Weekend at Shannons

This weekend has been pretty sweet. My parents showed up Friday evening after spending a few days on the road from Texas and stopping for a day in Savannah, GA to enjoy the town.

Saturday morning we got up and headed over to Ash's parent's house to just chill by the pool and let Taylor swim. We saw a bunch of dark clouds and a wall of rain off in the distance, and it didn't take long for it to roll into Chesapeake. It was the beginning of hours of solid, hard down pour.

We left about 1p and headed out to Carrollton, where my sister lives. We had just about though we had beat out the rain, but no such luck. It started out that way and just soaked everything. But it didn't ruin the day. It fizzled out and our family cookout commenced. There were twenty-two (I think) of us havinga good 'ol time eating out BBQ pulled pork, hamburgers, hot dogs, great slaw and other fixin's. After eating the kids went out and got wet and muddy jumpin' in all the puddles. Ahhh simple pleasures.

On Sunday I woke up relatively early to make it out to Carrollton to meet up with Scott, Jerry, and my dad to work on the kennels. It was basically a full day of framing walls. Lots of hamering, ratcheting, measuring, sawing etc. It was hot too, which IMO really sucked, reminded me of building our unit TOC out in Iraq.

Around 530p my Grandparents showed up to hang out with my mom and my Aunt who had been hanging around and visiting. After all the work we joined them and had a nice steak dinner. My sister made some raspberry Mohito's that I proceeded to spike. Being as such, I slept there the night. Was up nice and early this morning so Ash could go to work. Great weekend!

Hopeful Carrollton chicken farm a BUST

It was a great morning to be up and awake today. Finally arose around 9:30a, got my gear together and hopped in the truck. It was just windy enough that the sun didn't really warm you up, but other than that, clear skies and beautiful.

I made it out to the land the old chicken farm in Carrollton, VA rested on. My sister recently acquired the property, and had no problem with me giving it a go with the X30. It sure was a nice 45 minute Sunday drive out there, really had my hopes up.

I started the hunt close to where I pulled up near the old building (you can see pics of it by checking out my entry from just a few days ago about the place). Right away I could tell there was plenty under the ground, but if there was anything good, it was being masked by all the trash from over the years piled on top.

The real promising section of the building, is just out of my reach. The portions I took pictures of are only the parts on my sister's property. Just beyond it are the remnants of foundation for the rest of the building that is no longer standing. Possibly much better finds in that area.

As you can see from the pics though, no keepers today. Lots of good signals, but they just didn't equal anything worthwhile. I did have some goats and what I guess are pheasants (or Guinea Hens?) around for entertainment though.

Carrollton, VA Chicken Farm

I had a busy day planned for Wednesday, so much so I had to make arrangements for someone else to keep Taylor after school. A few days ago I promised my sister I'd trek out to her place and help laying down some concrete.

I started the day like most any day, getting up at 10am, shoving the young'n off to school, and heading out to the gym. After the gym it was a quick trip back home to get the appropriate attire.

I made it out to her place in Carrollton, VA around 2:15p, it sure is out in the middle of nowhere. I'd been to her place before to try out her land for MD possibilities, and pretty much came up empty.

She recently purchased the property next to hers, which used to be all wooded and you could barely see it. It's an old chicken farm on the property, the owners live in PA. However, no one there at the moment knew how long ago it was operating or whatever.

Anyway, I attached some pics, maybe you all can judge. The whole old property actual extends about twice the distance of the first full image to the left, but that portion someone else owns. The structure is cinder block, wood, and tin/aluminum roofing. It has metal drainage ducts built into the cinder block portion, and in the wooden area there is an old Frigidaire walk-in freezer that screams Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

Anyway, I'm hoping to give it a go this weekend.

From The Archive: Night Hunt 8-8-08

This day started off early actually, but ended up as a night hunt. I had originally planned on being out at my sister's house in Carrollton, VA in Isle of Wight County. I did actually go there, but my first hour in her very large back yard, which used to be a chicken farm quite some time, yielded nothing but a few pieces of can slaw.

That much was expected, as the land her house was recently built on has been used quite often for party bonfires, so there is a lot of your standard buried cans and black ashes just below the top layer of dirt... which btw was rock hard!

I saw a clearing in the tree line that seemed to lead down to the creek. So I hunted a little through there, and only found two 12g shot shell bottoms.

Being that it was getting close to dinner time, I had to drive back home to get read for Rancho Grande. After getting home from our weekly hajj to the Mexican place for dinner with the family, we got home ohhhh say around 9pm. Got the lil one in bed, tended the hamsters (yes I have pets now, WOO!) and the g/f was busy watching Law & Order.

It was almost 10pm before I got my stuff together and headed towards the spot at the school I mentioned the day before where I left all of that stuff to dig another day. Little did I know I'd end up digging nearly 100 targets, and 2 hours was over before I knew it.

What is amazing, is with digging the 64 coins in that area... THERE IS STILL MORE LEFT!!! Lots of 32s and 36s left to bring up (pennies and dimes).



I found my first Sac $1, which I was totally stoked about. No coins older than a 1967 Memorial Penny... which is sooo lame. Over the past two nights digging near 80 pennies you'd figure I was due for a wheat.

I've brought in exactly 100 coins in each of the two previous months... so bringing in 89 coins in three days is pretty sweet for me!