Old Home Sites x 2, Railroad Station Site & 1924 School Site

[ANTIQUARIAN]

I met up with pepperj on Thursday for a hunt at a couple of his site permissions. We haven’t detected these sites since the spring and have been anxiously waiting for the crops to come off the fields. The first site we hit was a now long gone home site, where I found the early ball button. We then traveled down the road to the site where the old railway station once stood; this is where I found the horse bell and a lead mailbag seal. The lead seal reads, "Canada ER Custom". The 'ER' is for the King / Royal Mail Canada. The next site was a new permission pepperj had just received. According to the farmer, “there used to be an old wooden framed house here and that, it had bulldozed into the creek 30 years ago”. Well, we found the remains of the house, which is now just a pile of lumber at the bottom of a hill near the creek. I found the brass horse buckle and a bone handled knife here, pepperj found a couple of cool looking lead soldiers!

In the pictures, you can see pepperj digging a target at the station site and the farmer arriving to remove the remaining beans from the field where the wood framed house once stood. The 1924 school site I detected on Friday morning and all I got for my efforts was a 1940’s penny spill and $2+ in change!

It was a long 7hrs of detecting, we even made friends with one of the locals who it turns out had grown up in the same area of Toronto as I did. He then gave us permission to detect his property the next time we were in the area. Thanks again for the invite buddy and thank you for the yummy homemade apple butter!

I took the picture of the lit Christmas tree in downtown Kingston, ON Thursday night, after a couple of beers, I thought it looked pretty cool!

Thanks for looking,
Dave

 

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[against the wind]

Very cool ,,, thanks for the wrap up of the hunt. Even when you don't recover gold, silver, or really old coins, the potential for great finds is exciting.

 

[Msbeepbeep]

Well you guys scored in acquiring new sites to hunt!
Nice array of finds too! Congrats!
Nice to have a buddy to hunt with.

 

[ANTIQUARIAN]

Very cool ,,, thanks for the wrap up of the hunt. Even when you don't recover gold, silver, or really old coins, the potential for great finds is exciting.

I find sometimes the best finds are made on the surface without the aid of the detector... like the ball button!
Thanks for your post ATW,
Dave

Well you guys scored in acquiring new sites to hunt!

Nice array of finds too! Congrats!
Nice to have a buddy to hunt with.

Thanks MsBB, the guy I was detecting with (pepperj) has 40+ years of detecting experience and I learn something new everytime we go out!
I'm going to be in Boston on Tuesday, I'm then catching a ride with a co-worker up to Bangor for meetings.
Dave

 

[pepperj]

It was great getting out for a hunt once again, and I thought the day was going to be a little more productive when you got the ball button, and the nice seal. But once again I slam dunked the coinage with the only penny!

It was a bit of a win/loose type of hunt, thought we'd get more from the two sites but they just needing a tilling to scratch up some more interesting finds. The new site across the water was a it was nice that the farmer started there on the beans at least it gave us a chance at the site. I'm thinking bulldozers and old houses can be a bad mix.

The win/win was all the future permission that came from the neighbour that did the invite before we asked. I'm sure the property had a carriage or blacksmith shop on it with that symbol, and he was happy that we dated his property as been a lot older than thought.
I got a kick out of the farmer saying that he was wracking his brain while combining for places where we could hunt. The dump that closed in 1900 on his old property was a nice one and it might be a winner down the road in the spring.

 

[Michiganne]

Looks good to me. Every hunt is different and sometimes it seems the places that you expect the most from produce the less. But with permission on some new sites, who knows? Good luck on future hunts. And nice Canadian National locomotive!

HH

 

[ANTIQUARIAN]

It was great getting out for a hunt once again, and I thought the day was going to be a little more productive when you got the ball button, and the nice seal. But once again I slam dunked the coinage with the only penny!

It was a bit of a win/loose type of hunt, thought we'd get more from the two sites but they just needing a tilling to scratch up some more interesting finds. The new site across the water was a it was nice that the farmer started there on the beans at least it gave us a chance at the site. I'm thinking bulldozers and old houses can be a bad mix.

The win/win was all the future permission that came from the neighbour that did the invite before we asked. I'm sure the property had a carriage or blacksmith shop on it with that symbol, and he was happy that we dated his property as been a lot older than thought.
I got a kick out of the farmer saying that he was wracking his brain while combining for places where we could hunt. The dump that closed in 1900 on his old property was a nice one and it might be a winner down the road in the spring.

The neighbour who was out for a walk just as we were packing up, then offered up his property was amazing! I truly believe the folks in these rural areas are interested in finding their local history and having it preserved for future generations. As opposed to waiting for the occasional archaeologist to happen by and take an interest in an area, only do test digs! I think you hit the nail on the head with your "bulldozers and old houses can be a bad mix" theory. There definitely should have been more on that hill site other than lead soldiers, a brass horse buckle and a bone handled knife.
Farmer John, was a funny guy too! I thought it was hilarious when he told us that his girlfriend loves her horses more than him!
Dave

Looks good to me. Every hunt is different and sometimes it seems the places that you expect the most from produce the less. But with permission on some new sites, who knows? Good luck on future hunts. And nice Canadian National locomotive!

