Breaking Ground...

[Tejaas]

I'm pretty excited, today I got the start to my winter dig.
Broke ground on one of three sites I plan to sift starting in late November and lasting thru January.

This is the creek site.

I got a bit behind on the fabrication of the screen tables, so still gotta finish up that in the next week or so... I just can't bring myself to stick near the shop in these last couple weeks of warm weather, as I'd rather be out fishing or detecting!

 

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[rock]

Thats allot of dirt to sift. What period of artifacts do you usually find?

 

[old digger]

And the hunt begins!

 

[Tejaas]

Thats allot of dirt to sift. What period of artifacts do you usually find?

The picture is a bit misleading... At the bottom of the photo you can see the creek bed, and the bank is actually about a three foot rise from bottom. That effectively cuts that dirt pile in half!

We have a great spread across the span of time... On the property, my uncle found a beautiful Clovis about 12 years ago, and my grandfather found the remnants of an iron point under a limestone outcropping almost 35 years back. I'd venture that if I layed the whole family collection out we would have at least one example from every known inhabitant of Central TX. That's not 100% verified yet, but I'm comfortable betting a paycheck on it.

That's gonna be my "bad weather" indoor hobby priority this winter. Catalog everything as professionally as possible. Right now we have glass vases full of points... Certain vases are identified on the bottom as certain middens, or by pastures if they were solitary finds, etc.

Larger artifacts, large fossils, geodes, antler sheds, etc. we keep on shelving units in the tractor and implement sheds... Out of the weather, but a whole lot more convenient due to weight and the space required to display them.

The strange part is, on the property we have never found pottery shards or beads. Those are two things I fear I'm going to have to add to my "never gonna happen" list... along with American Revolution relics.

 

[rock]

Id like to see a pic of your collection if you have one handy? I think TX has some of the best designed artifacts. Although TN and Ohio might have some of the best colors.

 

[Tejaas]

Id like to see a pic of your collection if you have one handy? I think TX has some of the best designed artifacts. Although TN and Ohio might have some of the best colors.

I'm ahead of you by a step, Rock, as I already have planned to do so!

I believe in making it a point to post a picture with any claims, otherwise it's all talk in the eyes of the forum. Haha!

We keep our collection at the ranch... Next time my wife and I are down there and i have the time, I will lay it all out and take photos and post!

I agree with your statement about Tennessee and Ohio's colored flint... But for the record down here we have beautiful colors too! We had that transparent "root beer", almost smoke-colored stuff, and my personal favorite, the dark purple / midnight blue.

We have a lot of the "boring" white chert, too... But even those that we find are nice because they don't have dark spots or streaks... Just a rich kinda cream color.

 

[Tejaas]

Id like to see a pic of your collection if you have one handy? I think TX has some of the best designed artifacts. Although TN and Ohio might have some of the best colors.

Hey Rock, an afterthought.

I'm not sure if it's your thing, but tomorrow evening I will be posting in-situ pictures of a mastodon tusk we found at the ranch. Mom and Dad pulled copies from the photo library and got them in the mail before they headed out to west TX for their last warm-weather, weeklong artifact/hiking expedition for this year.

The postman will have then in my mailbox tomorrow.

Photos of dinosaur tracks in the riverbed will follow too. We've been getting intermittent heavy rain for a week or so now, so the rivers are up a bit and murky. As soon as the waterline recedes, I'll take pictures of them, as well as post pictures of them from apx. 15 years ago for comparison.

Just an FYI, if that's your kind of thing.

Where are you located?

 

[rock]

Im in GA up near the TN line. I like fossils also but just dont find any here. I have to work tomorrow but will checkout the pics when I get home tomorrow night.

 

[SouthTexasFinds]

Best of luck tejaas

 

[Jon Stewart]

Post away. What you are doing looks like great fun. I would rather hunt points than deer.

Are you on a J.D. 410C. If so it looks just like mine.

 

[Tejaas]

Post away. What you are doing looks like great fun. I would rather hunt points than deer. Are you on a J.D. 410C. If so it looks just like mine.

Haha I am thankful I don't have to choose between deer and point hunting, I'd never be able to pick just one!

That's a CAT 430F.

 

[Tnmountains]

I want to do it all. Look forward to seeing your Texas finds. I always enjoyed living down on the Brazos. Rain is coming soon I hope.

 

[roaddust66]

I love the Texas Hill Country and have come close to moving there several times. Thru my high school years , I lived on historic Coleto Creek , a tributary of The San Antonio River deep in South Texas. It was the site of the historic Battle Of Coleto Creek where Colonel Fannin and nearly 500 men were lined up and shot by General Santa Anna. I also camped on The Perdernales River on the LBJ Ranch while he was in office. It was a scout group. I was there a couple of years ago and had a detector with but was too busy whopping it up in Luckenbach.