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Metalman9
M E T A L M A N 9
M E T A L M A N 9
Ph: 204-223-7809
METALMAN9
Ph: 204-223-7809
METALMAN9
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Index
April 1, 2021 - Pay day. Cashing in!
April 1, 2021 Pay day. Cashing in! Well well well… free money does exist after all. Well sort of free. Over the course of the winter months and especially during the gorgeous warm days that we had in March, I have been out walking. Sometime with the dogs, sometimes on my own and I would collect metal. Pop and beer cans in the neighborhood and along local roadways. The cloverleaf bypass at Pembina and the Perimeter is a mere 3 minute drive from home so I took on the task of collecting all of the metal that I could find along that structure. It turned out to be quite the task and much more than what first met the eye. I’d go out for about 2 hours or so at a time. It took me 2 weeks. I got great exercise walking and going up and down the embankments… And picking and lugging all the metal. Last fall, I turned in 416 lbs. of scrap. My goal this year was to try to beat that amount. Well between the clover leaf overpass at Pembina and finds under the Perimeter bridge at the Red River (see the Feb pictures), yup, 3 sleds full of ceiling tile tracks and just stuff from around the neighborhood, here is the tally: 426 Beer cans. At .10c each that’s $42.60. 36 lbs. of pop cans 7 lbs. of copper 868 lbs. of iron and general scrap. $156.80 Total payout for just walking around and a little bit of lugging: $199.40. And that sports fans is no April fool’s joke. Roger
Index April 2021 - Scrap Load April 2021 - Scrap Load April 2021 - Scrap Load
April 3, 2021 Miranda’s big day!!! It’s a beautiful warm day in early April and what could possibly be better than a treasure hunt in the park, or in this case in the local school yard. Miranda is Tess and I’s granddaughter. She was out for a day visit so between painting Easter Eggs and playing with the new puppies, off we went to the school yard to detect for a little treasure and treasure we found. We cashed in with a total of .26c and the cutest little medallion ever. It looks like Taurus encircled by 12 stars. The earliest coins were 2 pennies dated 1970. Notice the color of the nickels? We also found a bent steel washer, a AAA battery, a twist tie, a Minuit Maid bottle top and very strange indeed was the eraser end of a pencil… now what would that be doing in a school yard I ask? A great little haul and a bit of play time on the swings and play structure afterwards. What better way to spend a Saturday afternoon in early April. Roger
April 3, 2021 - Miranda’s big day!!!
Index April 3, 2021 - Miranda's Big Day!!! April 3, 2021 - Miranda's Big Day!!! April 3, 2021 - Small medallion at Ryerson School field April 3, 2021 - Miranda's Big Day!!! April 3, 2021 - Small medallion at Ryerson School fiel April 3, 2021 - Miranda at the Bus Stop
April 5, 2021 Two Little Points Farm Talk about a full day of metal detecting. Absolutely wonderful. Today I got to spend some time and visit with my two brothers over on the family farm, and then I got over to my destination of choice. I set up the parameters for a more formal grid type search. I am also now armed with aerial photographs taken by the Canadian Government in May of 1930 and September of 1950. I now have a more exact area as to where the one room school once stood along with a number of old farm buildings that no one knew anything about anymore. Today, I also got to try out the 15” detecting coil on my Equinox 800 metal detector. It’s a much larger coil which gives me more depth and allows me to cover a wider area of ground per sweep. Well, true to the photo, I did find more debris like square nails, copper pieces, wire and bits of glass, ceramics, coal and tiles. Further into the field, I found an unfired bullet. The casing or shell is almost completely disintegrated but the bullet remains in great condition. Also found my first horse shoe on the family farm. Yeah ! Notice the farm implement pin? It’s hand forged. The shiny black lumps are coal. Yes, I also pick up the remnants of bricks too. They’ll all make for a nice art project come the long winter months. That little turquoise blue thing… It’s a glass bead. It has to be pre 1950’s as that’s when the school was closed. It could also easily be the very early 1900’s when glass beads were common. The dime was used for size comparison only. It’s not a find. While there, I had