The Hole, & What I Found In It

Last Sunday, I dug a very large hole in the yard.

A couple weeks ago, Adrienne cut back the jungle of grass & clover. Instead of throwing the little pile of clippings into the compost bin for the city to take, I thought that it couldn't hurt to dig them into the vegetable garden beds, in hopes that it might improve the dense clay soil a little.

I told Adrienne what I was going to do at that time, waving my hands around in what I thought was a very descriptive sweeping manner. This is apparently what she thought I meant:

Much to her shock & dismay, when she brought the dog out midway through & saw what I was doing, this is what I actually meant:

Admittedly, once I got out there & found out how easy it was to work the soil after all the rain we've had, I did get a little carried away. After struggling to dig even six inches down over the spring & summer, I thought, here's my chance to loosen this clay up & finally maybe get some beds I can grow full sized carrots in. I basically ended up digging a trench 2 feet deep, & covering most of the yard in muddy dirt, that the dog now tracks into the house. Oops.

Anyway, while I was digging away, I found a spot where someone had buried their trash years ago. We know that folks used to do that here, both because that's just what was done, & also from all the glass & ceramic bits that we are constantly picking out of the dirt, but this is the first spot that I've found where there was clearly a hole that someone was putting things in. It's right next to & under that little lily-like plant in the middle of the fence, about a foot down.

What I found was remnants of leather shoes, broken medicinal tonic bottles, a big rusted metal disc of some sort, something that looks like a rusted doorknob, large rusted nails, tons of egg shells, and a pile of animal bones:

Definitely bones from someone's dinners -- there are chicken bones & beef bones. Also potentially someone's dog -- there's half a pelvis & a bunch of tail bones. I can't think of what small four-footed animal you go to the butcher & bring home whole like that. But I also didn't find a whole skeleton, although there is probably more still there under the plant. Maybe I'll ask the vet next time we see her. Either way, very interesting & just a little bit creepy.

So, see, Adrienne, if I hadn't dug that big hole, I never would have found this fascinating stuff. Every new paw print on the rug is ultimately there in the interest of historical inquiry.