barnhse
Tungsten Member
Hi All,
I went out Saturday and dug some more.
It was kinda hard for me to dig due to me going out on Friday evening celebrating my 34th wedding anniversary.
Yes, I drank my customary bottle of wine and paid the price on Saturday morning.
Though I was dragging, I went anyway.
Luckily, the temperature wasn't too bad for August, and just touched 100 degrees when I got back to the truck.
I spent four hours out there and drank all 6 bottles of water I brought with me.
I am down to just two holes, they are about 4 feet apart.
The good news is that the magnetometer says there is something down there.
The bad news is that I don't know what, if the holes are off a few inches, or if the magnetometer was just playing with me.
Now I am deep enough where I just can't turn the hand auger anymore, even with my 4-foot extra wide handle....as the mud is simply too hard.
Both holes are 8 or 9 feet down now.
(I have dug 19-foot holes before without this much trouble...unfair....blast!)
So this means it will take me longer to make progress.
This is because I will have to use a much smaller diameter auger to dig deeper into the hard mud/clay/whatever....then dig the same foot again with the larger diameter auger size that I need to get down 20ish feet.
Double the work, without double the fun.
With each scoop, I still have to:
(1) bail the ever-present dag-nabbit water in the hole…
(2) dig…
(3) rig up a lever…
(4) use the lever to break the water suction hold on the auger head
(5) unrig the lever…
(6) pull the pipe up…
(which is really heavy for an old guy like me, probably 50 pounds hand over hand as I raise it up...and will only get heavier the more sections of iron pipe I have to add as I go down)...
(7) empty the auger head's mud…
(8) rest in the shade...
(9) drink some water...
repeat for another scoop...times 2 if I have to use two sizes of auger heads for each foot I dig....sheesh…
(each scoop is about 1/2 a foot of ground)
On Sunday, counter to my wife's wishes, I took a recovery day to scout out another potential treasure within driving distance to me.
Too many cows and too many little mobile homes on too many tiny little plots.
It will take me probably years to get permission from all those red necks and ranchers, in my opinion.
Also, I would need to get a 2-box metal detector for that treasure.
The wife threw a fit when I mentioned that little fact. (I am on the left, the wife is on the right)
So I better see the salt marsh through to the bitter end.
Hopefully, the bitter end won't be the salt marsh killing me...ha!
“The treasure is likely to be your death,
though the dragon is no more! (Roac to Thorin)”
― J.R.R. Tolkien
I went out Saturday and dug some more.
It was kinda hard for me to dig due to me going out on Friday evening celebrating my 34th wedding anniversary.
Yes, I drank my customary bottle of wine and paid the price on Saturday morning.
Though I was dragging, I went anyway.
Luckily, the temperature wasn't too bad for August, and just touched 100 degrees when I got back to the truck.
I spent four hours out there and drank all 6 bottles of water I brought with me.
I am down to just two holes, they are about 4 feet apart.
The good news is that the magnetometer says there is something down there.
The bad news is that I don't know what, if the holes are off a few inches, or if the magnetometer was just playing with me.
Now I am deep enough where I just can't turn the hand auger anymore, even with my 4-foot extra wide handle....as the mud is simply too hard.
Both holes are 8 or 9 feet down now.
(I have dug 19-foot holes before without this much trouble...unfair....blast!)
So this means it will take me longer to make progress.
This is because I will have to use a much smaller diameter auger to dig deeper into the hard mud/clay/whatever....then dig the same foot again with the larger diameter auger size that I need to get down 20ish feet.
Double the work, without double the fun.
With each scoop, I still have to:
(1) bail the ever-present dag-nabbit water in the hole…
(2) dig…
(3) rig up a lever…
(4) use the lever to break the water suction hold on the auger head
(5) unrig the lever…
(6) pull the pipe up…
(which is really heavy for an old guy like me, probably 50 pounds hand over hand as I raise it up...and will only get heavier the more sections of iron pipe I have to add as I go down)...
(7) empty the auger head's mud…
(8) rest in the shade...
(9) drink some water...
repeat for another scoop...times 2 if I have to use two sizes of auger heads for each foot I dig....sheesh…
(each scoop is about 1/2 a foot of ground)
On Sunday, counter to my wife's wishes, I took a recovery day to scout out another potential treasure within driving distance to me.
Too many cows and too many little mobile homes on too many tiny little plots.
It will take me probably years to get permission from all those red necks and ranchers, in my opinion.
Also, I would need to get a 2-box metal detector for that treasure.
The wife threw a fit when I mentioned that little fact. (I am on the left, the wife is on the right)
So I better see the salt marsh through to the bitter end.
Hopefully, the bitter end won't be the salt marsh killing me...ha!
“The treasure is likely to be your death,
though the dragon is no more! (Roac to Thorin)”
― J.R.R. Tolkien
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