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The equipment arrived! We were able to put in a good half day of excavating today, and had a great start. We opened up a new excavation unit, to the northwest of some of the units we opened last summer – just off of the southwest corner of the house. The two adjacent units were excavated last summer, where we found what appears to be 19th century trash related to the kitchen – including the yellow ware pie plate and ironstone tea/coffee service fragments currently on display within the Gage House. The new plan for the woodshed addition will be wider than it was initially planned – in order to keep the same square footage of the addition, without impacting with the foundation found last year – and this new unit is located approximately where the HVAC units for the addition will be located.
What we found in the new unit is similar to what we found in the adjacent units last year – below a thick layer of pea-sized gravel, we found numerous artifacts, including a wine glass or water goblet base; part of a crockery lid with a molded floral design; lots of glass – from windows, bottles, tablewares, and lamps; and part of what was probably a hat pin, with a harp at the decorative end (perhaps a symbol of Ireland?). Pretty good for our first day excavating! This shows us that this area of the yard has not been too disturbed by later yard uses, and helps add one more piece of the puzzle to our understanding of how the back yard as it currently looks came to be. We’ll be back out tomorrow, for a long day – 8-4pm as usual, plus we’ll be back on site for the Manlius Chamber of Commerce function held at the Gage House in the evening, from 5:30-7:30pm. In other news, News Channel 3 (NBC) will be coming out to do a story on the project next week. I should start prepping my tv poise…