the pleasure of meeting one of the locals, Kurt. His first visit was more to see who I was and what I was doing there. Nice to see neighbors looking out for each other. Of course we talked about metal detecting and about the local history of the area. Kurt was kind enough to put me onto other possible areas of interest for metal detecting and invited me to his farm to detect there. I mentioned his “First” visit… by midafternoon; he was back with a most interesting wooden box filled with some of his choice finds from all around Red River Valley. A pioneer’s hewing axe, arrow heads, gypsum selenite crystals, a bison horn, quite a collection to see. Making new friends and contact is all part of the Metal Detecting experience. Thanks for sharing Kurt. My plan is to follow up on this grid before the crops are put in. I drew myself a map, paced out the area covered, and took a few pictures. I should be able to carry on just where I left off. I got back home just in time for supper and yes, I’ll admit, fell asleep on the living room chair. Exhausted and sore all over but very happy with a well spent day meeting with family and a new contact and tomorrow I get to clean and catalogue my finds and put it all out online. Enjoy. Roger
April 5, 2021 - Two Little Points Farm
Index April 5, 2021 - Two Little Points Farm April 5, 2021 - Two Little Points Farm April 5, 2021 - Two Little Points Farm April 5, 2021 - Two Little Points Farm April 5, 2021 - Two Little Points Farm April 5, 2021 - Two Little Points Farm April 5, 2021 - Two Little Points Farm April 5, 2021 - Two Little Points Farm April 5, 2021 - Two Little Points Farm April 5, 2021 - Two Little Points Farm April 5, 2021 - Two Little Points Farm
April 11, 2021 Plinguet Street: Re-visited with a friend. He’s hiding…I’ll never find him now! If you read over the October 14, 2020 adventure you will see that this is a return outing to the now long gone foot bridge site. This foot bridge crossed over the Seine River and a foot path took us on our way to school back in the 70’s. Marc, a school friend from that era, accompanied me for a second time, looking for treasure. The real treasure is our friendship over all these years. A few very significant things have happened since we were last here. Someone or a group of people have actually done some tree clearing and branch pruning over on this, the east side of the river. Also significant is that the natural grasses and weeds have all been flattened by the winter snows and one can actually see the ground rather well. It’s too early yet for new grass so this makes metal detecting and target retrieval so much easier. And…I have personally dropped by this site a few times over in winter and spring. Just to see. In mid-March, I brought with me a big black garbage bag and quite literally filled it with pop and beer cans and discarded metal items that littered the ground. Our detecting efforts were somewhat stymied last year due to the long grass and the metal litter that we couldn’t see through the overgrowth and underbrush. This leads me to an important YouTube video that I saw over the winter. For those that are interested, please see: Metal Detecting Trashy Areas: A (Fun) CASE STUDY In Target Masking. It’s hosted by Merrill Kazanjian of New York City. The video is 23 minutes long. It mainly talks about the problems encountered by detectorists when two or more targets are in close proximity to each other in or on the ground. But more importantly and this was a big lesson that I learnt is Merrill’s persistence by first cleaning up the site, pull tabs, bottle caps and all. It’s not an exciting video, and with the utmost respect, a bit boring but the point that it drove home for me was just that… Perseverance, persistence and doing the hard work first, then the real treasures can be found. And that was my goal when I visited the foot bridge site in mid-March armed with a garbage bag. So here we are, Marc and I and our finds. The hope had been finding coins and keys and trinkets dropped and lost by users of the foot bridge. The bridge did have about 5 or 6 long stairs at the top off the street and I remember that it made for a very bumpy bike ride heading down those stairs. The reality is that like much of this land area along the Seine River is “Fill”. Junky fill at that. I may have cleared off the surface of metal but a lot of metal remains buried all around. Mark concentrated his efforts on the bank right next to the river while I worked the upper area where the stairs would have been. Not an unsuccessful hunt by any means, just not what was hoped for or expected. Future detecting efforts at this location might well reveal new treasures. Of note: A circa 1950’s metal pan; Enamelware made in China, and a small non-magnetic metal vial or bottle. It has a rounded bottom… I have no idea what it might have been used for. A door plate for a skeleton key. Copper wires, a lead plate possibly from a battery and a heavy brass disk. Lego anyone ? Roger
