2007 1st Hunt

[Ken (Australia)]

Got up early this morning and went over the the toll house site for a couple of hours before I had to help the boss with a few house chores. The site is in the showground and next to a dog racing track. A couple were there exercising their dogs when they started very excitedly yelling at me. Wondering what I was doing wrong I took the headphones off to find there was a large brown snake on the track with the dogs and seeing I was the only person carrying a shovel they wanted my help. Afterwards I went back to detecting and ended up with some very sick coppers, 1862, 1949 and 1927 and a couple of threepences, 1934 and 1942. The second was a bonus as I eyeballed it on top of the ground near the snake. Thanks for looking.......Ken.

 

[Golden]

Hi Ken, a lot of my older coins are coming out of the ground like the two coins on either end of the photo. Can't understand why. On the goldfields, they're in better nick for all the iron rubbish. But here, around the farming acreage, the coins are worse. Yet the ground is relatively clean, just your plain brown soil, compact and hard. I haven't seen a brown snake in years. But while we were away on holidays, my son found the shedded skin of a good sized tiger snake, and brought it home with us. It's sitting on his shelf!
Golden

 

[beachguy777]

Hey Golden! Run into any Tipans lately? :| You know I'm ribbing you but not really. I hear they're down under somewhere. I hope you never run into one of them. Good luck and safe hunting. We worry about the rattlesnakes here in the southwest. My dog almost got a hold of one while I almost stepped on it. Scared the crap out of me, and I carried the dog, bodily, back to the car so she wouldn't try and bit it. Take care, and keep your eyes open. Marc.

 

[beachguy777]

n/t

 

[Golden]

please don't go getting yourself bitten for goodness sake, let alone your poor dog Bonnie! Where were you to come across the rattlesnake? I imagine a desert somewhere with rock pinnacles jutting towards the sky! There goes my imagination again! Been watching too many cowboy movies, you know the ones where they ride through the desert, being chased by indians, or chasing them!
Golden

 

[beachguy777]

Your quick on the draw my dear.:| You must be reading this as I write it. I'm playing with you a bit here, but that honestly happened but not way out in the desert. It was right here in town at a place called Torry Pines, here in San Diego. I was making a delivery to a client, and I thought I'd let the dog, (Bonnie) out for a few and do her thing. She started to stray toward the road, and I started to run towards her and I allmost stepped on a diamond back rattlesnake about 5 feet long. I skidded in the dirt and since I know she'll go after flies and field mice or anything that moves for that matter, I ran and grabbed her and picked her up and carried her back to the car. I know I'm a paranoid person, but I met a man in one of the dog parks that got his dog bitten by a ratteler and he carried the dog back to the car some ammount of miles and took him to the vet where the vet barely saved him. 2000 bucks later, the dog is still alive, but boy what an ordeal. I know of another person I talked to recently where her dog got bitten and the dog died. I know we all have to take some chances, but boy I wish I could carry some anti-venum along with me when I'm near some canyons or outback somewhere. It could literally save their life or mine. Marc.

 

[Ken (Australia)]

Hi Golden. I don't know, I've dug pennies and halfpennies from sites that have been literally falling apart and then only a few metres away they've been O.K. We get tigers around here too, I see them occassionally when I'm out shooting but I'm happy if they're going one way and I'm going the other.........Ken.

 

[Golden]

I'm walking through the bush, (having Heard stacks of stories about tigers), and anyway, I don't know how many times I nearly sttod on a blue-tongued lizard, thinking it was a snake. Nearly had a cardiac arrest a few times, but after a while, you just learn to scan the dirt ahead of you!

