It's never too late to make a New Year's Resolution. I've decided this year I'm going to dig, dig, dig, dig...like all those other insulator collectors. They're the ones that are finding threadless insulators by the baskets full. I've always got a couple extra hours on every other Saturday to waste. I don't really need to hog all the threadless for myself anyway. I don't need a ton of threadless so 4 hours a month should satisfy my needs. I'll bet in 2 hours I could dig like a 3 foot hole without working up a sweat. The hardest part would be loading up the insulators. I'd park next to where I'm digging so I wouldn't have to haul the new found booty all that far. I imagine lots of time would be spent grading the threadless you had dug...mint...very new mint...displays mint...amber...rootbeer amber...honey amber...caramel...Boy, just thinking about this has got my juices flowing. I can hardly wait for the next sunny and warm Saturday to come around.

This resolution was not flash in the pan, I've been planning to dig seriously since attending the November Mid-Ohio Insulator Show. The Roosevelt/Harding Olympic Digging Team showed off some of their current finds...minutes later the New York consortium pulled in with some strange looking pieces. I assume they left all the mint threadless at home cause they didn't want them to get scratched on the trip? I did manage to take a sip from the Roosevelt/Harding well of knowledge.

I've committed a few facts to memory and I'd like to share them with you. This is a minute fraction of knowledge these guys have literally "dug up". I now know the poles on the Xenia, Dayton and Little Miami Railway right-of-way were set at 80 paces apart unless of course you're on the Western branch which had pole spacing of 65 paces. You must keep in mind the portion along the Little Miami River was washed out in 1865 so the lead switched sides of the mainline...and the poles spacing was set at 75 paces. How do those guys know that??? Do you suppose these guys are spending more than 4 hours a month in the field?? I know the New York team is looking and digging just as hard.

My hat goes off to those guys!! They are doing us all a favor... without them we wouldn't be adding those threadless to our collections. I wish I had the desire and fire they have to dig every spare minute like they do. Keep up the good work, we'll look forward to your revelations at the next insulator show.