Lowbatts
Gold Member
- #1
Thread Owner
Good ol' days going by fast
A couple other hunters and myself have had quite the time over the years hunting the legendary Uncle Johnny's farm out west of Elgin a few miles. Today we are putting Uncle Johnny in the ground. He passed away two weeks ago and will be missed largely by neighbors and family. His was the last farm on a 15 mile stretch of road not yet sold out to developers and like most of them, had a history going back to the 1840's.
Pretty much anything from the last 10,000 or so years of habitation has been found on his farm or one of the neighboring fields over the years. Got my first stone points there and have seen stone hammers and knives, to the first settlers' tools come out his fields. I've found wrenches and tools even Uncle Johnny told me he didn't drop in his fields, and it did seem he knew every inch of that 70+ acres. Found an old brass bushing in his yard once, a couple inches deep. Showed it to him and he said he'd put it down about 10 years ago and had been wondering where it went. Found a fiberglass handled ballpeen in the middle of one of his fields one year and he cussed over it, saying he'd never owned nor would he own any tool with a fiberglass handle. He figured it fell off a plane or, possibly, a spaceship.
One my favorite hunts, an old post somewhere in the old TNet archives details him posting me in the middle of one of his fields, about 20 acres. This field is where he dropped my grandpa's pliers back in the 70's and he figured tilling and plowing seemed to bring things up every 12 years or so and since they were dropped 24 years earlier, I should be able to find them, somewhere between the four corners of that field. Half desirous to get one of my old grandpa's pliers back to the topside and half scared to fail his request, I spent a couple days walking that field and found all manner of tools and things, a dumpsite containing a few tools and goods from what may have been an early settler's demise en route to where ever, and a few space rocks, but no pliers. Meanwhile, coyotes, buzzards and other scavengers shadowed me, waiting for me to drop. It was hot and I was out a long ways from the house and the road.
He had no problem dismissing my failure, he was too busy figuring out what those things were I did find. Ably identifying an old mantle clock mechanisim, he said it was around 150 years old, along other items there.
One more thing about Uncle Johnny, if he knew I was spending this much time composing a melancholy memoir on my excellent time spent with him, he'd beat me with an axe handle and tell me to shut up and go out and do some diggin'!
A couple other hunters and myself have had quite the time over the years hunting the legendary Uncle Johnny's farm out west of Elgin a few miles. Today we are putting Uncle Johnny in the ground. He passed away two weeks ago and will be missed largely by neighbors and family. His was the last farm on a 15 mile stretch of road not yet sold out to developers and like most of them, had a history going back to the 1840's.
Pretty much anything from the last 10,000 or so years of habitation has been found on his farm or one of the neighboring fields over the years. Got my first stone points there and have seen stone hammers and knives, to the first settlers' tools come out his fields. I've found wrenches and tools even Uncle Johnny told me he didn't drop in his fields, and it did seem he knew every inch of that 70+ acres. Found an old brass bushing in his yard once, a couple inches deep. Showed it to him and he said he'd put it down about 10 years ago and had been wondering where it went. Found a fiberglass handled ballpeen in the middle of one of his fields one year and he cussed over it, saying he'd never owned nor would he own any tool with a fiberglass handle. He figured it fell off a plane or, possibly, a spaceship.
One my favorite hunts, an old post somewhere in the old TNet archives details him posting me in the middle of one of his fields, about 20 acres. This field is where he dropped my grandpa's pliers back in the 70's and he figured tilling and plowing seemed to bring things up every 12 years or so and since they were dropped 24 years earlier, I should be able to find them, somewhere between the four corners of that field. Half desirous to get one of my old grandpa's pliers back to the topside and half scared to fail his request, I spent a couple days walking that field and found all manner of tools and things, a dumpsite containing a few tools and goods from what may have been an early settler's demise en route to where ever, and a few space rocks, but no pliers. Meanwhile, coyotes, buzzards and other scavengers shadowed me, waiting for me to drop. It was hot and I was out a long ways from the house and the road.
He had no problem dismissing my failure, he was too busy figuring out what those things were I did find. Ably identifying an old mantle clock mechanisim, he said it was around 150 years old, along other items there.
One more thing about Uncle Johnny, if he knew I was spending this much time composing a melancholy memoir on my excellent time spent with him, he'd beat me with an axe handle and tell me to shut up and go out and do some diggin'!
. Right now he's probably smiling with you. . . and not at you, and
