Buried Treasure

Stepping backward a couple of weeks and I was about to mow the large area I want to incorporate into the garden. I had only done about three quarters of the first tour round when the ride-on mower gave up. It had in fact shed the drive chain and where it needed to be reset required dismantling of most of the rear of the mower. Not a job for me as I don’t have the tools or the knowledge or the time. Ann and Regis to the rescue again and they took the mower to someone they know how repairs mowers. Two days later it’s back, repaired and serviced, but have I been out on it…of course not. The grass is far to wet and I’ve now been told that if the grass is over four inches it’s better not to use the ride-on. The grass was of by now at least 6 inches tall and growing visibly.

I thought about hitching up the topper and running round with the tractor but in the end decided that the time it would take me to un-hitch the plough, wedge it securely upright, hitch up the topper, unhitch the topper and re-hitch the plough ready for the next piece of field I need to prepare would be significantly longer than using the walk behind mower. It only took a couple of hours and was quite enjoyable, I think I appreciated the work out after being indoors for so long.

In the process of going round I lost a nut and bolt I’d put on to help hold the handles on. For some reason nothing has ever stayed put in that place. The original bolt lasted about a month and then I put it back every other week for a few months until I lost it completely. I didn’t think I stood a chance of finding the nut, bolt and two washers from this go but for a laugh got out the toy metal detector I bough my daughter when she was much younger.

Sure enough, nothing, until I got to the area I mowed after I’d seen I’d lost the fixings. The detector gave a long clear buzz, I moved my steel toecaps well back and checked again; it had really found something. All my old dreams of becoming an archaeologist and finding buried treasure came rushing back and I raced back to the house to get a trowel.

I started digging and hit a flat metal plate about 2 inches down, at this point I mused about UXB’s and decided to proceed very carefully. I finally excavated my treasure but I won’t be donating it to the Louvre, just to the dechetterie, as it was just a flattened old steel drinks can.