DIGGER27
In Memory Of
Hey everybody,
I seem to have gotten myself into a little trouble, relationship-wise, with my wife, and I guess I am going to need some help figuring this thing out.
Some advice is sorely needed on this subject so I hope this post will elicit some good comments and some sort of plan of action so I can try to set things right with her again.
Maybe, the administrators can make this a sticky for a bit because we all can use a little help working on our relationship skills from time to time.
Right?
That's what every woman I have ever had in my life has told me, anyway.
It definitely is metal detecting related so I am going to tell my story and there are going to be some pictures attached at the end.
Any help, advice or comments will be appreciated.
A few weeks ago, one evening, I got out the trusty BH Pioneer EX and decided to hit an area on the outskirts of town I have not hunted before.
Just a short little hunt before dark beacause I was itchin' to do some diggin'.
I was there for a little while, finding the usual cans, poptops and related junk when I finally got a really good, repeatable tone.
Confidence was high, and I was looking forward to digging up something decent like a silver coin or maybe my first ring.
My pinpointing is still not great but I dug a little plug and got out my little cheap pinpointer and tried to locate the target.
Nada, nothing, zip.
I had some problems locating a few of my targets in the past, but not like this.
I kept running my detector over the hole and it kept telling me something was in there but I still had to dig deeper.
I took out some more dirt, and then some more, and then I went back to the car to exchange my little hand digger for a shovel.
I kept at it for awhile but every time I ran my detector over the hole, (by now it was actually in the hole), it told me I had to go deeper still.
I was a little confused by this time because I usually can't get a whole lotta depth out of my little detector, but my curiosity had been triggered, big time, and I kept going till it was dark and I could not see anymore.
I was off the next two days for the weekend so I packed it in and decided to come right back here the next day and try to find this thing, whatever it was.
A good night sleep and a hearty breakfast later, I came back to my hole and checked for the target.
Still there, so let the digging commence!
I dug, I scanned, took some more dirt out of the hole and scanned again.
Still had to go deeper.
This went on for awhile, as a matter of fact all day, but at this point I could not stop.
The guys out there will understand this, I know, but when I set my mind to something I just have to follow it through to the end.
Some call it mule-headed stubborness...I call it my single minded purpose.
I just had to know what this thing was and nothing was going to stop me!
By the time I came back home after dark the wife was pretty miffed because I had not called her all day and dinner was sitting cold on the table.
I tried to explain to her what was going on and my single minded purpose thing, but it seemed to me that she really did not understand.
Basic difference between men and women, I guess.
When I told her I was only back home to pick up a few supplies and my camping stuff and lantern so I could go back and finish the job I started, that really seemed to go over like a lead balloon.
It didn't matter. It was me against this thing and I was going to see this through to the end.
I did not know it at the time, but I ended up staying there for several days working on my "little project".
I did remember to call the ole ball and chain at regular intervals so she would not worry.
I did, however, forget to call in to work for several days so I got fired.
Didn't matter. I could always get another job but how often can you say you participated in an actual quest?
To me, that was exactly what it was...a quest.
The search for my version of The Holy Grail!
I still did not know exactly what I was questing for....but that was about to change.
I stuck my shovel in the dirt and struck something solid...it was metal and I had finally found it!
I cannot describe the exhilaration I felt!
I really don't know how deep I was because my little hand digger I had in my toolbelt only measures to 6 inches, but it was deep.
I am not sure if I was hallucinating or not, but for a second there I could swear I heard someone talking in Chinese and it sounded like it came from a few feet below my target.
Any way, this thing was huge so it took some time to unearth the whole thing out and drag it out of the hole.
I looked closely at it and tried to clean it up so I could determine what it was but I was at a loss.
It was really, really crusty, so I somehow managed to drag it back home so I could begin the cleaning process.
The wife was at work so I could not do any bragging to her about my find, but when she came home later that day I was going to be in the driveway right next to my mystery prize and show her what her man was capable of if he puts his mind to it!
I was a little tired after all that digging so I decided to lay down for a little nap to refresh myself so I could be there to greet her when she came home from work at about 6 pm.
Three days later, when I awoke, I stumbled into the kitchen and saw the her quietly drinking some coffee.
She did not seem to be in the greatest mood and for some reason she started yelling at me, but I really could not understand what she was trying to communicate.
