treasure hunting

Kids & Metal Detecting

  • May 9, 2016

I had this boss once. Granted, I've had a few bosses... but this boss instilled in me a great a wisdom. Besides encouraging me to read The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People--which I still reference from time to time--this boss equated my job to the act of spinning plates. I had to keep all the plates spinning--the salespeople, the collateral, the leads, and the quarterly pipelines. I could have taken my act to Atlantic City. Since then, I've shuffled positions in the same company. I'm no longer a corporate plate spinner--at least not like I used to be. I am--however--still spinning...

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Bottle Fever

  • June 15, 2015

I'll admit that I've been on a glass kick lately. Obviously, not a single one of my detectors can find glass--but I've mastered a method for finding bottle shards and china fragments. Are you ready for this? I call it... the random-hole-digging-method. You may be asking yourself, what is this random-hole-digging-method and how can I sign up. Well, I'm about to tell you... Sometime last week, I decided to leave the detector in the trunk of my Forester. Instead, I grabbed my shovel and set off to find myself a bottle dump or privy. For those of you who follow my blog, this is the brick house...

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Pirate in a Previous Life

  • April 9, 2015

I can still remember my sixth birthday party. At the time, we were living in Sandwich, MA. My dad was the senior pastor of the baptist church. We lived in the parsonage, which was built off the main parking lot behind the church building. But this particular parking lot wasn't really a parking lot at all--not to a six year-old, anyway. This particular parking lot was a vast and tumultuous seascape with roaring waves and hideous creatures rising from the deep. Honestly, I forget the details of the party. The cake might have been strawberry? There could have been two or five friends? I assume...

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Working Through the Weather Whiplash

  • March 24, 2015

This weather is giving me whiplash. Its warm. Its cold. Its raining. Its snowing. The ground is thawed. The ground is frozen. When I stumbled downstairs to make my coffee this morning, the deck was covered in a thin coating of snow and temperatures had dipped into the twenties. By Thursday, the weatherman is promising seventy degrees and another soggy spring shower. Its times like these when I'm reminded of how I survived the terribly long winter... staring at old maps and driving around knocking on doors. For those of you who are still trapped indoors and suffering from this weather whiplash,...

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A Charming Little Junk Pit

  • March 23, 2015

My mother-in-law and brother-in-law recently volunteered to watch my kiddos every Sunday--giving me five precious hours during the week to devote to digging. Last week, I used those stolen moments to hit the Wright House. This week, I followed Roman into the woods and poked around an old trash pit. When we first arrived at the site, I was giddy--I realize that not many young ladies get excited over a giant depression in the middle of the woods... but I suppose I'm a different breed. With the exception of the backyard dump at my Uncle's, I hadn't been digging through any junk pits since...

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Leaving an Impression (The Good Kind)

  • February 21, 2015

I have been tossing around this idea of developing a one-pager to leave with potential permissions. Do any of you have something that you have developed? I thought of creating a business card, but what can a business card really tell you about a person who wants permission to dig up your property? (Because--essentially--that is what we are all asking for.) I was doing some research on the metal detecting code of ethics--which I preach about on a regular basis. I happened upon this version by White's Electronics: Be a good ambassador for other detectorists by following this code of ethics for respecting...

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Detecting (Not So) Public Property

  • February 21, 2015

In some cases, you will find that paying your taxes does not give you the right to metal detect in township parks, schools, or sidewalk strips. A dog can take a dump in any of these places. A kid can eat dirt in any of these places. A hipster can play his guitar and a homeless man can nap in any of these places. Do they pay taxes? Probably not. But they have these rights because you pay your taxes. There is a township near me called South Middleton Township. This township has all the ingredients for a perfect detecting experience. I've touched on it before, but in case you forgot--underground...

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Metal Detecting Aspirations

  • November 18, 2014

My family thinks I'm nuts. After all, I am only twenty-six. When they envision a metal detecting hobbyists, they envision some retiree in his early sixties sweeping the beach for spare change. Perhaps in some past life, I was a sixty-something retiree because the prospect of metal detecting is probably the most exciting idea I've had of late--apart from putting my kids in daycare for two more days a week. That was pretty revolutionary. I have been labeled an old soul by strangers, friends, and family.What can I say? I like old stuff. My family playfully suggests that my house is more like...

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