Found a toy gun & dead at 40

It is weird having spare time after such a long stretch of being busy with selling the house.

It was Sunday afternoon and we were both sitting around on the edge of boredom when we decided to detect a nearby public school. We tried to scan this school last year but were scared off by teenagers. Not that we're generally scared of by teenagers. I just don't like answering questions and stopping for idol chit-chat.

We started detecting in the swing set pit. But found very little. We continued around the back of the school to the soccer field. Starting between the goal posts and walked center to center across the field.

Mary wanted to know why I preferred digging over detecting. As the big fluffy clouds soared by I knew the reason. Too many hours locked in an office and when I do get out I'm too busy watching traffic while I drive to enjoy nature around me. I love being outdoors and having the time to appreciate it.

Mary got a hit that was dead at 40 on the VDI scale. Normally metal jumps around through different numbers depending on its alloy. This was 40 and stayed at 40. We dug to reveal a brass scalloped shaped earring. Between the soccer field and the old baseball diamond is a shallow ditch. As we entered into this swale that our luck began to change. We pulled out a black metal cap gun missing it's barrel. Then we started finding a bunch of scattered coins including a 2-pence coin from England.

It was getting hot and we were starting to get burned so we returned to the sandpits and a big oak tree. There we found a metal buckle and a yellow dinky car deciding to call it a day after finding $1.04

School at Mud Bridge

This school isn't really at Mud Bridge. We just call it that because the last time we were here we then took the car to a place that is nicknamed "Mud Bridge".

It has been a long time since we detected. The sale of the house and moving out in less than a month occupied all our time. We are now living at Mary's mothers awaiting to get our new house this fall. Things have just started to settle down so we decided to get the old detector out and walk a school yard.

The grass was wet from recent rain and soon our socks and sneakers were soaked through. Mary was detecting as we walked around in the high clover that blanketed the soccer field. The ground was very quiet. We mainly walked only stopping a couple dozen times to dig. The earth was crumbling mud and made it hard to dig. My equipment and I soon became covered in mud.

Beside the baseball field I was digging and Mary went ahead to find the next spot. I had to call her back to re-scan my hole. This caused her to misplace where we wanted to dig next. She knew it was by an ant hole but we soon realized that the ant holes were everywhere. It was only a 12 reading on the detector indicating metal foil, but I was desperate for things to dig so we kept looking until we found it again. It paid off with a 10K gold ring with an ellipse shaped amethyst and 6 tiny diamond-like stones. We also found 58cents so you could say the ring was the biggest find (If you don't count the culvert Mary tried to get me to dig up).

Oldest coin yet

I've been craving to find an old coin from the 1800's. Our oldest coin so far is a quarter from 1956. Mary's mom Pat's friend Shelia's mom has property in Niagara-on-the-Lake. Through a series of phone calls we gained permission to detect her property. Mom picked us up in her van and the three of us went over. The yard was smaller than I hoped for but undaunted we systematically scanned that yard while mom talked to Shelia's mother. We found six things scanning both the front, back and boulevard: Nails, beer caps, bits of aluminium siding, chicken wire, a 1989 penny and lastly the OLDEST COIN YET!!!
I knew when I first plunked it from the ground that it was exceptional. As I wiped the dirt away I was greeted by King George's face. Recognizing the size of the coin as a nickle I cleared the other side to discover the date of 1938. Now perhaps we've received and older coin in our change from Tim Horton's in the past but to us this is a major find. Though our daily total is only 6 cents this was a great day and I glad we could get out.