Frodov
Bronze Member
- Joined
- May 24, 2007
- Messages
- 1,021
- Reaction score
- 34
- Golden Thread
- 0
- Location
- Lexington, KY
- Detector(s) used
- Whites Prism IV / Bullseye II pinpointer
IKE's !!! It's a Giant Spider!!!!
HI gang! How was your Christmas Holiday... uh.. I mean how was your "Seasonal Festivities" this year? <rolling eyes> Oh the hell with being P.C. It's CHRISTMAS TIME DAMNIT! Merry Christmas! I hope everyone had a wonderful time this year. I know I did, except for not being able to get out and do some detecting.. to be able to "scratch that itch" so to speak.
First it was getting "ready" for the holidays.. then it was all the hustle and bustle "DOING" the holiday.. entertaining, traveling to and from relatives' houses, and then <rolling eyes> I don't know how it happened, but I even went out shopping the day after Christmas.. *gasp* Yeah.. I think I HAVE lost my mind. <grin>
Actually it wasn't all that bad. Just my wife and I, and we started the day with a matinee' movie on the 26th, saw "National Treasure" (2). Pretty entertaining. From there it was on to shopping.. and lunch, then more shopping, then dinner, then HOME. <grin> I guess we went to places that weren't high on the priority list for people making exchanges or returns, because there were no crowds. And, it was a beautiful day, bright, sunny, not a cloud in the sky. *sigh* But that was YESTERDAY!. At midnight last night it began raining again here in Central Kentucky. It was still raining this morning at 5:30 AM, so I went back to bed. By 8:00 AM the rain had stopped, but everything was soggy and wet, and the clouds were still a blanketting dreary overcast, that would last all day long.
Well Dang it! cloudy or not, soggy or not, I'd set aside today for some metal detecting, and my wife was even going to humor me by coming along with me. I'd mapped out numerous sites to try, or rather routed them so that I would get to detect as many as possible in the allotted time I had. I knew the places I wanted to check out today were not going to take very long to search.. individually that is, so I tried to line up several for the day. My target of choice today was (were) schoolyard tot lots. Those wonders of woodchips and imaginative playground equipment that are pretty much taken for granted by the kids of today. <kicking back in my rocker with my corncob pipe> "Why I remember when we's youngin's, we were danged lucky to have an old tire hung from a big ol' tree limb with a bit of hemp rope ta play at..." <laughing> Actually my generation had swing sets (iron pipe jobs with steel chain and canvas seats) a jungle gym (more iron pipe) a slide (the metal ones that absorbed all the sun's radiation and amply gave it back to any bare skin that made contact with the metal surface).. and even those teeter totter thingies.. a long plank balanced on, more iron pipe, that was ideal for launching a smaller child several yards into the air if done right.. <grin> and we had the infamous Merry go' round. That metal mache'd spinning disk of diamond plate pie wedges bolted or welded together with more iron pipes tacked on to supposedly enable the children (dare devils) to hold onto for their very lives when this thing was being whipped into light speed by an older or bigger kid intent on demonstrating the properties of a centrefuge to those other kids who were brave enough or stupid enough to climb aboard. Merry go' round.. and children go flying..OFF.. <laughing>
Well kids today don't have much of that antiquated playground deathtrap..er equipment to deal with. No, today they have those wonderfully imaginative concoctions of wood and plastic and whatever metal is uses is padded or covered in plastic or rubber. They have a cross between a McDonald's Play room and a Marine Corps Obstacle coarse. Replete with those concussion and/or bruise abating Woodchips. WOODCHIPS
Hell, some of them even have RUBBER chips (recycled tires bits) Back in the day we had Grass.. if we were lucky, Dust and hard pan most of the time to land on if we fell off (like that ever happened) any of the playground equipment. Someone even tried to pass off pea gravel as a playground cover media.. who was that Einstein? Concrete? Yeah, I've seen it, and sometimes sand. But I think the sand was an accident, probably because the native soil of those locations was sandy to begin with. But Woodchips?? What a bunch of Marshmallows! <grin>
Ah, you got to love those woodchips though. Even on the wettest nastiest days, the woodchips are pretty easy to work with, for a detectorist. And besides absorbing falls and preventing injuries to the kiddies, they are coin magnets! Coins, jewelery, toys, trash, pull tabs, bottle caps.. EVERYTHING! I usually stay away from the totlots, at least when there are kids around playing anyway. They (the kids) tend to be inquisitive and follow a detectorist around like he/she's the Pied Piper or something. "Hey Mister.. whatcha dooin'?" "Find any treasure with that thing?" etc etc. It's hard to search if you're not rude and actually take time to talk with these quizzlings and explain how and what you are doing. Once in a while is not a problem, but evertime you get to a playground, it gets old. However, Today, all the kiddies were OUT of school (never detect a totlot DURING school anyway) and on Christmas Break. I knew the school yards would be deserted, doubly so due to the gloomy weather. So.. a detecting I did go.. to the totlots... LOTS of totlots.... Six in all.
