Metal detecting finds 4-1-17...

...a bunch of junk.  The best bits, in my opinion, are the three partial metal car toys, including the half of a light blue die cast car.

This was from an 80-year-old back yard.  I also found three pennies, all of them 1970s or later.

This was my first metal detecting excursion in a long time.  I guess it's been close to a year? I'm not sure.

Metal Detecting 4-24-15

Last Friday I spent a few hours metal detecting near the house of a lady Kim works with.  In the first couple of minutes, I hit a nice signal by the back walkway, and started digging.  About an inch down I uncovered the grave marker for Copper the dog (1965 - 1969), and decided that I had better move to another spot. ("Oh, yes!" said the lady who owns the property, when I mentioned it to her later. "The previous owner had three dogs. They're all by the sidewalk.")

I surveyed different spots around the yard. I found four pennies, a dime, a wing nut, a bolt, a nail, two pull tabs, several bits of gutter flashing and can slaw (I hate gutter flashing and can slaw).  Finally, right before I left, I found this quarter-dollar:

This first photo I took because it's the first 2015 coin I have found.  Looking through the change, there were quite a few more, so I guess they have been around and I just didn't notice them.  I think this Homestead Monument quarter has a nice design; almost-but-not-quite symmetrical, rather bold, nice textures without being too busy. I've seen better, but as far as our recent quarters go this one is one of the good ones.

I found this in change and thought it was funny because it sure looks like it was found by a metal detectorist. Discolored, dirt-encrusted, like the ones I pull out of the ground. Someone dug this up in the recent past, I bet.

And speaking of which, I did some detecting for the first time in many months. A couple of months ago, as I was entering my house, I dropped a large coin--either a half dollar or a dollar. It hit the concrete one time (Kim and I both heard it) and then disappeared. I thought it must have fallen into the snow.

So a few days ago, I got out the detector and searched all around our porch and sidewalk. I did not find my big coin, but I did find $.68 (including the quarter and a few pennies from the back yard).  Some of it is from the past ten years, so it was lost by our family; some of it had been there longer, I am sure. I never have thoroughly searched our yard, so I am sure there is more change around.

...But where did that big coin go? I think it might be lodged up against the porch or in the bushes where I can't get to it, and where it's masked from my metal detector by its proximity to the downspout, underground pipes, buried scraps of gutter flashing, etc. Darn it! Maybe it will turn up. I think it was a big ol' Eisenhower dollar, so it should have been hard for it to hide.

Site-hunting

Once again, I’ve been spending some time cross-referencing features on an old map, satellite photos of the same area as it exists today, and a park map.  I’m looking for places to metal detect, but the detective work involved itself is lots of fun for me.

The area I’m looking at is near the old farm buildings in my last post. The 1879 map, of which I show one close-up here, shows four different home sites in the woods. I think either A or B closely corresponds with the bird’s-eye view below it, in which you can see some kind of building remains in the trees.

 Here's is a broader view of the area, on which I drew a circle around the location of the site above. I think the house sites for A. Drescher, Stephen Jones, and W. Ellingsworth are close by in the trees south of the circle.

I really want to check out this area, and plan to go as soon as I get the chance. It won't be quick: this spot is about a mile through the woods from my parking spot to the southwest. It's hard to find the time. I have two art projects, plus Christmas planning, and family weekend events. I also need to clean the gutters, clean the house, and finish off the mowing and raking for the year. I'd love to go out there this weekend while the weather is decent...we'll see.

edited to add: I just realized I drew the orange circle in the wrong spot, a little too far NE.

Here's what I'm pretty sure is a former home site in a local park, in a thicketed area. I think this thing is a coal furnace, and it's the only thing left mostly intact from the house that once stood here. It now rests in a stone-lined cellar hole. There is lots of debris in the area: Scraps of iron pipe, nails, metal sheeting. It makes it a hard place to hunt, and the thick brush and trees make it inaccessible except during the cold months. I took these pictures a few weeks ago, and I'm sure that by now it would be impossible to get into.