April 11, 2021 - Plinquet St. Revisted
April 11, 2021 - Plinguet St. Revisited April 11, 2021 - Plinguet St. Revisited April 11, 2021 - Plinguet St. Revisited April 11, 2021 - Plinguet St. Revisited April 11, 2021 - Plinguet St. Revisited April 11, 2021 - Plinguet St. Revisited April 11, 2021 - Plinguet St. Revisited April 11, 2021 - Plinguet St. Revisited April 11, 2021 - Plinguet St. Revisited Index April 11, 2021 - Plinguet St. Revisited April 11, 2021 - Plinguet St. Revisited April 11, 2021 - Plinguet St. Revisited - Ouch
April 22, 2021 Two Little Points: Continued April 22, 2021 was the warmest day of the year so far. A balmy 19 to 21 C. depending on where you live. On the farm field, it was closer to 21c of that I am sure. What a gorgeous day to be out Metal Detecting. It starts with one big step forward… And the finds did not disappoint. The specific area that I’ve been detecting at Two Little Points was the original site of Two Little Points School No. 936. My dad and a few of his sisters, my aunts, attended this one room school. Built out of logs in 1880, it featured a coal fired stove for heat in winter and an outhouse for your convenience. Oh how things have changed. The school was closed in 1959 and the building was moved away. The land remains as a farmed area. The area got its name from the early settlers because the Red River does two big loops side to side and this is the area and I am on the west ends of the loops. Of interest is a bottom piece of the leg from a school bench and a door knob. I hear you knocking… The site is always rich in Ornamental Antique Iron pieces. These ornate and unique pieces will be cleaned up, oiled to protect from rust and offered for sale under the Market Place tab. The accuracy of the Minelab Equinox 800 Metal Detector is truly amazing. Combine that with the Garrett pin pointer and voila! Treasure. From the 1890’s Rumely Copper Pin to the smallest of nails and a chain link, to a complete coal pail complete with handle at a depth of over 15 inches. The Rose Head square nail is a very old style. I’ve only found 2 or 3 to date. Look for the spoon or fork handle. The coal I just picked up off the ground. It just sparkles and shines. Difficult to capture on photos. About the ceramic: The following details come from close friends Sid and Pam; Archeologists. They write: Pam did a little work on the ceramics. They are all ironstone. The Meakin piece could come from either Albert or Henry - two different companies, both using somewhat similar marks from 1890 and beyond. The one looks like a poorly drawn stylized oak leaf, which was a fairly common British design element. I thank you both for the research. A good friend of mine really summed it up perfectly when he said “I really like what you find on the old homesteads. The items belong there. They reflect the past of the area. Farm stuff left behind by the people who lived and worked there”. Now that is metal detecting at its best. To see other Two Little Points finds and stories, See: April 5, 2021, October 9, 2020, June 7, 2020 and May 9 2020… my first outing at Two Little Points where Sterling Silver was found. Roger
April 22, 2021 - Two Little Points: Continued
Index April 22, 2021 - Two Little Points: Continued April 22, 2021 - Two Little Points: Continued April 22, 2021 - Two Little Points: Continued April 22, 2021 - Two Little Points: Continued April 22, 2021 - Two Little Points: Continued April 22, 2021 - Two Little Points: Continued April 22, 2021 - Two Little Points: Continued April 22, 2021 - Two Little Points: Continued April 22, 2021 - Two Little Points: Continued April 22, 2021 - Two Little Points: Continued April 22, 2021 - Two Little Points: Continued April 22, 2021 - Two Little Points: Continued April 22, 2021 - Two Little Points: Continued
