OleSarge
Elite Member
This post ha been edited out by the OP.
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Privy Diving
- Thread starter OleSarge
- Start date
GLASSHOPPER1955
Elite Member
Yeah C'mon you diggers out East, how about some 8-12 footers with all those pontiled goodies? (Where I live we're lucky to find 5-6 footers).
jimther
Elite Member
Here's one privy-digging thread from 2019...
http://metaldetectingforum.com/showthread.php?t=276359&highlight=outhouse
http://metaldetectingforum.com/showthread.php?t=276359&highlight=outhouse
OleSarge
Elite Member
Searching is genetic.Privy diving is not a replacement for metal detecting, it is just something else to do while metal detecting. Before indoor plumbing the outhouse was a place visited once or twice a day nearly every day of the occupants life. Every few years it was necessary to put a cap of dirt on the old outhouse and dig a new one. Outhouses were also household refuse dumps, and when time came to cap the old one, household trash was usually thrown in before the hole was filled. Keep in mind that “trash” is something unused including what kids have outgrown.
Privy diving is a science, extremely difficult to do, and is always a good back-up for that farm stead, which you drove 40 miles to metal detect flops. Chances are there are a few pits within easy reach if you have the probe and know how to find that 100 year old privy.
Any one for dousing?
Privy diving is a science, extremely difficult to do, and is always a good back-up for that farm stead, which you drove 40 miles to metal detect flops. Chances are there are a few pits within easy reach if you have the probe and know how to find that 100 year old privy.
Any one for dousing?
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OleSarge
Elite Member
And, if you don’t want to dig the privy, at least learn how to find out where they were located in relation to the main house.When that midnight need strikes, and paw needs to get rid of that corn chowder real quick, he just throws on his bib coveralls, or maw throws on a house coat with a apron to tie it closed.Anything and everything in the bib pockets of paws coveralls falls out as he makes a run for the outhouse. The same thing happens to the milk money and old tokens maw had in her apron pouch. All you need to do is find the location of the main house, apply some privy technology to find the path, and those silvers are just a swing or two away.
GLASSHOPPER1955
Elite Member
Great info, OleSarge!
Just wanted to add that as many privys were in crowded city lots, there wasn't much room to relocate a full one, so there were "honeydippers" who would actually clean out the full privy taking the "sludge" away so the privy had a new life. Hardly a "fantasy" job!!
https://webcache.googleusercontent....-were-full-of-!!!!+&cd=17&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
Just wanted to add that as many privys were in crowded city lots, there wasn't much room to relocate a full one, so there were "honeydippers" who would actually clean out the full privy taking the "sludge" away so the privy had a new life. Hardly a "fantasy" job!!
https://webcache.googleusercontent....-were-full-of-!!!!+&cd=17&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
OleSarge
Elite Member
Today’s sewer processing plants have a catch basin with a large machine named a “masticator” because it chews up garbage which would plug the system and harm the pumps. A job.....often done on a overtime basis because it is done during low flush periods of the night, is to clean the debris from the settling pond, and make it ready for the next day. It is a very well paying job but is usually left vacant because it is a perk for volunteers because they usually make more from selling what they find in the settling pond than their normal pay.
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OleSarge
Elite Member
On rainy, gloomy days, instead of doing something like crawling around in wet, cold, dog poop scented mud to find a zinc penny, use the time to study up on things which may be fun, but are little understood.
How very true that outhouse holes had to be dug below the freezing line, but I cannot imagine everyone digging a privy, considering they had animals to hunt, cows, pigs and sheep to care for, a house to maintain, and possibly a nagging wife pushing them to “hurry”, any deeper than necessary.
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OleSarge
Elite Member
In the 1950’s, before we had inside plumbing, out two stooler was hinged to fold to the rear so that the pit could be dipped out. To my recollection, the bounty of that harvest was dumped directly into the vegetable garden.
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OleSarge
Elite Member
I’m breaking my own rule here regarding stepping on another OP’s thread by changing the subject amid-stride. But, since I’m the thread OP, I give myself permission.
I covertly snooped your threads and posts and I note you appear to be as enthralled by old bottles and glass as you are by a alchemists dreams.
What I’m wondering is if you do focalized searches for your glass treasures or is it something you do concurrent with using your metal detector.
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woodbutcher
Forum Supporter
Old outhouses are plentiful here in western Pennsylvania..lol. Anymore it seems people paint em up and turn them into yard deco. See them all the time on my different job sites,took some pics yesterday of one to send home,she gets a kick out of them..This one has a square hole cut into the side,wonder if it was for passing toilet paper through?
Attachments
amc rulz
Forum Supporter
Re purposed as a back-yard coop?
GLASSHOPPER1955
Elite Member
I once wrote in these pages (maybe more) that when I started by getting my first detector (Jetco Mustang!) in Summer '69, at 14 years old, I really didn't know *WTH* I was doing or looking for. I detected a 30" spot of signal in the yard behind a friend's aunt's 1865 house. First found some early blobtop necks, etc. then a whole bottle which was a local quart beer with a "slugplate" embossing, which IMMEDIATELY hooked me, as I love history anyway. Then found a bunch more "trash pits" (not really privys there) and the hobby just sort of grew. Nowdays I consider myself more bottle digger/collector than detectorist. I've done much better through the years finding antique bottles than old coins/artifacts/gold/silver. Now, with what I've learned about finding bottles in the wild, I mostly just look for telltale signs of glass/dumps etc. and yes, I research at the library using their materials (such as Sanborn maps) too. I also should say the bottle probe goes almost everywhere I go.
Hope this answers your question.
A friend of mine is a former extension agent. He reconstructed the old family outhouse, with a pit below, and stocked it with vintage "Ag statistics" books and a basket of corn cobs... if you know what those were for. 
I might need to pick up a few now that corn harvest is underway - just in case t.p. ends up in short supply again...
I might need to pick up a few now that corn harvest is underway - just in case t.p. ends up in short supply again...
GLASSHOPPER1955
Elite Member
A friend of mine is a former extension agent. He reconstructed the old family outhouse, with a pit below, and stocked it with vintage "Ag statistics" books and a basket of corn cobs... if you know what those were for.
The Sears catalog was also "handy" way back when.
