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Archeological adventures at home

Posted on May 19th, 2008 – 8:32 AM
By Robyn Dochterman

One of the things I love about digging in the dirt is what I find…besides dirt (and snakes and frogs). This weekend, I dug up a metal Hot Wheels car with 1977 and Hong Kong stamped on its underside. A cute little coupe (it turned out to be a Ferrari Racebait 308), I couldn’t help but wonder who lost their toy and in what circumstances.

GGdirtcar.jpg

Last year, while digging a hole to plant a tree, I found a rusted pocket knife. At our last house, I found even more interesting items, including most of a lead camel (that still has me scratching my head) and many old marbles.

Have you found any interesting non-plant items in your yard or garden? Little reminders of who had their hands in the dirt before us? Did you save them?

8 Responses to "Archeological adventures at home"

Edude says:

May 19th, 2008 at 10:44 am

Cool car. Perhaps thats what my parents did with all my old toys… buried them in the garden.

Jaime Chismar says:

May 19th, 2008 at 12:19 pm

Hee! Brian and I also found Hot Wheels when we were digging our raised beds:
http://ww3.startribune.com/blogs/greengirls/2005/06/06/greengirl-splendor-in-the-straw/

Robyn Dochterman says:

May 19th, 2008 at 1:27 pm

Someday, other civilizations will know us only by our abandoned Hot Wheels. And they’ll think we’re really really small people.

Chris says:

May 19th, 2008 at 2:02 pm

I remember losing one of my favorite hot wheels cars in my grandma’s garden in the early 80s…I bet it’s still there.

sparklegirl says:

May 19th, 2008 at 4:08 pm

My next-door neighbor, Seza (who also loves the Greengirls blog!), was recently told that the former owner of her home buried a stolen car in the front lawn. We’re both a little skeptical, but she’s planning to plant a tree there this year, so I guess we’ll see if she finds anything interesting while digging!

gina says:

May 19th, 2008 at 10:06 pm

i found an old raggedy spoon which I blogged about. Thanks for posting the picture of the car!

Heidi says:

May 20th, 2008 at 8:15 am

I once found a small bottle. It’s really cute. Now I use it for small buds. My 6 yr old has taken to burying random objects. I wonder who will uncover those in years to come.

Pete says:

June 2nd, 2008 at 4:57 pm

I pulled up a red-flyer type wagon when I ran new power to my garage last year, as well as a hefty brass hose nozzle. It’s taken a long time to get all the dirt out from the inside, but it works!