I Had To Do It !

[rvpopeye]

Next weekend is the annual suicidal ski bums being towed by gleeful horse owners yelling  every feet per second they can out of their horses whipping the ski bums around the fairground harness track. Several jumps courtesy of town dumpers clearing the last storm up are spaced around the outer edge of the track for extra points. (that's the suicidal part).🙃 These aren't the harness horses that only trot either..

So enough of the scene here , the reason I'm posting is all of the (dead)grassy areas including the one I'm in are being plowed  (since the sun came up) to increase the parking to maximum sooooooo. 

I had to go out with the detector , and I'm pretty glad I did ! 🤗 I was finding all kinds of targets everywhere ! 

Of course it's still frozen solid so I couldn't dig anything. 

I'm going back out after I finish shaking this can of spray paint 🥸 then I'm putting an old cooler with a light bulb in it upside down over the paint marks one by one.  

 I don't care what the giant mouse said yesterday about spring .  I tail snagged meself a root slayer shark and it  B hungry......... 🏴‍☠️ 

 

 

 

[Valens Legacy]

You could also use a metal bucket and a can of sterno to heat an area, just make sure that you use some gloves.

That has helped me thaw the ground before, and if you go to a good will store you can snag them cheap.

Wish you luck and hope your targets are nice.

[rvpopeye]

Thaw update.  The ground is saturated .   If it thaws at all , it refreezes every night. A few more days above freezing then back to single digit temp nights and teens/twenties day. It IS February uptah camp. So very acceptable  👍 (I know I will be freeze-doomed for mentioning it 🙄)

 I started yesterday , just before sunset .

1/2 inch at a time , I just kept going back . Made it almost there .    Last thing , I decided to waste a battery on the heat gun but the watery frozen dirt wasn't playing around. ( Not digging out the propane torch . Maybe tomorrow?)   Today , I scouted out a couple more black spots  ( I figured it would be less noticeable than white , no hope of leaving no trace plugs in this stuff !  I'm basically shaving the ice.... 4th try the target was out of the icicle dirt ! Only took a half hour , over two days.....

Target 1 , a 2006 quarter.  🤗

Next spot , I think I found a nickel and that hole is getting sun  (no sunblock) . Stay tuned , I'm going back out in an hour. 

Then a triple beeper up top , maybe a penny or a piece of jewelry?  , I split it in half on the second "chop ? "  and there it was ! 

Target 2 , 2/3 of a pull tab , slightly mangled . The ice dirt can keep the 1/3 left behind ! .

The pointer is a must have for dig or no dig decisions . More than an inch or so is crazy talk.  

Then a really loud Target #3.   1/2" down , Horse tac.  A broken off snap ring .

It was slow going . Ankle getting sore from slamming down on the shovel but tomorrow is another over freezing day maybe over 40 ? 

I did manage to sink the shovel 3" in only one stomp near the rig but someone had already cleaned house there !

Target 4.  The nickel turned out to be some aluminum foil.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

[rvpopeye]

Alrighty then..... I did a swing after the big skiing event.  I took note of where groups of people were standing around the track fence and of course the bleachers .

Ground still freezing up at night but I found one spot near the track with a south facing slope that had zero ice ! It might even get better today ?  Mid winter thaw ending for a bit tomorrow .....

5 targets that I could get to. A double clad quarter drop and also a couple copper pennies trying for  dimes  !  But target #3 was a ring !😜   of bling.😵   but it WAS yellow ! hmmm so was that 925 ring last fall at the festival CG hunt ?  🤔

 Except that one thawed spot , I only dug what the pinpointer could find and had to turn it down a couple of notches in sensitivity so 2" max. or no dig.  

 Under the  bleachers was a skunk , glazed over with ice and didn't need to detect , visual only.  Much was still frozen but I live here .  Just as close but a little less productive than 350s fields .....😉

 

 

[F350Platinum]

Nice going, RVP!

A bling ring is better than no ring, it's still a thing. 👍

We've been socked in with rain past couple days, the ground was drying out so we needed it.

Looks like you're going to miss out on the big nor'easter, so you won't get too buried. 🍀 Good on ya for getting out there. 🙂

[rvpopeye]

I'm on my way out now. The thaw calls me.

Massive Noreaster  to 6-10"  then 3-6" yesterday and today 1-2" , by the time it gets here it will be a possibility of snow showers , dusting to 1" LOL OR back to the Noreaster ! 

They don't know , the computers tell them !  AI my A.  They say it will teach itself , what could possibly go wrong ?  