After taking my darling wife and I to lunch (a feast at Chez McDees) I parked in the parking lot of the first school on my list. This school turned out to be a bonus because it had not ONE but THREE totlots in all. Gearing up from the trunk of my wife's car, knee pads, gloves, finds pouch and digger on my utility belt.. wipe rag included (comes in handy to wipe off the digger or the pin pointer) and of course my trusty Prizm IV. I began sweeping the chips of the first lot.. swingsets and climbers and well you know. Clad, here, clad there.. mostly pennies and nickles, pencils (those metal barrels around the erasure tips show up just like nickles).. and of course, pull tabs. found a handfull of plastic hair clasps.. (didn't keep them).
Moving on to totlot number two for this school, I was surprised to get a HUGE ping with my prizm... ringing in as a 50cent piece on the surface. Well it turned out to be a first for me! It wasn't on the surface and it wasn't a 50cent piece.. it was an Ike Dollar, 1972, and it was about two inches down in the chips. Some kid must have been heartsick to have lost it. Made my day though! A couple of quarters, some pennies and more pull tabs came out of that lot. Totlot number three at this first school yielded a silver earring and some beads.. a few pennies and two nickles.
Feeling pretty good, my wife and I moved on to the second school yard on my list, a few blocks away. More quarters, dimes, pennies and a couple of nickles.. and pull tabs.. and one nasty looking spider! YIKES! It went into my finds bag too. <grin>
Totlot (school number three) yielded some more clad, a few pull tabs, a hot wheels car, a charm bracelet, and a mechanical pencil.
School yard number four gave up some more clad, some more pencil stubs, a couple of beads and charms, a tippet (whatever you call the metal end of a shoelace or string tie).. looks like gold gut it sticks to the magnet I found there as well. <shrug>And a house key.
Tot lot number five (not a school yard, but an small neighborhood park) gave up only another key and a handfull of pull tabs. *sigh* Oh, and one metal jeans button.
The last totlot WAS at another schoolyard. I found this one pencil on my way from the parking lot to the totlot.. some kid named Griffin lost it I think <grin>This lot was hiding some more clad, not much but totaled up with all the other clad today made for a pretty good day.. even if it was more like a pretty good couple of hours or so. I didn't spend a whole lot of time at each playground actually. I mean come on, they aren't that big, even I can sweep those pretty quickly... which is a good thing too. I was having a blast detecting, but I know my wife was tiring of watching me detect, even as good natured as she was being about it all I new that my day was just about over when we pulled up to this last totlot. She'd finished reading her book and the ipod had gone back into its case. So, after sweeping this last lot, I called it a day... then took my wife to an early dinner at one of our favorite restaurant/bar/grills. It wouldn't be until later after we got home that I would discover just how well I did in my multitude of short hunts today. I mean I had a good idea, but I wasn't exactly keeping a running total in my head or anything. After sorting and counting this is what I ended up with...
$6.99 in clad (not too bad) some bling, some crap, some toys, and a lot of fun! And I got to scratch that itch! <grin> Hope you all have a chance to get out and enjoy this hobby a little over the holidays. I know I'm going to try my luck some more if the weather holds... there are LOTS of schools in my town and most all of them have playgrounds/totlots. A perfect prescription for the wintertime detectorists' blues.
