Dealing With Drought

[F350Platinum]

A lot of my farm permissions are starting to open up due to the month long (as of today) drought. The farmers say they've never got their crops in so early, the corn was a loss due to the early year drought but soybeans were right in the pocket for all the rain.

Despite the dry, the weather here has been incredible, I'm still trying to finish up beach hunting but after today I may have to spend more time at the beach because digging the ground here is like hammering concrete.

Today I invited Chase down to hit some open farms, we ended up going to 3 because the first one I went to before he got there was planted with winter wheat. Always check with the farmer to find out what is there. The 3 we finally visited were only turbo tilled, so maybe the first 2-4" were soft and dusty, but below that dry and hard packed ground. It's going to take a lot to get to where we usually are this year.

It was a long day but not unproductive, I managed to get a few things, and a couple of strange things I've not seen before:

I ended up with 5 buttons and 5 coins. 

One button may not be one, it is extremely old, heavy, and has an unusual back: 

And the front appears to have had some decoration and maybe lettering a couple hundred years ago: 

If anyone recognizes this as something else I would appreciate knowing, it may be a broach or something. Regardless it is crude and very old. 

The best button was this basket weave Treble Gilt:

I cleaned it up a bit with lemon juice to bring out the gold. I've found a few of these in the past but not with this blackmark:

Got a thin flat, a fat flat with the shank still intact, even some thread in it that fell out. Also a button back with stamped lettering that I can't make out.

5 coins, one Buffalo nickel and 4 wheats, the latest is 1951.

Here's what I had to dig for all that: 

The usual stuff. 

One last thing, if anyone can tell me what this object is that would be cool:

At first I thought it was a light bulb socket but it's way older than that, thick heavy brass. It kinda looks like a bottle of some kind. 🤔

It was a great day to be outside. At the end we got a possible 1,000 Acre permission nearby. 🤞

[rvpopeye]

I thought that brass thing looked like a pull chain switch too. 

😳Another 1000 acres ! 👍

[MD4V.org]

Way cool finds!

[Valens Legacy]

Another nice hunt again, I just wish I could get out there to detect.

Good luck and stay safe out there.

[dogodog]

Pretty good day my friend, Nice buttons!! The drought here is really bad, and I have not dug a hole in the ground since August 19th. Just for giggles I dug a hole in my yard and it was powder down to 20 inches. The farmers here just started to cut the fields but I doubt digging in the hard clay will be fun.

[F350Platinum]

7 hours ago, rvpopeye said:

I thought that brass thing looked like a pull chain switch too. 

😳Another 1000 acres ! 👍

Some farmers rent land from others, and sometimes want to talk to the person who owns the land first. I'm hoping this one comes through, it's in a very historic area. 🤞🍀

A wild guess would be a slip on guide to a glass container for ink? The top is flared out, and if it wasn't cut the open bottom is contoured maybe to see how much ink is left in the glass? 🤔

[F350Platinum]

3 hours ago, Valens Legacy said:

Another nice hunt again, I just wish I could get out there to detect.

Good luck and stay safe out there.

Part of my reason for posting is to inspire others to get out there. 🙂

Although we had to cover a lot of ground to get anything, and what we got was hard won, it feels like it was worth it.

I couldn't imagine doing this much unless I was retired, with only weekends to get out there I'd probably be on my own by now. 😬 Your day will come.

[F350Platinum]

6 hours ago, MD4V.org said:

Way cool finds!

Thanks MD4V,

The place I live in is very old, over the last 4 years of detecting I've found some pretty astounding stuff. Of course having a lot of places to look doesn't hurt. 😎

[F350Platinum]

1 hour ago, dogodog said:

Pretty good day my friend, Nice buttons!! The drought here is really bad, and I have not dug a hole in the ground since August 19th. Just for giggles I dug a hole in my yard and it was powder down to 20 inches. The farmers here just started to cut the fields but I doubt digging in the hard clay will be fun.

Thanks man,

I believe your drought is much worse than mine.

https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/CurrentMap/StateDroughtMonitor.aspx?Northeast

We just got some color here in the Mid Atlantic:

It's going to take a lot of rain to make things right again!