I "dig" these artifacts.

[Greg G.]

I haven't been hunting for phones for a while, mostly due to other interests that come when the weather turns nice, plus I just don't have any more room.

We stayed home on July 4th and caught up with some projects.  I dug out a flower bed so we could plant some bulbs.  One side of the flower bed had to be dug into a high spot in order to make it level. While I was digging, I came across a pile of rockery type rocks of various sizes.  Some of them were so old they broke apart when I tried to dig them up.  I also dug up a couple  hot-wheel toys, shards of terra-pottery, and in interesting looking gear of some sort.  Makes me wonder what else is just under the surface.

The gear got me curious as to what it may have belonged to in the past.  I'm going to guess perhaps it's a vintage automotive gear?  It's currently in a bath of CLR.

[jsowers]

Those cars look more like Tootsietoys. I had both Tootsietoys and Hot Wheels as a kid in the 1960s, but these look to be more like 1950s vintage.

The rocks are also nice. You could clean them off and use them as edging to your flower bed, which may be what they were used for many years ago. My mom used large stones from a stone wall that was being dismantled as edging to her garden beds and they have a lot of character and they last indefinitely and don't look out of place.

[Greg G.]

Those cars look more like Tootsietoys. I had both Tootsietoys and Hot Wheels as a kid in the 1960s, but these look to be more like 1950s vintage.

The rocks are also nice. You could clean them off and use them as edging to your flower bed, which may be what they were used for many years ago. My mom used large stones from a stone wall that was being dismantled as edging to her garden beds and they have a lot of character and they last indefinitely and don't look out of place.

The largest rock (the one the cars are sitting on) was used for the flower bed, and I kept the others too for future use.  We had some rocks that used to be around a tree we had cut down a couple of years ago, I used them around the flower bed.  If those toy cars are from the 50s, they aren't the first I've found.  I found a couple in the duct work when we had it cleaned out a couple of years ago.

[jsowers]

That red car is a 1954 or 55 Buick. I can tell by the sweepspear at the side and the hardtop roofline.

[LarryInMichigan]

It looks like a child who lived in that house 60 years ago may have had a habit of burying things.  Hopefully, his habit was limited to toys and other innocuous items.

Larry

[Kenton K]

The gear might be from a bike or something similar. Kind of looks like a chain went on it.

Kk

[TelePlay]

The gear might be from a bike or something similar. Kind of looks like a chain went on it.

Yes, small chain sprocket. That's it!

[HarrySmith]

Maybe time to buy a metal detector and see what else is there?

[TelePlay]

Maybe time to buy a metal detector and see what else is there?

Harry,

Good point. Remember that homeowner in California who got to keep the unexpectedly found booty?

[WEBellSystemChristian]

My family was cleaning out my grandparent's house to get it sold, and I found a bunch of TootsieToy cars from my dad when he was little. One was a '57 F100, and the other was a '55 Bel Air.

10 or so years ago, my grandma dug up several dozen toy soldiers in her garden. My uncle loved to play War there when he was 8-10 years old, but she didn't discover the toys until 40 years later!

[Dan/Panther]

The yellow car, looks exactly like the cars on my Marx o gauge car carrier. My guess also, the sprocket is bicycle.

Dan

[Greg G.]

Maybe time to buy a metal detector and see what else is there?

Not all objects of value would register, such as old bottles or even more of those rocks which I could use.

[twocvbloke]

All I've dug up so far is broken bits of glass panes and a burnt out lightbulb that someone tried throwing in a fire...

[Greg G.]

Yes, small chain sprocket. That's it!

Bike gear is correct.  I posted it on an antique bike forum:

New Departure Model D rear coaster brake, 10 cog, 1' pitch. Model D was used 1930s-1950s

[19and41]

The little town I grew up in was dominated by a few glass factories and broken up chunks of glass in all different colors and even swirled up mixtures of colors were buried all around the town and outlying areas.  those were always fun to dig up.