Blog Paula's Search for Artifacts

I always have the urge to explore and find things. I own 15 acres and have been digging around for a few years. I check the holes the wild boars dig up. I checked the creek when it dried up. I've used a metal detector. I can't find anything. This area had a lot of native activity. We even have a museum proving it. I also live near the cracker trail. So, my thought is that a) the people who had all the surrounding land in the 1800's found everything already b) the previous owners of this house since it was built found everything or c) even farther back, this could have all been a swamp.

Is there any advice for finding artifacts like arrow heads? When the creeks dry up in the winter, I check the banks but I only found old pool coping stuck in the dirt. I don't really want to dig large holes in my property. Most of it is woods, btw. Some of the trees are very old. Who knows what is under all the pine needles.

I actually get sad if I can't find anything. LOL. Oh, I find bones all the time ---- from animals eating their prey or from people burying their dead cows and horses on the property. (A neighbor was using some of our property even though they didn't own it. It ended when we moved in). But I'm tired of dead cow bones. I want an arrowhead!!!! To be honest, we barely even have any rocks!!!!

 

[MODAT7]

Oh great. Welcome to my new hobby, smashing rocks. Not a bad idea, though.

Take a hammer with you next time. At least you can take out your frustrations from the damn natives not leaving you any arrowheads.

@PaulaRocksmasher has a nice sound to it, eh?

From your brief video, there are 3 things to fix to give you success.

1) Your hammer has good weight, but the flat head won't break rocks very well. If you had layers, it would work well to separate them. What you need is some kind of point to concentrate the impact force to help break the rocks. Most rock hammers are smaller with sharp tips.

2) When you hit that large rock, watch closely as it bounced around. That bouncing took the initial impact force and transformed it into motion instead of cracking. You need to hit the rock on a stable and hard ground surface.

3) Take Harte's advice mentioned above. Even with your smaller female size, you can do this. With your new sharp hammer and rock on solid ground, grab your hammer, raise it fully above your head, grab the handle with your other hand, start screeching like a banshee, start bringing the hammer down with force, channel your anger that the rock isn't an arrowhead, screech even louder (scare away even the skunk apes), close to the rock the hammer handle should be near parallel to the ground, visualize yourself smashing through the rock and striking the ground below it. Take a deep relaxing breath and pull your hammer out of the ground and see what the rock gave up. Note that, if you do the procedure correctly, you'll vaporize the rock, so you should have eye and hearing protection.

You'll also find that you can get great exercise from rock smashing and continue your weight loss program. You might scare your cats, so make sure they're not very close.

To verify the calcium content of the rocks, you can pour a little vinegar on them. Unstable calcium (chalk) will foam up quickly, more stable less so. You might have a type of compacted coral.

 

[PaulaJedi]

I'm not too confident I'm ever going to find anything, so I may not be breaking open rocks too much. I apparently live in a spot where nothing ever happened. It was probably a swamp. I do have some really old trees, but they can't talk, so...... it is what it is.
Nada for Paula!

 

[PaulaJedi]

Part of my bone collection. Looks like something got into it. I used to have a leg with hooves on it, but it’s gone.

 

[PaulaJedi]

So, what should I do this evening if it’s not raining?

 

[Harte]

Part of my bone collection. Looks like something got into it. I used to have a leg with hooves on it, but it’s gone.
View attachment 15390

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Harte

 

[Harte]

So, what should I do this evening if it’s not raining?

I'd say sit outside with some cold drinks.

Harte

 

[PaulaJedi]

I'd say sit outside with some cold drinks.

Harte

Don't burn calories that way.

 

[PaulaJedi]

Not an artifact, but just found this:

 

[PaulaJedi]

Officially bored.

I need something to look for outside for exercise.

Rocks - barely have any
Bones - really boring now
Artifacts - don't have any
Metal Detection - my detector sucks and I only got a few beer cans

Raking up the pine needles in the hopes of finding something wakes up all the mosquitoes. Plus, it's a needle in a haystack.

I'll get out the crossbow in the winter. It's a lot of work and it's so darn hot and wet right now.

Any suggestions? I hate sitting inside and because I'm ADHD, I can't just walk around doing nothing. I have to be actively looking for or doing something.

What are the signs of bigfoot? **LOL** Too many leaves and pine needles to see tracks.

 

[Einstein]

Get some binoculars. Become a bird watcher and learn to identify all the birds in your neck of the woods.