I spent a couple of hours digging a friend's yard in Brunswick, Maine this afternoon. It was a lovely sunny spring day and I had been helping her clear brush and other yard work beforehand. The neighborhood was built in the 1970's so I didn't expect old coins or relics. I did find a lot of modern coins along the road frontage: 10 pennies, 3 dimes and a quarter. It's funny how you find coins along the frontages of residential neighborhoods. An elderly neighbor stopped by and observed that I wouldn't find anything in the front yard because there had not been any kids living there. Well, 38 cents begs to differ. Then I wandered into the back yard and kept finding big iron signals that when dug up looked like old farm equipment parts. My friend explained that her elderly widower neighbor that I had met earlier had lived next door for 65 years, and his house was the original farm house in the neighborhood. So that explains the old farm parts! I'll have to get permission to dig his property next! The dirt was all dark moist loam - perfect for detecting, and it was a really enjoyable start to the season for me.
The crocus are just pushing up here in Maine and we have had several days of wet weather, so the ground is quite muddy which is great for detecting. Finally, the sun came out in the afternoon and I went for a quick dig around my property to "get back in the swing" of detecting.
The lawn is just greening in a bit and I wandered back into the woods and around the side of the house and found a few neat items.
The bolt is huge! 1 inch diameter - no idea what it is from - maybe farm equipment? There was a young boy living here 20 years ago and I have found a number of toy cars like the Viper Van pictured. It is interesting to see that they become filled with dirt that is really hard to get out even with my ultrasonic cleaner. It was a nice start to the year though. I have lined up some great permissions on rural and suburban properties and will have more to share soon.
It has been months since the ground froze hard here in Maine, and I'll have to wait until April before I can dig again. So All I can do is look at all my "treasure", and enjoy the memories.
Last year I found a number of keys, mostly on the flea market site that I was detecting on throughout the year.
Among the modern keys were some from out of state like this one from Chicago:
I looked up the address, and that location is now the site of the Wintrust Arena.
The other interesting out of state key is this "Handy Harry" from 54 6th AVE N.Y.:
The address appears to be a brownstone in Brooklyn now. I imagine it may have been a small key shop a while back.
Here's one Made by Hudson Key from New Rochelle NY:
Then there is this USPS box box key that could be from anywhere:
I also particularly like this tiny keyhole that may have been from a jewelry box:
I can't imagine how tiny the key would have been!
And here are a couple of regular brass keyholes:
And finally a few skeleton keys that may be from relatively recent boxes:
I'm wrapping up my digging season today (December 1, 2018). This ends my first year of detecting and it has been a great journey. I think I have logged over 200 hours of detecting, recovered 2 gold rings, and found amazing relics and coins. I'll let the video take it from here:
I haven't been out digging for a month now, mostly because I have been busy with work (I design electronic products for a living, mostly). But also because it snowed several inches before Thanksgiving and the ground froze, so I mothballed my equipment. Today however, the snow all melted and the ground thawed to the point of being muddy. I decided to go out in the hay field across from my home. I have not had high expectations for this field, but then I watch Jocelyn (Relic Recoverist) and Drew's (Naughty Dog Treasures) YouTube videos and realize that they always find cool stuff way out in open fields along the East Coast. So I figured "Why not" today and roamed out in the fields going with the vibe of what felt right.
My first finds were some old square nails and a big steel chunk that looks like it was part of haying equipment. But then as I worked out farther I got a strong signal that read as long an narrow. It was part of an aluminum hunting arrow. I found parts of 3 arrows all broken up in the same area. They were angled down ranging from a few inches to over 9" deep. Maybe they were lost to target practice, or someone trying to bag a deer and missing? A little further on I came across this dead mole. It looks quite large and hopefully died of old age. It looks very peaceful.
I worked my way up to the top of the rise at the highest point in the field where I had found rifle shells, can slaw and lots of pull tabs in the past - this was a picnic spot at some point. I took the picture below looking back across the field to my house that is hidden in the woods.
Shortly after I took this picture, I got a good strong silver signal and pulled up this silver ring. It is junk jewelry that tests as 80% silver. It was made from a strip and bent around and joined and the pattern does not match. There is no makers mark.
A little later I found this steel ring that was probably from horse tack.
It was great to get out on a relatively warm, sunny day, even though it was rather muddy! This is the latest in the season that I have dug since I don't like digging in cold or snow. I'll be doing a season wrap-up next that highlights my favorite finds of the year.
I'm back to the 1700s property. The owner clarified for me that the original 60 X 80ft. barn built in the mid 1700s is no longer there, and the house was built in the early 1800s. This was after I had spent 2 hours digging around the new barn attached to the house. They had built this in the late 1990s and it's an nicely made barn that they seem to use for working on boats. They have a lot of boats large and small. Here's a view of the barn and the area I was digging.
I kept hoping for coins or buttons, but all I got was big signals of iron and steel. I put them on some cut stumps next to the barn as I found them.
Mostly scrap flashing, brackets and pipe from old buildings, but also a heavy wheel and something resembling a lamp part.
The interesting finds are this 1934 Maine license plate.
And this heavy cast iron piece looks like a wood stove part.
These will go in the pile of scrap steel that I'm accumulating along the side of my barn. Someday I hope to recycle this stuff.
I'll go back and explore around where they say the original mid 1700s barn was as soon as the weather is amenable, the next few days will be rainy again.
The weather was warm enough and not raining for a change so I went back to the early 1800s farm house near me that has an attached barn built in the 1990s. This time I stuck close to the barn and found more signals than I had time to dig. But I definitely got a few goodies. The dirt is loose and easy to dig, but I had to go over 6" to get most of today's finds.
Big pieces of steel and copper from the barn and a huge square steel nut. I'm not sure what the spoons are made of, but they are very soft and seem to have been plated originally. The best find for me was the second crotal bell that I have ever found. The clapper is missing so it does not ring, but it's a beauty with fancy decoration. This is definitely bronze and not brass.
I showed it to the property owner and she was intrigued, we both hoped it would ring. I cleaned the dirt out in her work sink, but sadly the clappers in crotal bells tend to be steel and rust out. But when I showed her the oarlock, she recognized it immediately as one she had lost about 15 years ago when she was pressure washing a dinghy. She still has the matching one and was glad to have this back - after I cleaned and photographed it.
I also found a small sterling owl pin.
I'm hoping to go back tomorrow since the weather is giving us a break between rain and wind for a bit.