On that note , never say never..  What was that Thaw.?  OK , I just turned on the detector I'll be right out ! 

[rvpopeye]

 And before I opened the door it powered down ! 🙄 So power bricked the suckah  !  It's on charge now .Park2 , recovery 6 . 

  Clad:  2-quarters , 3 dimes , 3 zincolns .  1 copper memorial 1966 and a Canadian Maple Leaf Cent 1964. , An ornate (Celtic Knot esque )button or possibly a snap cap by the track fence  and a tiny little flat /round thing  with some printing on it , slightly resembling the butt end of a bullet but might be too small for a 22.   I know my pic wouldn't help with ID or I'd post one , putting it in the interesting junk jar. One of the dimes was green but no cigar .😩

Only 2 pieces of junk . Oh , also found an electric conduit , I assume the copper was the 19 ID. (on an 800)

Still a LOT of frozen ground but I found a soft hotspot using my shovel as a walking stick on my walk back to the rig .  The dimes and pennies came from there and I'll be going back on ? depending on weather.  Winter has a habit of coming back with an attitude after a thaw like this , so ?  🥸

 However ,,,, I just heard the weather report ,that big NEer is down to 1" now.... .👍

The hotspot is less than a one minute walk from my door 🤗 

 

[rvpopeye]

🥸I had to do it again dontchyaknow ! Another 90 minutes on yesterday's spot . The NEer was only clouds and wind but @20 steady with 30kt gusts   So I wimped out early but the ground was still soft with a 2-3" hard crust. The Radius Nomad shovel was an easy carry as well as doing a nice Great White impersonation pushing right through the crust  without jumping like yesterday with the garden spade.  👍👍  two thumbs up !  Might go back after warming back up in the rig....

So far the score is a few crumpled aluminum pieces , a 4" aluminum wire , 3" deck screw a pull tab and a separate beaver tail and some clad . 1 quarter and 2 dimes. I dug the low #s today JIC. but no cigar.

 

Oh , I was also swarmed by the police .   8 cruisers...😳..

It was a close one !  Different departments having a pow wow. They were training K9s and this is one of the locations they use. Usually a statey giving training the trainers lessons .

Kinda like all dog trainers . They don't train your dogs for you , they train you for the dogs ! 

The sheppie was happy but after 15 minutes way over by the grandstand , the two cops with him sure were in a hurry getting back to their cruisers, the handler commented "too cold ! " on the way by..  All the other cruiser's occupants never left their vehicles. 😏 Maybe they forgot their down jackets ?🤔   Then they all  swarmed the heck outta here.  

 

 

[Joe D.]

Rvpopeye, 

   Just come to Florida already! You will never have to wait to detect, or dig through ice again!  The only melting that will happen here, is you disappearing into a pool of sweat, digging through all the feet of renurishment sand they are putting on the beaches; again!! Guaranteed to find the same kinds of targets too! Btw, spring has sprung here; shocker!!🥵⛱️

[rvpopeye]

Ok Joe , I'm on my way !  Florida is a big sand dune ,  very little altitude change. Nowhere to go to escape when it gets hot except for air conditioning. Even the ocean is warm ...    Besides . One big wave over say 40' and everybody will be swimming in the gulf !     

Yes , I know the joy 🙄of off season many places that have been on my itinerary over 45 years .  I even got paid to do most of that scouting around. Most places have a good season , if not choose carefully LOL 

The beaches there in FL aren't so bad though  , no Spanish fleet wrecks off our beaches at all  (or IS there?), are you on the gulf side ? 

The older I get , the less I like the cold but inversely can tolerate the heat more . Death Valley was a piece of cake !  I left when it was 115 in may but this time of year it might not make it to 50. 

I'm now off the road here 15 years to take care of mom and restore this old home on wheels. In the meantime my mechanic retired on me and replacing him is turning out to be fahgeddaboutit . I've lost count of how many were gonna "do it by the end of the week ", trouble is what week ?   Hope to get back on the road before next year's cold .   At least one more trip.  If I don't , it will be no worse than this year...maaaaybe. I can heat the rig to 90+ degrees no matter how cold it gets outside too.

Living at the fair is an interesting contrast to being on the road 300 days a year doing shows for sure. But a HUGE amount of less stress , and they gave me permission to detect the whole place .

I have been researching if any treasure was lost around here and even found a place with real promise just off the coast. !       It's called Oak Island arrrrrrrrrrrrrr Skuh kuh kuh kuh kuh .