Back in the Swing of Things.. the Pressures Off!

Frodov

Bronze Member
May 24, 2007
1,021
34
Lexington, KY
Detector(s) used
Whites Prism IV / Bullseye II pinpointer
Back in the Swing of Things.. the Pressure's Off!

Hi Everyone! I got a chance to get out and swing a little detector yesterday afternoon after work. It was wonderful! Not so much the weather, but just being able to get out and enjoy the hobby, do a little digging.. letting off some steam from the pressures of work and life in general. It wasn't a long hunt, but it was VERY productive for the little over two hours I spent with my head down and my nose in the dirt.. well.. almost mud. <grin>
The weather around these parts has been unpredictable, or at least uncooperative for a metal detector enthusiast like myself. It seems that whenever I *DO* get a little time to be able to devote to this passion, the weather is nasty or the conditions are just not conducive to enjoying it very much. Yesterday wasn't that way, however. Granted, it wasn't bright and sunny, or particularly warm. A Cold front was blowing through and what had been 60+ degree weather the day before, was now falling temperatures (lower 40's dropping rapidly into the 30's). The skies were leaden and the unending overcast of clouds burdened with the promise of more precipitation.. would it be a cold rain? or would it be snow? <shuddering> But! It was NOT raining or snowing at the time.. the ground was sodden, sure, but it wasn't frozen solid as concrete pavement either.. so I jumped at the opportunity to indulge in a little swing time.
I got off work at 3:00 in the afternoon, and despite the clouds, wind and falling temperatures, I headed to one of my favorite hunting spots. This Park is near where I work so the drive time was merely minutes. It's a BIG park too. I've mentioned it before in previous posts here on TNet. This park features a fair grounds, numerous soccer fields, a dog walk, playgrounds, picnic areas and even equestrian show arenas.. not to mention LOTS and LOTS of open space. My hunt for the day was concentrated on some median parking strips back around the numerous soccer fields. These grass strips ten yards wide and hundreds of yards long, stay FULL.. or nearly so when the games and or practices are held in the warmer months. People are always losing stuff out of their pockets, car doors, gym bags.. and anything else they transport from their vehicles to and from the fields. Oh.. and let's not forget the trash and other debris that is dropped or in a lot of cases just tossed instead of put in a garbage can. Some people just have no respect or conscience.. so it would seem.
And trash I found.. the usual suspects.. pull tabs, can slaw, whole cans, foil wrappers, bottle caps of all kinds, car parts.. yes.. car parts.. stuff that makes you sit back on your heels and say "What the He// ?" <smile> Yeah.. I found the trash.. a LOT of trash. It's normally rather a bit of a pain to keep hitting trash and pull tabs over and over, but it's been so long over the past months that even that bit of drudgery was enjoyable. Most of that stuff went into the nearest trash can of course. Fortunately trash was not all that I managed to find. I found coins.. LOTS AND LOTS of coins. Pennies and Dimes seemed to the be featured denominations for yesterdays hunt. I guess they are harder to find in the grass whenever someone drops them. <shrug> Not too hard to find with a metal detector though. <smile> I found 10 nickels too though, probably because I was digging nearly every target even if I suspected it to be yet another pull tab or some can slaw. There were a few quarters to keep things intersting as well.. It all made for quite a pile of stuff after I dumped out my finds bag when I got home. Have a look for yourself.. this is everything (minus most of the can slaw, and big trash)..

2-27-09 002pile.jpg

..note the dirt and grass still mixed in with all the clad, pull tabs and other stuff.. I always seem to pack in some of the dirt that I pulled my treasures out of.. <smile>

It was Oh so relaxing to get out and play yesterday.. I really let off some steam. I wasn't the only one letting off steam either.. One of my finds kind of threw me for a few moments after I dug it up. When detected it rang up as a 50cent piece or at least something in that range on my detector. Certainly got my attention. After digging it up and scraping off some of the dirt and pulling out grass roots and what not I had to sit back on my heels and wonder about it for a moment or two. Then it dawned on me what it was that I had in my hands. Steam indeed.. Someone had lost a LOT of steam over this little item at some time in the past.. Here's a picture of it after I cleaned it up a bit more when I got home. How many of you can identify it at first glance?

2-27-09 005Whatzit1.jpg : 2-27-09 006whatzit2.jpg

And how many of you got it? For those of you less familiar with the inner workings of the internal combustion engines that power our automobiles.. this is, or was a little item that helped regulate the coolent flow for your engine. It's a Thermostat valve (regulator) As the temperature goes up or down, the metal in the coil spring expands or contracts, opening or closing the valve to regulate the flow of the liquid. Apparently this one quit working and was removed from someones engine.. and tossed aside.. where it later got stepped on or run over or otherwise mushed a bit. <smile> Still.. it's a neat find and one that sets the imagination to running as to what the story was behind it's being found where it was.. how it got there.. etc.

Another bit of excitement was a largish coin that I found. I thought it might be another "toss" coin that officials use to begin the soccer matches with, it's about the right size. When detected it also rang up as something in the 50cent piece range. Check it out..

2-27-09 007comp.JPG

Process Engineering Skills ??? A C S ??? <shrug> To me, Process Engineering involves plastics operations and production.. a lot of what I work with actually, but I've never heard of ACS and am not familiar with the logo on the coin. Perhaps it's a school somewhere or a company? Oh well, still a neat find all the same.

Well after getting home, sorting out the stuff in my finds bag, and cleaning it up a bit.. I ended up with quite a nice little haul of clad. <BIG SMILE> For a hunt of a little over two hours, I think I did pretty dang well! Battery money? Gas money? Snack money? or as my wife likes to call it.. VACATION FUND MONEY.. <grin> Cha..Ching!

2-27-09 004clad.jpg

$10.31 in spendable coin. <smile> Oh, and a couple of Canadian pennies too....I usually don't count those, but I keep them all the same. Of course along with the clad and goodies, there is always the junk.

2-27-09 009junk.jpg

The aluminum washers and the pull tabs go into my pull tab collection.. the magnet (played hell with my detector) got stuck to the fridge.. always having to put reminder notes or coupons or what not on the fridge don't you know.. the rest usually just gets tossed into the recycle bin. The pictures of course, are recorded, stored on the computer and shared with everyone here at TNet, along with my rather long winded recounting of my adventures in finding all this stuff. I'm VERY happy to finally be getting out and enjoying the hunt again. I hope you all got out or get out soon and enjoy yourselves as well.. as always..

Happy Hunting Everyone!

Frodov
 

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Frodov

Frodov

Bronze Member
May 24, 2007
1,021
34
Lexington, KY
Detector(s) used
Whites Prism IV / Bullseye II pinpointer
Re: Back in the Swing of Things.. the Pressure's Off!

extractor said:
Wtg. that's a lot of diggin

Yeah, but it's not a lot of work.. <smile> I got out again today, at the same park, slightly different area, but still grassy parking adjacent to the soccer fields... check out my latest post.

Happy Hunting!

Frodov
 

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