Happy Hunting Everyone !!!!
Frodov
HI gang! How was your Christmas Holiday... uh.. I mean how was your "Seasonal Festivities" this year? <rolling eyes> Oh the hell with being P.C. It's CHRISTMAS TIME DAMNIT! Merry Christmas! I hope everyone had a wonderful time this year. I know I did, except for not being able to get out and do some detecting.. to be able to "scratch that itch" so to speak.
First it was getting "ready" for the holidays.. then it was all the hustle and bustle "DOING" the holiday.. entertaining, traveling to and from relatives' houses, and then <rolling eyes> I don't know how it happened, but I even went out shopping the day after Christmas.. *gasp* Yeah.. I think I HAVE lost my mind. <grin>
Actually it wasn't all that bad. Just my wife and I, and we started the day with a matinee' movie on the 26th, saw "National Treasure" (2). Pretty entertaining. From there it was on to shopping.. and lunch, then more shopping, then dinner, then HOME. <grin> I guess we went to places that weren't high on the priority list for people making exchanges or returns, because there were no crowds. And, it was a beautiful day, bright, sunny, not a cloud in the sky. *sigh* But that was YESTERDAY!. At midnight last night it began raining again here in Central Kentucky. It was still raining this morning at 5:30 AM, so I went back to bed. By 8:00 AM the rain had stopped, but everything was soggy and wet, and the clouds were still a blanketting dreary overcast, that would last all day long.
Well Dang it! cloudy or not, soggy or not, I'd set aside today for some metal detecting, and my wife was even going to humor me by coming along with me. I'd mapped out numerous sites to try, or rather routed them so that I would get to detect as many as possible in the allotted time I had. I knew the places I wanted to check out today were not going to take very long to search.. individually that is, so I tried to line up several for the day. My target of choice today was (were) schoolyard tot lots. Those wonders of woodchips and imaginative playground equipment that are pretty much taken for granted by the kids of today. <kicking back in my rocker with my corncob pipe> "Why I remember when we's youngin's, we were danged lucky to have an old tire hung from a big ol' tree limb with a bit of hemp rope ta play at..." <laughing> Actually my generation had swing sets (iron pipe jobs with steel chain and canvas seats) a jungle gym (more iron pipe) a slide (the metal ones that absorbed all the sun's radiation and amply gave it back to any bare skin that made contact with the metal surface).. and even those teeter totter thingies.. a long plank balanced on, more iron pipe, that was ideal for launching a smaller child several yards into the air if done right.. <grin> and we had the infamous Merry go' round. That metal mache'd spinning disk of diamond plate pie wedges bolted or welded together with more iron pipes tacked on to supposedly enable the children (dare devils) to hold onto for their very lives when this thing was being whipped into light speed by an older or bigger kid intent on demonstrating the properties of a centrefuge to those other kids who were brave enough or stupid enough to climb aboard. Merry go' round.. and children go flying..OFF.. <laughing>
Well kids today don't have much of that antiquated playground deathtrap..er equipment to deal with. No, today they have those wonderfully imaginative concoctions of wood and plastic and whatever metal is uses is padded or covered in plastic or rubber. They have a cross between a McDonald's Play room and a Marine Corps Obstacle coarse. Replete with those concussion and/or bruise abating Woodchips. WOODCHIPS
Hell, some of them even have RUBBER chips (recycled tires bits) Back in the day we had Grass.. if we were lucky, Dust and hard pan most of the time to land on if we fell off (like that ever happened) any of the playground equipment. Someone even tried to pass off pea gravel as a playground cover media.. who was that Einstein? Concrete? Yeah, I've seen it, and sometimes sand. But I think the sand was an accident, probably because the native soil of those locations was sandy to begin with. But Woodchips?? What a bunch of Marshmallows! <grin>Ah, you got to love those woodchips though. Even on the wettest nastiest days, the woodchips are pretty easy to work with, for a detectorist. And besides absorbing falls and preventing injuries to the kiddies, they are coin magnets! Coins, jewelery, toys, trash, pull tabs, bottle caps.. EVERYTHING! I usually stay away from the totlots, at least when there are kids around playing anyway. They (the kids) tend to be inquisitive and follow a detectorist around like he/she's the Pied Piper or something. "Hey Mister.. whatcha dooin'?" "Find any treasure with that thing?" etc etc. It's hard to search if you're not rude and actually take time to talk with these quizzlings and explain how and what you are doing. Once in a while is not a problem, but evertime you get to a playground, it gets old. However, Today, all the kiddies were OUT of school (never detect a totlot DURING school anyway) and on Christmas Break. I knew the school yards would be deserted, doubly so due to the gloomy weather. So.. a detecting I did go.. to the totlots... LOTS of totlots.... Six in all.