You see, when she gets mad, her voice tends to raise up a bit into the higher octaves.
For a few minutes I saw her mouth moving but I did not hear anything coming out except a slight, high, vibrating hum.
I think she had gone beyond normal hearing and had crossed over into ultrasonic range.
This was probably not a good sign.
She kept pointing out the front window to the driveway where there it still sat, my mystery treasure.
This must be the cause of her distress so I tried to explain about the thrill of the hunt and finding your treasure and the joy of cleaning it and discovering what wonderous thing you have managed to release from the deep bosom of mother earth.
She is not a detectorist and I don't think she get's it.
I assured her that I was going to begin the cleaning process and we would both discover together what marvelous thing I had brought home.
After all, I had plenty of time to do this, having no job and all.
Apparently, about this time, she decided to stop talking to me and I figured she was giving me my space so I could get to work.
That's one of the reasons I love her...what a gal!
I went outside and studied this..huge...thing that was sitting in the drive and tried a plan of attack on how to clean this as fast and as efficiently as possible.
Hand scrubbing would take forever so I decided that electrolysis might be the way to go.
Always wanted to try that, anyway.
I did not have anything big enough that I could fit my prize in for this process, so I went around the neighborhood to ask for some help from the friendy neighbors.
Four of them have built-in pools.
I went to each one and explained what I had planned to do, pointed out my find sitting in the driveway, described the electrolysis process, and asked nicely for the use of their pool.
All four told me no and three of them told me not to come on their property anymore.
About an hour later, I noticed a for sale sign on the lawn of the fourth.
Back to square one.
I had no other choice so I took a wire brush and attempted to scrape off the crud and crust.
Neighbor Steve, who's house is right next door on the other side of the driveway, was sitting on his porch drinking a few cold ones and watching me..
At one point, he got up and came over and asked me what I was doing.
I explained about how I am a detectorist, and How I found this huge thing, and now I was attempting to clean it to find out what it was.
He never once offered to help me, (lazy bum), and he just smiled and went back to drinking beer on his porch.
Over the next few hours he watched me work my fingers to the bone, and every so often I would hear him laugh.
I kept asking him what was so funny.
He told me he was just a happy kind of person.
Personally, I think he just drinks too much.
After a few hours more of hand scraping, Steve came back over and offered me the use of a tool to make my job a little easier.
He is a contractor and in his garage he just happened to have a commercial grade sand blaster.
I asked him why he didn't this to me earlier, because by now my muscles ached and I had a strawberry red blister about the size of Idaho rising up on the palm of my hand.
He mumbled something about a broken tv and needing entertainment, but I am not really sure what he meant.
Did I mention he drinks alot?
Anyway, he lent me his blaster.
Now we are talking!!!
I asked Steve to turn down the pressure to the lowest setting and stood back a good bit.
Steve turned it on and away we went!
Let me give you a little clue about these things, if you never have used one.
They pack quite a wallop!
Kind of got away from me for a minute.
Hard to believe this thing was set to low.
The good news is, I was trying to decide if I should get the wife's Prius a new paint job.
Decision done!
Meanwhile, Steve was rolling on the ground laughing uncontrollably.
I am starting to think Steve is a tool.
I finally did manage to get a bunch of the crust and dirt off, but I still can't figure out what it is.
If you can, look at the picture and tell me if you have an idea.
A clue is I found what I think is some sort of manufactures label with some date and maybe the state it was made in.
I will work on this and post it another time when it is done.
After I am done cleaning, because of the tremendous amount of effort I have invested, I have decided to call this a treasure and I am going to coat it with plastic and preserve it for display in my home.
It has been a while since I built a display case so I was kind of surprised how much the cost of wood has risen, lately.
What shocked me was the price of the structural steel I would need.
When I asked the wife to go to the bank with me to get a loan for the materials, she started talking about leaving me.
After I did some measuring and told her I was going to have to knock a few walls down in the old homestead to finish this project, she packed her bags and left.
That's where I stand at this point.
I just have two question's and if you can help me out with some advice I would appreciate it.
I love my wife and it's not the same here without her.
#1...Please tell me what I did was so wrong?
#2...Anybody know where I could get a good deal on some clear acrylic resin?
About 500 lbs should do it.
Thanks and Happy Hunting
Digger 27...or...
as my wife took to calling me before she left, "Stupid, Freaking Clueless Idiot".
