Don’t pull on an item you are attempting to excavate from the dirt, in an attempt to free it more quickly.
Especially don’t do so when not in possession of these facts: the size of the object, and thus the extent to which it is still buried; the tensile strength of the object; a good working guess as to the presence of other, possibly sharp, heavy, explosive, and/or gross items near or attached to your find; and the item’s possible value as evidence.
Most especially, do not pull on something long, thin, and/or fragile, because as sure as taxes, it will come suddenly loose, ripping up three feet of mud and assorted debris before snapping off in your hand.
This will send you staggering backward several steps to sit down hard on your keister, to the accompaniment of a blast of multilingual invective that will awe, astonish, and possibly anger your audience (some of whom are no more in favor of women cussing than my mama was). It will also demonstrate to you that the International Land Speed Record for Snapping a Cell Phone Camera Picture of Vorbau Doing Something Again prize will be divided between a colleague you once considered a friend and a locally based preteen in shower sandals, who is quite capable of outrunning you even in such handicapping footwear.
This will also result in the discovery that there are worse things than hot brass and dead maggots to find in your bra when you clean up at the end of the day.
Vorbau
