At this point, this definitely isn't dull - although I'm probably dull since I keep digging... What I thought was the bottom slab of my supposed antique poor man's cooler sounds hollow and has stone sides that extend below it.
This is a follow-up on this post. I kept digging because I wondered why the brickwork extended so far down for no obvious reason.
Today was a warm day, and the now-exposed frozen ground had thawed enough that I could finally dislodge the rest of the bricks. I found a whole lot more bricks, and some properly ancient wood shoring slats - black and almost completely decomposed, unlike the slats I found above them on Sunday. Half of the bricks and the black wood slats were completely surrounded by thick tree roots, so they've been in the ground at least long enough for that former birch tree to grow 6 inches in diameter.
This is what I dug out today:
I think I got all the bricks out - either whole or as shards I dug out of the tree roots. And so I tried to lift the slab, and... I couldn't because there are solid walls all around below it. This is the top of a stone box. And it sounds hollow when I hit it with a steel bar.
At this point, I'm well below the level of the lake. The water starts pooling at the bottom of the hole when I dig around the box:
I'd say whatever hollow space exists under the slab is probably no more then 4 or 5" above the lake water, which is probably what I'll find when I lift it. Like I said in the other post, the lake used to be lower. But now whatever this mystery space is has probably been underwater for at least 15 years.
I'm gonna have to call a friend or two to deal with this further: whatever is there isn't budging, and I can't dig this far down: I have a disability and I don't have enough balance to stand down there and dig this low down.
So, stay tuned to find out what's hiding in the mystery stone box 🙂
Did people dig holes into the ground to keep ice around for longer?
That was common back in the day. At least where I grew up - winters get cold and lakes are everywhere so it is easy to go out on the lake in january and get a bunch of ice. Since it is winter the rest of the farm has nothing growing so this is one of the few things you could do in 1870.
Probably means like the old ice cream hole we had in our backyard when I was a kid. Every Sunday Mom would let us dig up the ice cream hole to see what kinds of flavors we could scoop out.
Before fridges you had to go to Canada for ice, and they'd cut big blocks, ship it around packed in saw dust. You'd have an ice hole in your back yard or basement and yeah, pack enough grass and shit and the ice would stick around.