HH

Thanks for your post Anne!
This is so true, "the places that you expect the most from produce the less".
I think the disappointment hits harder when you feel you're the first ones to detect a site and then even have difficulty locating where the structure was originally located.

My hunting partner has been detecting for over 40+ and even he was frustrated with the lack of finds here.
Best of luck to you Anne,
Dave

 

[Old Dude]

Looks good to me, Dave. I like the finds you managed. My second best site ever was offered to me by the owner without me asking, so I hope that one is good to you guys. Just getting out this time of year is a find in itself!

 

[Zodiacdiverdave]

Great looking sites, they should produce nicely. Nice ball button and bell.
ZDD

 

[goldbmine]

Good write up! Better finds are coming and the bell is real cool in my book!

 

[ANTIQUARIAN]

Looks good to me, Dave. I like the finds you managed. My second best site ever was offered to me by the owner without me asking, so I hope that one is good to you guys. Just getting out this time of year is a find in itself!

Thanks very much Dave!
Hopefully the 'new permission' we received at the end of the day will produce some interesting keepers!
Hope you're still getting out buddy,
Dave

Great looking sites, they should produce nicely. Nice ball button and bell.
ZDD

Thanks for your post Dave, hope you're having another great year my friend!

Good write up! Better finds are coming and the bell is real cool in my book!

Thank you for your post and for the words of support goldbmine!
Horse bells are fairly plentiful up here in Ontario, but what I'm always on the look out for is another crotal bell!
Welcome to Tnet my friend,
Dave

 

[Rick (Nova Scotia)]

Probably the "best find" is when one hunt leads to the next permission without even trying, the exact same thing happened to us on the last hunt, and it will be a good one (I think/hope)

My favorite find would be the RR seal, as I mostly find the same one (or slight variation of the same one) over, and over.

 

[The Patriot]

Great post as usual, thanks for sharing! Like the seal and button...some more goodies there for sure

 

[ANTIQUARIAN]

Probably the "best find" is when one hunt leads to the next permission without even trying, the exact same thing happened to us on the last hunt, and it will be a good one (I think/hope)

My favorite find would be the RR seal, as I mostly find the same one (or slight variation of the same one) over, and over.

Thanks for your post Rick, looks like you and Dave are having another great year!
It's true, the new permissions receive are the key to making the next best find!

Dave

Great post as usual, thanks for sharing! Like the seal and button...some more goodies there for sure

Thanks very much for your words of support Steve!
Unfortunately, I think most of the history was removed from the site when the bulldozers moved in to clear the house away.
Dave

 

[Msbeepbeep]

I find sometimes the best finds are made on the surface without the aid of the detector... like the ball button!
Thanks for your post ATW,
Dave



Thanks MsBB, the guy I was detecting with (pepperj) has 40+ years of detecting experience and I learn something new everytime we go out!
I'm going to be in Boston on Tuesday, I'm then catching a ride with a co-worker up to Bangor for meetings.
Dave

Bring your coat its getting a little chilly, and we may have rain. Don't forget the detector!

 

[ANTIQUARIAN]

Bring your coat its getting a little chilly, and we may have rain. Don't forget the detector!

Just checked the 14 day weather forecast, things look to stay above freezing for the next 2 weeks... so lets keep detecting!

Here are my buddy Jim's finds from the site.

 

[Rick (Nova Scotia)]

Just checked the 14 day weather forecast, things look to stay above freezing for the next 2 weeks... so lets keep detecting!

Here are my buddy Jim's finds from the site.

Same here as for the weather freeze up (or NOT), for a couple of weeks, I "need" another fix...man.
Love the lead soldiers, I'd take one of those over a "pretty good" coin. I got only one, but he has fallen by the wayside...how sad am I ?

 

[Ahab8]

I like those ball buttons and the seal is really cool buddy

 

[treblehunter]

Very nice Dave, man that is allot of ground to cover? I love the pix and the finds!

 

[ANTIQUARIAN]

Same here as for the weather freeze up (or NOT), for a couple of weeks, I "need" another fix...man.
Love the lead soldiers, I'd take one of those over a "pretty good" coin. I got only one, but he has fallen by the wayside...how sad am I ?

I definitely feel like we're detecting on borrowed time at this time of year Rick.
My detecting partner Jim has been doing this for a long time and finds a keeper every time we get on a site!
Dave

I like those ball buttons and the seal is really cool buddy

Thanks for your post Abe, this was my first mailbag seal too!
Went for dinner at the Sea Dog last night, man I just love the Bluepaws and the beef tacos were on sale last night too!
Hope to get back again on Thursday night before I leave town.

Take care buddy,
Dave

Very nice Dave, man that is allot of ground to cover? I love the pix and the finds!

Thanks very much Brad, hope you're having a great year my friend.

Looks like we've got a couple more weeks to hunt until the big freeze too!

Dave