M E T A L M A N 9

M E T A L M A N 9

Click the date link, then a photo to start larger photo gallery & see descriptions

June 6, 2020 - Chez Antoine’s Farm

June 7, 2020 - Two Points Farm

June 17, 2020 - St. Malo Beach

June 22, 2020 - Gimli

June 6, 2020 - Chez Antoine’s Farm

June 7, 2020 - Two Points Farm

June 17, 2020 - St. Malo Beach

June 22, 2020 - Gimli

June 30, 2020 - St. Malo Beach

Thought I'd share the "Highlights" from last Friday's outing. I finally had the time to clean them up some. I have Titles for two of the pictures. Humour again. And in no particular order... You turn my crank... Don't have a cow, I'm just horsing around. If anyone can tell me what the aluminum piece with what looks like sharp teeth is??? Yes, that is indeed a piece of a "Toy" gun. I tend to just pick up stuff that is laying on the ground. Sometimes the item only reveals itself once cleaned up. Example the tube looking plastic piece.... turns out it's a smoking pipe stem. Great grand dad Dupuis used to grow his own tobacco way back when. The pipe could have well been his as it came from the land he lived on. The glass is fun. Love the colors. Two pieces turn out to be chards from glass insulators found on telephone poles. And a sparkly gold colored fishing lure. The teeth of course I'm not sure to which animal they belong to. My guess is cow. There's a strange piece of slag... looks like material copper but it's not, and it's not magnetic either? Might make an nice piece of jewelry. Personally I love the ceramic with the blue pattern designs. They must have been beautiful plates.

Here are some of my finds to date from the fields of the family farm. Sealer jars make for an easy way to see and save these bits of history. Old glass abounds on the field as does ceramic, coal and interesting rocks and of course the artifacts.

St. Malo Beach Hello St. Malo Beach… My first outing ever to a beach. Got here bright and early. In fact, mine was the only car in sight and I had the entire breach to myself. It just doesn’t get better than that. Oh wait ! Yes it does. I had just stepped onto beach sand from where the lawn ends and BINGO! A metal neck chain. I at first thought it was one of those chains that you loop onto fish to keep them in water off your boat but no. It is a copper clad piece of cheaper jewelry. Nice. So how what? Should I just pack up and go home? It seems to have been my experience so far with metal detecting. The best finds of the day come within the first few minutes. Just like with the Sterling Silver Brooch found on May 9th. Funny how that is eh! But the day did not disappoint. It’s right at the water’s edge that I found my first Twoonie. Judging by the discoloration, I suspect that it probably spent the winter in the water. And yes, my metal detector is waterproof. At least the coil end is. Another interesting find was the nice rusty piece of barb wire. Yup, just the barb portion. I can’t imagine sitting or stepping on that. Can you spell Tetanus Shot. Lots of nails and screws soon followed. Then I had an Ah Ha Moment! St Malo is an artificial beach. Sand is trucked in from local sand pits around the area. Those sand pits are on farm land where cattle roam and farmers work; hence the barb wire and assortment of non- beach like artifacts. All and all a great day! The temperature got really hot by noon, the beach started filling up with people and it was time to go. Good bye St. Malo, I shall return.

Tuesday the 22nd. A beautiful sunny day. Almost 5 hours of metal detecting yielded, as always, some interesting and unexpected finds. Oh Yes, the fun of the hunt. Time just flies when you’re out metal detecting. I could have stayed for another 2 or 3 hours easy. I even had a small following of kids at one point. The Pied Piper or what eh. Alex, a 12 - 14 year old Filipino kid stayed with me for almost an hour. Another younger boy wanted me to go to his house and look for the Lonnie that he lost in his backyard. Yikes! Found at a bit over a foot deep was a hoard of tin foil. Looks like someone used it to cook with but... immediately noticeable was just how thick the foil was. It probably dates back to the 50's or 60's when aluminum foil was foil. Not the thin stuff of today. Mentos ??? This wrapper really set off the detector. Again, thick aluminum. Coin wise.... two of the dimes are super attracted to a magnet. The other, not at all... Har de Dar Mattie’s!!! Silver. Dated 1950 and in nice condition. The quarter is 2012. And the corroded round thing ? It has the same size and shape as a nickel complete with what looks like angled edges like quarters of old but why so corroded? The small rock next to the coins is just that, a rock but the hole in it makes it look neat. Also found; but it took forever to pinpoint in the sand was the round metal ball next to the 22 shell casings. I'm guessing it's # 2 shot from a shotgun shell.... bird shot. And last but not least... apparently is the array of nails and wire and screws that are mandatory on a public beach. The two tent pegs might however come in handy. Oh... a Banquet bottle cap. A beer made by Coors. An American beer cap on the beach in Gimli??? Must be a relic, a true Pre-Covid-19 artifact. Remember those days?

June 30, 2020 - St. Malo Beach

Well St. Malo it was. Notice the tracks on the beach? I didn't know whether to call this Nickel Days or Bottle Cap Days. I found 3 nickels one right after the other. I figured this would be one of those days. It's when I switched over to the far side of the beach that the bottle caps started rolling in. Total loot for today.... 57c. Nothing older than 1979 (Penny) through to 2012 (Quarter) and 2018 (Nickel). Also lots of Bobby Pins and Ginette, are you ready for this... an intact clothes pin for that special bathing suit. Oh, and one big corroded metal plate ??? It was square at one time. About 3 lbs. It was buried 12" in at the edge of where the beach sand ends and the grass starts. Now that was a hole in the ground. And as always so I've come to learn, no beach is complete without an array of nails, screws and even a long furniture staple. Only one piece of glass found. I think I'll start selling tent pegs on the black market. So there you have it... you arm chair metal detectors. Another great day detecting what lies below. Who knows what next week will bring. Any ideas anyone for a new or possible place to go sleuthing?