After taking my darling wife and I to lunch (a feast at Chez McDees) I parked in the parking lot of the first school on my list. This school turned out to be a bonus because it had not ONE but THREE totlots in all. Gearing up from the trunk of my wife's car, knee pads, gloves, finds pouch and digger on my utility belt.. wipe rag included (comes in handy to wipe off the digger or the pin pointer) and of course my trusty Prizm IV. I began sweeping the chips of the first lot.. swingsets and climbers and well you know. Clad, here, clad there.. mostly pennies and nickles, pencils (those metal barrels around the erasure tips show up just like nickles).. and of course, pull tabs. found a handfull of plastic hair clasps.. (didn't keep them).
Moving on to totlot number two for this school, I was surprised to get a HUGE ping with my prizm... ringing in as a 50cent piece on the surface. Well it turned out to be a first for me! It wasn't on the surface and it wasn't a 50cent piece.. it was an Ike Dollar, 1972, and it was about two inches down in the chips. Some kid must have been heartsick to have lost it. Made my day though! A couple of quarters, some pennies and more pull tabs came out of that lot. Totlot number three at this first school yielded a silver earring and some beads.. a few pennies and two nickles.
Feeling pretty good, my wife and I moved on to the second school yard on my list, a few blocks away. More quarters, dimes, pennies and a couple of nickles.. and pull tabs.. and one nasty looking spider! YIKES! It went into my finds bag too. <grin>
Totlot (school number three) yielded some more clad, a few pull tabs, a hot wheels car, a charm bracelet, and a mechanical pencil.
School yard number four gave up some more clad, some more pencil stubs, a couple of beads and charms, a tippet (whatever you call the metal end of a shoelace or string tie).. looks like gold gut it sticks to the magnet I found there as well. <shrug>And a house key.
Tot lot number five (not a school yard, but an small neighborhood park) gave up only another key and a handfull of pull tabs. *sigh* Oh, and one metal jeans button.
The last totlot WAS at another schoolyard. I found this one pencil on my way from the parking lot to the totlot.. some kid named Griffin lost it I think <grin>This lot was hiding some more clad, not much but totaled up with all the other clad today made for a pretty good day.. even if it was more like a pretty good couple of hours or so. I didn't spend a whole lot of time at each playground actually. I mean come on, they aren't that big, even I can sweep those pretty quickly... which is a good thing too. I was having a blast detecting, but I know my wife was tiring of watching me detect, even as good natured as she was being about it all I new that my day was just about over when we pulled up to this last totlot. She'd finished reading her book and the ipod had gone back into its case. So, after sweeping this last lot, I called it a day... then took my wife to an early dinner at one of our favorite restaurant/bar/grills. It wouldn't be until later after we got home that I would discover just how well I did in my multitude of short hunts today. I mean I had a good idea, but I wasn't exactly keeping a running total in my head or anything. After sorting and counting this is what I ended up with...
$6.99 in clad (not too bad) some bling, some crap, some toys, and a lot of fun! And I got to scratch that itch! <grin> Hope you all have a chance to get out and enjoy this hobby a little over the holidays. I know I'm going to try my luck some more if the weather holds... there are LOTS of schools in my town and most all of them have playgrounds/totlots. A perfect prescription for the wintertime detectorists' blues.
Happy Hunting Everyone !!!!
Frodov
Amazon Forum Fav 👍
Upvote
0
