typing that word!
This is so exciting to me. Save it all in a wheelbarrow and sift through a screen. Just kidding. If there are bones, call the police.
Finding something like that would make my day. Keep us posted with lots of pictures of dirt.
I suppose it is archaeology....though I don't know how systematic we are!
DeleteI will keep you posted when we proceed though Matt is balking at how far down we'd have to dig to get it out of there....
Like the washing machine drain, barrels were also used as ersatz septic drains. Let's hope the origin of yours was that simple. Probably more fun to let your imagination run wild. Our friends bought a place in the hills above Whitehall, spent an entire summer digging out and then a small fortune properly disposing of several hundred tires. Illegal landfill.
ReplyDeleteYikes....that would be a disheartening find. I can't even imagine. Let's hope we only find the one barrel back there.
DeleteSomeone else suggested the possibility it was part of the septic solution to an old outhouse. It was all farm land 60 years ago so its hard to say.
Ay-yi-yi. That would give me the creeps. I say go with Becky's explanation! Or maybe it's a time capsule? How mysterious...
ReplyDelete-Jaime
Yeah, my gut reaction was creeps. Now that I've been offered several non-creepy possibilities I'm much calmer.
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