I seem to have gotten myself into a little trouble, relationship-wise, with my wife, and I guess I am going to need some help figuring this thing out.
Some advice is sorely needed on this subject so I hope this post will elicit some good comments and some sort of plan of action so I can try to set things right with her again.
Maybe, the administrators can make this a sticky for a bit because we all can use a little help working on our relationship skills from time to time.
Right?
That's what every woman I have ever had in my life has told me, anyway.
It definitely is metal detecting related so I am going to tell my story and there are going to be some pictures attached at the end.
Any help, advice or comments will be appreciated.
A few weeks ago, one evening, I got out the trusty BH Pioneer EX and decided to hit an area on the outskirts of town I have not hunted before.
Just a short little hunt before dark beacause I was itchin' to do some diggin'.
I was there for a little while, finding the usual cans, poptops and related junk when I finally got a really good, repeatable tone.
Confidence was high, and I was looking forward to digging up something decent like a silver coin or maybe my first ring.
My pinpointing is still not great but I dug a little plug and got out my little cheap pinpointer and tried to locate the target.
Nada, nothing, zip.
I had some problems locating a few of my targets in the past, but not like this.
I kept running my detector over the hole and it kept telling me something was in there but I still had to dig deeper.
I took out some more dirt, and then some more, and then I went back to the car to exchange my little hand digger for a shovel.
I kept at it for awhile but every time I ran my detector over the hole, (by now it was actually in the hole), it told me I had to go deeper still.
I was a little confused by this time because I usually can't get a whole lotta depth out of my little detector, but my curiosity had been triggered, big time, and I kept going till it was dark and I could not see anymore.
I was off the next two days for the weekend so I packed it in and decided to come right back here the next day and try to find this thing, whatever it was.
A good night sleep and a hearty breakfast later, I came back to my hole and checked for the target.
Still there, so let the digging commence!
I dug, I scanned, took some more dirt out of the hole and scanned again.
Still had to go deeper.
This went on for awhile, as a matter of fact all day, but at this point I could not stop.
The guys out there will understand this, I know, but when I set my mind to something I just have to follow it through to the end.
Some call it mule-headed stubborness...I call it my single minded purpose.
I just had to know what this thing was and nothing was going to stop me!
By the time I came back home after dark the wife was pretty miffed because I had not called her all day and dinner was sitting cold on the table.
I tried to explain to her what was going on and my single minded purpose thing, but it seemed to me that she really did not understand.
Basic difference between men and women, I guess.
When I told her I was only back home to pick up a few supplies and my camping stuff and lantern so I could go back and finish the job I started, that really seemed to go over like a lead balloon.
It didn't matter. It was me against this thing and I was going to see this through to the end.
I did not know it at the time, but I ended up staying there for several days working on my "little project".
I did remember to call the ole ball and chain at regular intervals so she would not worry.
I did, however, forget to call in to work for several days so I got fired.
Didn't matter. I could always get another job but how often can you say you participated in an actual quest?
To me, that was exactly what it was...a quest.
The search for my version of The Holy Grail!
I still did not know exactly what I was questing for....but that was about to change.
I stuck my shovel in the dirt and struck something solid...it was metal and I had finally found it!
I cannot describe the exhilaration I felt!
I really don't know how deep I was because my little hand digger I had in my toolbelt only measures to 6 inches, but it was deep.
I am not sure if I was hallucinating or not, but for a second there I could swear I heard someone talking in Chinese and it sounded like it came from a few feet below my target.
Any way, this thing was huge so it took some time to unearth the whole thing out and drag it out of the hole.
I looked closely at it and tried to clean it up so I could determine what it was but I was at a loss.
It was really, really crusty, so I somehow managed to drag it back home so I could begin the cleaning process.
The wife was at work so I could not do any bragging to her about my find, but when she came home later that day I was going to be in the driveway right next to my mystery prize and show her what her man was capable of if he puts his mind to it!
I was a little tired after all that digging so I decided to lay down for a little nap to refresh myself so I could be there to greet her when she came home from work at about 6 pm.
Three days later, when I awoke, I stumbled into the kitchen and saw the her quietly drinking some coffee.
She did not seem to be in the greatest mood and for some reason she started yelling at me, but I really could not understand what she was trying to communicate.
You see, when she gets mad, her voice tends to raise up a bit into the higher octaves.
