Yesterday Kelly and I stayed late after our church service in order to help out with some of the yard work. I guess we needed the distraction and it was nice to do something constructive rather than something meaningless. The toughest part (and the part we were specifically asked to do) was preparing an area where a new row of hedges will soon be planted. The head of the property committee (I am a member) asked me to use the rotor tiller we keep at the church to help break up the dry, packed soil. So I did, and Kelly assisted me by raking and shoveling out all of the loose soil.
That was a lawn, so all of the dirt you see is dirt we scooped out of that trench. Once we got down about six or eight inches we started hitting all sorts of rock, which slowed us down considerably, as did the large number of roots from a nearby oak tree.
We also found some small bits of man-made materials like brick fragments and a few pieces of what appeared to be porcelain. Kelly found the piece in the photo below.
At some point we will have to try going over the area with a metal detector or something. Who knows what we might find? After all, the church has been on the site since 1868, and before that the area was a farm. Brookline is a pretty old town, so potentially things could be found well in excess of 300 years old, and older if the area was occupied by Native Americans.
Afterward, we were treated to lunch at a local Irish pub that has really good food. So it was a good day, even if we were still worried about the family medical issues in the back of our minds.
-Geoff
The Books are Taking Over... 