Home sweet home

With the rain arriving after a few months of drought the ground, has over the last three days, become less like reinforced concrete, more like softish clay which is far more suited to detecting the grassy areas, that until now, I have shunned. I had a wee dabble in January at the Huapai domain, where my two old decimal coins came at a cost of a big blister on my palm. I have delicate hands :) so I've been awaiting the rains ever since.
Rather than drive across town in search of a park I thought I would do run around the homestead where I live. I've read stories of good finds in detectorists own back yards and hoped I could add a few too.

Look under washing lines for
good clean pocket spills.

I live on 10 acres of farm land and the lawn outside the main house looked like a good starting point. I'm not sure exactly when the house was moved onto the property but I reckon about the 1960's is a good guess (I've since been told the 70's).
I cleverly started under the washing line where all manner of things could drop out of upside down clothes. Though it seemed everybody who had lived here had nails and bits of no.8 wire in their pockets. It wasn't a big area and I immediately had several signals. First up was a twisted bit of no.8 wire, second dig uncovered a bent nail. The third target was a 8mm socket. Still shiny as. Then another three pieces of wire at the same three inch depth as the rest. Just time enough to suss out a green 10 cent piece a mere inch under the turf before there was a rain shower and I decided it was a good time for a coffee.

Thirty minutes later I was back on the front lawn and down about five inches I uncovered a George VI halfpenny. Which I enjoyed.

k-k-k-king g-gg-g-g-geor-ge-
oh bollox, Eddie the 8th's brother.

As an aside....George the sixth was the King with the stammer and he died from coronary thrombosis in 1952, moving Lizzy II into the hot seat.  His brother was King Ed the VIII who, in 1936, abdicated the throne for the charms of  Mrs!! Wallis Simpson, thus handing his younger brother George the title of King.

But I digress....... the coin is in very good shape on the face but in appalling condition on the reverse. As yet I can't see the date but I'm half hopeful this will be revealed after a clean. A nice find for me.

A few more bits of wire, a square headed screw and then another addition to my tool box, a nail punch, were the rest of my returns before lunch.

After a tasty bacon and egg sandwich I continued on around the front lawn finding mostly nails and a few bottle tops. For once there was an interesting bottle top. Down a good four inches, this top was from 'Marie Brizard et Roger International' which is a French alcoholic beverage company founded in 1755. It is a subsidiary of Belvédère, and is based in Bordeaux, France.
So there, bottle tops can be of interest.
My friend, Dave, arrived and as the sun emerged we shared the detector as we wandered around the garden. The amount of stuff we pulled out in three hours was quite amazing. No more coins but Dave dug up an old linked chain, about four foot long and hand forged he reckoned. I got an old rounded ended nail file and a  Dave replied with a rusty old rat tail file. The rest of the afternoon consisted of nails, wire, bottle tops, unknown iron things big and small, two tent pegs, one with a piece of tent, some staples, a small reinforcing rod, washers and a buckle of some sort.
See total find photo below.

Treasures from my doorstep.

It was a long day but not far to walk home (about 15 metres) to a nice cold bourbon and as I supped I wondered what else lies beneath our farm.
So an interesting hunt. Overheads were minimal :) and lots of material dug up. Not as lucrative as the beach or the park but the excitement of each find was still there. My best find was the halfpenny (close up coming soon) but I appreciated many of the other finds. My landlady and good friend Sarah, stood totally perplexed as Dave and I spent ten minutes deciding whether one object was a simply designed nail file or a feeler gauge. To be truthful we still don't know. But as I found it, it's a nail file.
Cool day.
See you out there.