A horseshoe in the front yard! Who knew?

Our front yard continues to yield up surprises.

I spent an hour Saturday morning digging targets that my Garrett ACE 300 metal detector found before the long-awaited heat and humidity took me out of my comfort zone. I dug a pull tab some scrap metal and a bottle cap before I hit paydirt with a deeply buried yellow bungee cord. I figured that would be hard to top until I dug a solid 71 signal that turned out to be a horseshoe. It was about three feet away from the sidewalk and about 5 inches down. My initial thought was that it was left over from someone's game of horseshoes. But upon closer examination, I noticed there as still a bent-over nail in it, suggesting it fell off of a horse that was standing in front of the house sometime after it was built in 1903.

The original garage was still standing when we bought the place in December, 2000 and its construction suggested it was built to house a horse and buggy. The original occupants undoubtedly got around in a horse-drawn buggy, since automobiles were still in their infancy at the time.

Gazing out across the lawn, it's hard to imagine what else lies beneath the surface. I've had visions of gold and silver jewelry, but so far it's given up a few pennies, some toy cars, and a lot of trash.

I'm still not very good at spotting the targets in the holes I dig because everything is the same brown clay color. I'd be completely helpless without my Garrett pinpointer to guide me to the target once the hole is dug.

I'd be digging this afternoon were it not for the rain - .85 inches of it since midnight. I refuse to dig in mud. I guess that makes me a fair weather metal detectorist.