I have a probe. Got it for Xmas one year. The following New Year’s Day it was in the upper 70’s. Fluke. BuckIdgr and I set out to find the privy. 50-100 yards in every direction from the foundation. Smelling the dirt each and every time. LOL we were so hungover! It was a fun miserable day. Sweated out all the rum, or maybe it was wine. Don’t remember. Then went to Dayton diggers meeting and met a bottle digger. He said since I was out in the country, chances are there is no privy to be found. So I quit using the probe. I have found lots of charred stuff and I am fairly certain the place burnt to the ground. Pretty much everything does around here still in this day and age. Everything seems to have flowed down hill from the site towards and into the creek. True story: one day I was scratching away at the creek bank, finding nothing. I got out and walked on the bank and stopped and said aloud to myself, “There’s a bottle right here.” I dug and sure enough I got a bottle. I just felt it. I can tell when I hit rock, brick, iron, or glass. That came early for me.
Remember corners. Down under concrete corners. Foundation corners. Former building interior and exterior corners.
When cached at an angle under such corners it can be dryer.
Straight down it can be easy to access. But regardless , corners are easy to remember when caching something. No pacing. No getting disturbed by normal traffic or activities or parked on or distant from a homestead. Easy to find in the dark.
Without a probe to feel/check , anything under or near a corner can be easy to miss. And where rebar is in concrete in modern floors , a detector can miss a cache under a corner.
Lots of empty corners. But I know of one that isn't...
A corner can even be used as a sightline to a distant spot/target/X.
For more fun , two other lines from landmarks (choose more permanent landmarks when possible) added to a corner can allow use of triangulation , to a spot without a landmark on it. (Probe here).
A cache can be where obvious from a dwelling. Easy to keep an eye on. A "feel" from the dwelling or it's previous siting when searching blind can sometimes reveal obvious landmarks.
They can be subtle.
Under the former cement birdbath could be fine for one person. The barn threshold for another.
One guy figured out it was underneath feed bins in one barn at another site.
Kind of an individual thing.
But simple is often best. A surefire spot you can get to without causing notice if you were making a deposit or withdrawal.
Where would you hide your card playing money from the family?
In the dark on your way out or returning home can you reach it without a light or getting noticed? But still keep an eye on it in it's spot out of traffic/eyes/hands when others are out and about?
Can you see where I might hide something under a corner of your she shed? L.o.l.. Easy to now. It's still freshly disturbed. But in time any disruption has to be blended in if I dug there.
Or , something placed there to cover the ground in a spot. Likea garden gnome.
If I know what corner and the gnome is moved , that's still fine. The bare ground now showing is because the gnome was there , right? Nobody is alerted by that.
As long as light colored sand does not replace dark topsoil. A covered spot can be blended after digging. A towel or tarp depending on amount of fill involved can help keep from difference in soil type texture surface debris stuff standing out after backfilling.
Work. Hiding and blending where folks can notice.
That's why rocks , posts , a deliberately loose brick , hollow logs/beams, pipes ,false floors /walls , a removable floor board , and a host of other spots have been cache sites.
Who looks up?
Who notices if a room is a foot shorter inside than it is outside? Don't leave grubby fingerprints or a change in dust patterns or scuff marks on the floor or ceiling though.
Are recovered coins in what seems like a random area ever from a long gone hollow in a limb or tree trunk? Or coins around a former now gone dwelling from out of a prior wall or floor?
We read about fireplace hearths. For good reason. Location. Ease of use. In sight to keep an eye on easy. Durable landmark.
But where exactly in on under or or around it?
One recovery was atop the flue. Many of them old stone chimneys had a shelf of sorts above the fire to catch what fell down the chimney. Rain. Dried creosote ect..
How many hearths have been checked , but not above them on those shelfs?
Have fun W.D..
That might be in the chase , more than what is caught.
At least till you catch something interesting...
