D.I.Y. ARCHAEOLOGY a.k.a. GIRLS WHO DIG ROCK!!!!!!!!

So what I didn't mention in my last post about the turn of the century bottle dump that I stumbled upon was this. And I wasn't going to mention it until I checked it out to find it either a) whole or b) broken. I spotted this the very first day I went to this place, IN the river. Of course that day my clothes were too nice to go tromping around the river, and even though I returned the next day...the thought of trying to haul this thing UP the riverbank if it was even whole just filled my head with thoughts of yet another shattered screw up. And since I left it for a good 4 days, I didn't want anyone beating me to it. (HEY, THERE'S A CROCK IN THE RIVER IN MOOSUP, I DON'T KNOW WHEN I CAN GET IT)...yeah...fantastic idea. So I kept quiet.

And there the little crock sat, half buried in the river muck. Let me say though that this crock isn't exactly little. lol. So I went back yesterday, promising myself that I wasn't going to dig for any other bottles and it would only take me like 15 minutes and I would be done. I was going to get it, bring it up the bank, I would return home and I could shower and do dishes. Oh...the perfect plans of mice and men...
So here I am, digging in the river. Dig dig dig. Over an hour later...dig dig dig... The damn thing would NOT come out. It was full of rocks and muck and it was buried pretty deep...though as much as I pulled on it, it didn't come out...which told me one thing: this baby is whole. If it were only half a crock I could have pulled it out right away. Finally I pulled it up...son of a bitch it WAS whole! No holes, no chips...and it was HEAVY. I was all shaky from the adrenalin of digging this thing and from being bent over for an hour, so then once I got it to shore, I couldn't lift it over my head! So "I'm going to hand this up the bank to you" became "ok, can you meet me half way? oh lulz still can't lift it".

Well somehow, I got it up the bank without dropping it or breaking it, or without breaking my neck. I had to put it in a large canvas sack, but that worked very well. I carried it on my lap for the whole ride home. No way was this thing going to roll around in my trunk!
Yeah, I'm proud of it. Even if it's not worth much.
Here it is before I started cleaning it...
And after! Still not done yet, in fact it's not going to be easy to clean the part that was exposed to the river for a good century...but WOW. Wow.

As I was cleaning it, I thought back to when I was 9 and so sure that I was going to be an archaeologist when I grew up. Well I'm not...but pretty close. And it feels SO good. :D