Our Once of Year Hunt of the Swimming Hole 08-23-2010

Well, it was that time of year again to take a day off work and head for a familiar swimming hole which brought us a lot of luck in the past. Last year, not so much since it was a cold and rainy summer. This year looked promising as we had a lot of hot days, surely it would pay off.

We got there nice and early, not another soul around. We quickly got started and a spot which normally paid off for us revealed NOTHING. Strange. We kept going along and nothing........... oh oh, I think someone else has been here before us. Finally, a nice sound coming through the headphones. We found a broken pair of sunglasses, bummer.

We kept going, found a penny here, a penny there.

Disappointing. As Bob went into deeper water I tought I'd play in the shallower water with the pinpointer. It started going off, it revealed a funky old earring full of stones. Bob called me over to him in deep water I couldn't stand in. Since he is over 6 feet tall, I just would swim down and do my digging while hanging on to his leg. We make a good team. The one hole produced a lot of change - nice!!

It started to get cold and after 2 hours Bob had to bail. I wanted to go over our hunt zone again and glad I did. I found a beatiful steel cross with a stone the middle.



So our final count was:

1 Steel Cross
1 small key
2 earrings (one hoop and one with stones)
1 pair of broken sunglasses (not shown)
$4.98 in change

A glass of Wine, Feeling Fine, time to Find some Treasures - 08-08-10

So, today was sort of a lazy day for us.
We woke up around 9am, had some breakfast, did some painting outside, went grocery shopping, had a late lunch including a glass of wine which made us very tired, called and talked to my mom on the phone and was just about to have a nap when the phone rang. It was cousin Steve wanting to know if we wanted to join in for an hour or two of detecting as the clouds outside were threatening rain. I suddenly jolted awake - YES YES YES, let's go!!

Off we went to a nearby school and Steve was on his own and Bob and I teamed up. Then the skies opened up. We retreated the cars and the downpour only lasted minutes and we decided to give it a try.

Here's Steve pinpointing a find.





Steve's total was $2.56.




He also found the remains of a watch that had obviously been run over by a lawnmower.




Our total was $3.86
We also found a key and a bracelet.






Upon further investigation there were markings on the inside of the bracelet, so I think it is safe to say it was Sterling Silver. It was approx. 3-4" deep, interesting it came up on the detector as a penny.

Civic Holiday = Pay Day! 08-02-2010

Today was a holiday Monday for us here in Ontario, Canada - Civic Holiday. My morning actually started off early, I was wide awake at 5am - EEEK!! So I got up and did some computer work until Bob woke up at 8:30am and after breakfast Bob played with his G-Scale Train and I painted up some Muskoka chairs and then it got hot, so we headed to Mom's pool for a dip, came home, had a 2-hour nap, got up had some supper and then it hit me, we had not metal detected in a looooooooooooooong time. I asked Bob to call up Cousin Steve and see what he was up to. His house always seemed to pay out nicely with older coins. Bob got Steve on the phone and he said we could come up.

Once we got there, Steve showed us a "cheaper" metal detector he had picked up and try out. No pinpointing feature, it didn't tell you how deep an item was and beeped at everything.

At first we found a bottle cap, a gun shell casing, a nail. Steve found some nails. I walked over to Steve and detected one of his holes to see what reading I was getting on something he got a solid hit on. The numbers came up negative and iron. I found a 70 reading nearby and marked it with a stick for him.

Steve and his find:

It ended up being a 1969 penny which appeared to have been used for target practice. Steve figures it was a handgun which was used on it. This penny was found near the side of the house about 2 inches down. He doesn't own one and no one in his family who lived in the house previously owned one. Very strange.

Bob and I had an awesome time hunting.

We first found bunch of firsts for us a 1899 Indian Head Penny, a 1918 US Dime, Canadian 1903 Penny, Canadian 1917 King George Nickel (such a cutie small thing). We also found what appears to be some sort of brooch or clip-on earring with a diamond looking stone in the center, 1951 US Penny, 1964 US penny, 1973 Canadian Penny, 1977 Canadian Penny and a 1982 Canadian Penny.

Close-up of the brooch or earring with the stone.

Close-up's of the front & backs of the older (first time finding) coins!

Overall, a totally excellent hunt and I think we only did hunt for 1 hour and 1/2.

We had been here before previously two or three times and have always found old unique items. We hope it keeps paying off for us, it is so fun searching Steve & Nadine's yard. :o)