Buried treasure on my pc AND the backyard!

Isn't it amazing what you find when you're not looking for it? Case in point tonight finds me sweeping the vast hard drives of my home PC to find a program to deal with ISO files. But instead I managed to stumble over some zipped up photos from 8 years ago when I was convinced I was going to strike it rich in my own overgrown backyard...

Now long term readers of this blog may hazily recall that I did blog about this big metal detecting moment (and the sad sad results of the sweep in the backyard) before. That post from eight years back has since been removed from this site, only to reappear in my very first book The Adventures of Almigo. 

Eight years on though, I'm wondering why I still have these pics zipped up and tucked away in some long forgotten folder on my hard drive? For a rainy day perhaps? God only knows. But since they've been unearthed (rather than say, any actual treasure here..) let's go back to 2013 anyway.

THE DETECTOR

We'd been watching too much Gold Rush Alaska at the time from memory and I must have remarked 'how cool would it be to have our own metal detector?' Low and behold in the strange way the universe works, a few weeks later one popped up on Facebook Classifieds and $40 later, it was in my car and on the way home with me. 

A minelab?  Hilariously no. This was the most entry level of entry level cheapie detectors that would be good for detecting coins, provided you stood within centimetres of the conveyor belt as a fresh batch of the things came flying down the production line at your local mint. I don't think it even had a brand name on it, it was that basic. Just an on off switch, a dial for dialling in some kind of metal (not gold) and an insatiable hunger for a lot of batteries. 

In today's terms it would be pretty close to this one from Jaycar or this one from Amazon (DR OTEK) if you're hell bent on proving that can find more treasure than I can with one.

THE FIELD OF WAR

My own backyard, Golden Square Bendigo, Victoria Australia. Which looked like a pristine manicured Scottish golf course before I got my hands on it: 

And then in no time flat suffered heavily from the curse of too much rain/not enough mower to resemble something a Predator would be more than happy to spend a lazy hunting weekend within: 

Why wouldn't this teeming, overgrown noisy jungle of weeds and strange creatures not harbour treasure troves and long forgotten pirate chests I ask you?

Don't answer that, logic has no place here on this blog. 

AND LIKE PREDATORS TRAIPSING AROUND LOOKING FOR SOMETHING TO BLAST, I SUDDENLY GOT A SIGNAL

I'd found something! 

What? I don't know. 

What metal? No idea. Basic detector remember?  

How deep? Well I don't think the useless dial could tell me, it was too busy trying to tune into the local radio station for some reason. But somewhere in here my treasure lay. Best to get digging then..

Some ten minutes later and some sweat drenched digging, I'd hit what has sent the signal. And with a bit of effort (and a whole heap of grunting) I brought forth..uh..

'It's Captain America's first ever shield!' - Me

'It's more likely the lid to a 44 gallon drum.' - My wife who was probably closer to the truth. After sighing from the sheer disappointment that I wasn't about to drown the house in discovered doubloons, she retreated back into the house to watch some more Gold Rush Alaska.  

As for me, I continued the search for more buried treasure, finding only some rusted wire and the metal part of an old paint brush that had fallen away years ago. Well that's metal detecting for you, sometimes you really do come away empty handed. Just ask these guys:

If you haven't watched this quirky little show all about the trials and tribulations of metal detecting as a hobby, I highly recommend it. Wonderfully written with some great characters it moves slowly but in heartfelt way. It may still be on Netflix or you can find out more with Prime Video. 

As for me, I tried my new bit of kit one more time at the in laws farm with little result (some crushed cans of Vic Bitter and some ring pulls) before retiring from the game, just two arvos in. The detector stayed in my shed for a while and now resides in my father in laws tool collection just in case he finds the need to kill the good part of a weekend too for some reason. 

But when I buy my next house, I think it might be time to throw a fresh set of batteries in and see what happens. I mean there might be some buried treasure out here in Albury, you never know..