Tuesday, February 22, 2011

1896 Fruit Jar

Since nobody was able to guess what exactly we found in our yard....

Our little piece of history found in the dirt is: the lid to an old fruit canning jar. It sounds like these jars are dating sometime between 1896 and 1908 when the Illinois Glass Company (or De Steiger Glass Co.) produced their last of that style. So, at the very youngest this lid is 103 years old! The advertisement says:

          "For ease in sealing and opening without wrench, its absolutely hermetic joint, durability 
           and elegance, this package has no peer. "

It's pretty crazy to think the dirt we just turned over has been hiding an object for over 100 years. If only we could dig a little deeper...



Sunday, February 20, 2011

Moving Dirt, Finding History

There hasn't been much action at 765 as far as house projects go as of late. Any extra minute seems to be spent doing something for the wedding.This isn't much exception. A friend of ours that has a landscaping business happened to have a job on our street that included a dingo, a machine that turns ripping out grass from a day-long job to just a few minutes. Major score.

In place of grass? Flowers for the wedding. At least that's the plan, but for now we're waiting for a few days of no rain to lighten the load of the dirt.


{Cosmo wanted to help}

In the midst of tilling up the dirt and adding some good soil 'eagle eyes' spotted yet another historic treasure in the mound, but what it was exactly we were all stumped. After a bit of google research we found out not only what it, but also how old it really is. Before I post what the gem is I'm interested to see everybody else's guess is... (But please not cheating, googling or phoning-a-friend!)


{mystery object}