April 29, 2021 River Lot #111, St. Pie And there it was; on an aerial photograph dated 24 September 1950. A house. As clear as day. On a well wooded lot complete with a long driveway. Today, standing on the turnoff from the “Old 14 Hwy”, as the locals like to call this gravel road, not a sign of house or woods or driveway. All gone without a trace. Just an open field under a beautiful morning sky. Just a blink of an eye! I used a field access from off the Old 14 as my reference point. The same as the one on the areal photograph. From there, I let my metal detector do the rest. And as usual, it did not disappoint. I had limited time today so I split my time up. 3 hours at the old house site and 2 ½ hours at the old church site where I detected last year with the Bounty Hunter metal detector. Two different sites, two different goals. See the story and pictures of November 3, 2020. The house site proved interesting. It didn’t take long to start finding old broken glass and ceramics. I used a series of yellow flags to work out a detecting grid. The first series of pictures from this site shows the prizes: a 1943 copper penny. Its non-magnetic, an important detail to coin collectors. A copper kerosene lamp top complete with a wick. Light me up baby! A fired bullet and possibly a second one. A heavy and thick piece of cast iron from a toy revolver. A strange looking copper cog wheel possibly from a clock. Various pottery pieces with intricate designs and a piece of what would have been a fancy glass candy dish, pink in color. I really got excited and my heart skipped a beat or two when I uncovered the top of a Mason jar with the aluminum ring attached. I could hear glass crunching as I unearthed it and pulled it out. It was buried top up and for a moment I thought that I’d uncovered a cache. The glass jar top and glass screw rings were still attached to the metal fastener but nothing more was found. Speaking of glass, can you believe the thickness of some of those bottles? I placed a few glass pieces that have raised writing on a black paper to make the letters and design stand out. The big round orange thing… well it kind of looks like a protective access cover that would have been on a piece of machinery. One iron piece looks like it took quite a beating. It’s bent and the end looks to have been ripped apart. Ouch! And the Happy Face…. Well that just happened! Honest! On the next series of pictures, the long iron piece with the handle at top is a control lever that would have been operated by the farmer to lift or lower a plow or cultivator. It got me thinking of hard manual labor, sitting on a metal seat on the plow itself, in the sun and dust being pulled by horses. It’s simple and purely mechanical. You squeeze in the handle which lifts (parts missing) a metal locking piece out of a set of 3 or 4 cogs. You pull back or push forward the long arm to lower or lift and release the handle to a different cog setting on the machine and you’ve now just adjusted the height or depth of your plow or cultivator. It’s all pre-electronic and most certainly pre-computer and sensor. How things have changed in a lifetime. As a child, I used to play on these old machines. A blink of an eye! The second part of my day was to cover the same ground as I did last year at the St. Pie Cross. I wanted to see what more my new metal detector, the Minelab Equinox 800 would find and what might have been missed by the Bounty Hunter last year. I’ve always felt and claimed that the Bounty Hunter was doing a great job finding treasure. And today's exercise proved that to be correct. At the St Pie site, I basically found a bit more of the same as last year’s metal haul. I found a few more aluminum pieces of what might have been flashing, a few more square nails, a drake disk and a few iron straps. I was using a 15” coil on the Equinox 800 so that alone gave me more depth and a wider sweep versus the 8 inch coil that I used last year. But all and all not much was missed and that is a good thing. It made my day and gave me piece of mind.as well. I would recommend either metal detector to anyone entering the hobby. Roger
April 29, 2021 - River Lot #111, St. Pie
Index Index 24 September 1950, River Lot #111, St. Pie April 29, 2021 - River Lot #111, St. Pie April 29, 2021 - River Lot #111, St. Pie April 29, 2021 - River Lot #111, St. Pie April 29, 2021 - River Lot #111, St. Pie April 29, 2021 - River Lot #111, St. Pie April 29, 2021 - River Lot #111, St. Pie April 29, 2021 - River Lot #111, St. Pie April 29, 2021 - River Lot #111, St. Pie April 29, 2021 - River Lot #111, St. Pie April 29, 2021 - River Lot #111, St. Pie April 29, 2021 - River Lot #111, St. Pie April 29, 2021 - River Lot #111, St. Pie