For a few minutes I saw her mouth moving but I did not hear anything coming out except a slight, high, vibrating hum.
I think she had gone beyond normal hearing and had crossed over into ultrasonic range.
This was probably not a good sign.
She kept pointing out the front window to the driveway where there it still sat, my mystery treasure.
This must be the cause of her distress so I tried to explain about the thrill of the hunt and finding your treasure and the joy of cleaning it and discovering what wonderous thing you have managed to release from the deep bosom of mother earth.
She is not a detectorist and I don't think she get's it.
I assured her that I was going to begin the cleaning process and we would both discover together what marvelous thing I had brought home.
After all, I had plenty of time to do this, having no job and all.
Apparently, about this time, she decided to stop talking to me and I figured she was giving me my space so I could get to work.
That's one of the reasons I love her...what a gal!
I went outside and studied this..huge...thing that was sitting in the drive and tried a plan of attack on how to clean this as fast and as efficiently as possible.
Hand scrubbing would take forever so I decided that electrolysis might be the way to go.
Always wanted to try that, anyway.
I did not have anything big enough that I could fit my prize in for this process, so I went around the neighborhood to ask for some help from the friendy neighbors.
Four of them have built-in pools.
I went to each one and explained what I had planned to do, pointed out my find sitting in the driveway, described the electrolysis process, and asked nicely for the use of their pool.
All four told me no and three of them told me not to come on their property anymore.
About an hour later, I noticed a for sale sign on the lawn of the fourth.
Back to square one.
I had no other choice so I took a wire brush and attempted to scrape off the crud and crust.
Neighbor Steve, who's house is right next door on the other side of the driveway, was sitting on his porch drinking a few cold ones and watching me..
At one point, he got up and came over and asked me what I was doing.
I explained about how I am a detectorist, and How I found this huge thing, and now I was attempting to clean it to find out what it was.
He never once offered to help me, (lazy bum), and he just smiled and went back to drinking beer on his porch.
Over the next few hours he watched me work my fingers to the bone, and every so often I would hear him laugh.
I kept asking him what was so funny.
He told me he was just a happy kind of person.
Personally, I think he just drinks too much.
After a few hours more of hand scraping, Steve came back over and offered me the use of a tool to make my job a little easier.
He is a contractor and in his garage he just happened to have a commercial grade sand blaster.
I asked him why he didn't this to me earlier, because by now my muscles ached and I had a strawberry red blister about the size of Idaho rising up on the palm of my hand.
He mumbled something about a broken tv and needing entertainment, but I am not really sure what he meant.
Did I mention he drinks alot?
Anyway, he lent me his blaster.
Now we are talking!!!
I asked Steve to turn down the pressure to the lowest setting and stood back a good bit.
Steve turned it on and away we went!
Let me give you a little clue about these things, if you never have used one.
They pack quite a wallop!
Kind of got away from me for a minute.
Hard to believe this thing was set to low.
The good news is, I was trying to decide if I should get the wife's Prius a new paint job.
Decision done!
Meanwhile, Steve was rolling on the ground laughing uncontrollably.
I am starting to think Steve is a tool.
I finally did manage to get a bunch of the crust and dirt off, but I still can't figure out what it is.
If you can, look at the picture and tell me if you have an idea.
A clue is I found what I think is some sort of manufactures label with some date and maybe the state it was made in.
I will work on this and post it another time when it is done.
After I am done cleaning, because of the tremendous amount of effort I have invested, I have decided to call this a treasure and I am going to coat it with plastic and preserve it for display in my home.
It has been a while since I built a display case so I was kind of surprised how much the cost of wood has risen, lately.
What shocked me was the price of the structural steel I would need.
When I asked the wife to go to the bank with me to get a loan for the materials, she started talking about leaving me.
After I did some measuring and told her I was going to have to knock a few walls down in the old homestead to finish this project, she packed her bags and left.
That's where I stand at this point.
I just have two question's and if you can help me out with some advice I would appreciate it.
I love my wife and it's not the same here without her.
#1...Please tell me what I did was so wrong?
#2...Anybody know where I could get a good deal on some clear acrylic resin?
About 500 lbs should do it.
Thanks and Happy Hunting
Digger 27...or...
as my wife took to calling me before she left, "Stupid, Freaking Clueless Idiot".
Great story 
Great story.. that takes the prize. RickO
.You got me
