New House Blog: Episode CIII - Excavating The Mounds

Fair warning:  This Episode contains a lot of pictures, and is of considerable length.  In order to not be overwhelmed with excellent exposition, you should be sure to pace yourself and not rush ahead faster than your brain can process all of the following words and imagery.

We had two earthen mounds in our back yard, and although I thought they added some character to the yard, our realtor suggested removing them and planting the area with grass, so as to make the yard more attractive to prospective house-buyers.  The landscaper recommended by said realtor wanted money to remove said mounds, but we did not want to pay; so, as archaeologists do all over the UK, we decided to excavate these earthen mounds ourselves.

Excavation 1

Unlike the mounds found all over the UK, our earthen mounds were not that old, and we know exactly how and when they were formed, and by whom.  You may recall that in this Episode, and this Episode, we installed some paver paths in our back yard.  Before we could actually lay the pavers we had to dig up a bunch of dirt, and this dirt ended up in two earthen mounds in our back yard.  Over the years used planter soil was added, and the mounds grew slightly.

Here you can see the beginning of the excavating of Mound #1.  As we excavated Mound #1 we discovered a lot of artifacts - more on that later.

More of Mound #1's excavation.  Notice the ancient solar lights on top of the mound.

Mound #1 has been excavated down to roughly the level of the lawn, and you can see Mound #2 in the background.









Cute Cat Interlude 1

Daisy is coming home from the vet.



















Excavation 2

After excavating Mound #1 we excavated Mound #2.

We discovered a lot of artifacts buried in Mound #2, also.

This is the view after both mounds were excavated, but before the grass seed was sown.

Where did we put all of the excavated mound dirt?  We did what the clever prisoners did in the excellent film, The Great Escape, and spread it around various parts of the yard, filling in low spaces or evening out uneven spaces or such-like.  Unlike the clever prisoners in said movie, however, we did not distribute the dirt via clever hidden pockets in our trousers.

This photo was taken just a couple of days ago, after a couple weeks of daily watering (and hoping that our newly-sown grass seed would grow).  From certain angles it is starting to look pretty good.



Cute Cat Interlude 2

Miles enjoys stretching out on the bed.











So Many Faceplates

On the advice of one of our realtor's contractors, we decided to replace all of our old-style, but functional, light switches with new-style, but functional, light switches, and matching faceplates.  The process was about the same for all of our switches and faceplates, so we'll focus on just one junction box - our infamous triple-switch box.

Here you can see the old-style switches.  The left controls the outside light, the right is a 3-way switch that controls the stairway light, and the middle controls nothing, as far as we can tell.

After turning off power to these switches, and after removing the faceplate we can see the switches clearly.  The next step is unscrewing the actual switches.

Just look at that mess o' wiring.  The next step is disconnecting each switch and updating splicing as necessary.

What in the world is this?!  No wonder that center switch does nothing.

These are the new light switches, and faceplate.  In the end we decided to leave the center switch as a dummy switch.















Cute Cat Interlude 3

Edgar was feeling particularly sleepy on this day.
















Excavation 3

While preparing the ground formerly under Mound #1 for seed we discovered a large ancient artifact.

You can just see the edge of the artifact.  We discovered this while I was using Winston to loosen the dirt for the new grass seed.  Winston's head encountered something solid and cement-like just below the surface of the dirt.

We were pleased to discover one more cement post foundation.  Upon further investigation and excavation we have come to believe that this is another artifact from the little-known Old Ones (first discussed in this Episode).

We discovered this post foundation very close to where we discovered another Old Ones post foundation.

Also, the general size and construction are consistent with the two known Old Ones post foundations that we have previously discovered.

As a reminder, all of the evidence we have uncovered shows that the Old Ones pre-date the pre-Bishopians.









Cute Cat Interlude 4

Satchmo loves to go outside in his harness, and it looks very sharp on him.  He also likes to eat the grass.
















Excavation 4

In addition to planting and watering in the back yard, we planted and watered new grass seed in the front yard.

After about two weeks of daily watering (and hoping) it looks decent, from certain points of view.









Cute Cat Interlude 5

You are looking down from above as Daisy gets into the treat bag containing the yummy dried fish bits.

















BYA Extravaganza

As mentioned above, we found a lot of artifacts while we were excavating the two earthen mounds.

We start with this selection of random metal bits.  I believe the decaying battery at the top may be from one of the many solar lights we planted on Mound #1.  I'm not sure how I missed that big chunk of rusty rebar when we dug up the dirt during the paver path project.  Another puzzle is the deck screw at the bottom.  It has a modern torx head, but doesn't match any screws in use at our Bay Area House.

This appears to be an ID tag of some sort, made of some kind of lightweight whitish metal.

These timber fragments may be further evidence of pirate activity, or just part of an ancient pier or port.

Here we have some random plastic bits.  At bottom left we see a cheap imitation of a LEGO knock-off.  The packaging at the right appears to have some kind of writing on it.  We have not determined if it is from one of the Asian languages, or from an unknown extraterrestrial language.

We also discovered a large, mostly-intact segment from the tile mosaic we re-assembled in this Episode.  We have not yet determined exactly where this segment fits into the larger mosaic work.

We know that these soldiers are Rambownian in origin, and not pre-Bishopian.  We believe that their mission was to capture Mound #1, but instead Mound #1 captured them.

This pre-Bishopian red brick was discovered while loosening up the soil in the front yard for new grass seed.

Here it is, fully excavated and extracted - just a random red brick buried in our front yard by a little-understood people.








Cute Cat Finale

Satchmo exploring 'neath the avocado tree.













He really does look sharp in that
    bIsh