 

[beachguy777]

Ok, Golden! You know I'm gonna ask you about this "blue tounged lizzard". What the heck is that? :| I thought I knew all about the Australian, "meanies", as it were? Is that a "bad boy", or just something to scare the heck out of anyone that steps on it. Ask Gila about the Gila Monster over in Arizona. That's one you don't want to tangle with in a "biting" way. I guess they're ok as long as you don't piss them off. Take care and, you know I love this bad creature thing, whenever it comes up.:| Be ware and take care.:|

 

[Golden]

Hi Beachguy! Our blue-tongued lizard is one of the good guys. They are solid lizards, blue/grey to brown in color with blackish stripes over their bodies that can be very distint to dull. They measure fully grown up to about 40cm or so, and have a short tail. One type is called a stumpy, as it's tail is even shorter. (I feel like I'm giving a biology lesson here) Anyway, lot of kids have them as pets, and they can really tame up well. But if you come across a "wild" one, and try to play with it, it's likey to bite, and hang on like a bull terrior dog. Their tongue is colored a bright blue, hence the name blue-tongued lizard. You pick them up just around the neck area, and support their bodies with your other hand. Have a look on the net under this lizard, you'll see what I mean, and why a suddenly stumbling over them in the scrub initially could scare anyone looking out for snakes.
Now for my question: What is a Gila monster? Are you having me on, or is there really such a thing in Arizonia? Are you there Gila Marc?

 

[Ken (Australia)]

Hi Angela. We used to keep blue tongues as pets when I was a kid. Like you I always keep a good lookout where I'm walking in the bush in summer. Few years ago I was walking over an old ash heap looking for bottles when I felt something hit my knee, when I looked down a tiger was sliding off, lucky for me his aim was a bit off, I couldn't have been looking too carefully that day. Picked up these two at the toll house site this morning before I ran out of battery. On the way back home noticed they were pulling up a car park near one of the churches so on spec I went in to speak to the site forman. The ground is very black with ash underneath the concrete and littered with broken shards of glass. This is the oldest section of town, settled in the 1830's and fronting the main road. It's shown as house allotments on the old maps. Anyway after a bit of a yarn he's agreed to let me in for a couple of hours on Monday afternoon for a look around. All the best.....Ken.

 

[Golden]

Wow, that 1877 in is really good condition, I don't often see the seated ladies come in that clean and neat. My hubby many years ago, was bitten by a tiger snake, and didn't tell the guys he was with. The trek out of the bush was about an hour and a half to the car, then a three hour trip to the hospital. He thought about it, and decided to lie down for an hour and a half, and let the venom subside in his system, knowing movement would agrivate things. After some time, he got up, and eventually got home. But he felt unwell and out of sorts for about 9 months, after being bitten. He use to keep bees too, and has been stung so many times, it doesn't phase him. He's built up an immune against stings. Once in in the old town we use to live, he caught a tiger by the tail, brought it to the front door and showed me. I nearly fell over, but I knew tigers, can't bend up like other snkes to bite, so it just hung there, till he let it go. But I wouldn't recomend it to anyone to catch them. You have to know what you're doing, and he grew up around the aussie bush, so knows a thing or two. I don't fancy the way he picks up the huntsmen spiders, and plays with them. puts them on his shoulders and walks around with this creature crawling over him. I stay far away when he has a moment like this! He reckons they're one of the most beautiful of all creatures. I'm afraid it's one of the very few things we don't have in common!
Golden

 

[stan_moto]

Hello Beachguy. Just a quick about snakes. I saw two last year out at the US army hospital site from the 2ndww.one was a real big black and he must have been at least two inch or more in size and about seven feet long. He was sunning in the bush track to get to this site the other was a brown as I didn

 

[beachguy777]

Wow, what a stud. I'd think twice about picking up a funnel web spider, but for all I know he might be amuned to it too. Good thing he knows about these things and seems to be able to handle them OK. Pretty scary about the snake thing for 9 months. That's a long time to feel the residuals of a snake bite. Hope he's OK. Marc.

 

[beachguy777]

Yes, it's real. I may be saying it wrong, but it's supposedly from a town there called Gila, or Gila bend, Arizona. This "bad boy" is multi-colored a bit and apparently has a very vicious, painful bite that's poisneness Just don't mess with them and your probably OK. I got bitten by an alligator lizard when I was a kid and it hung on to my thumb till I pried him off. Boy this sure is fun, isn't it?:| God bless most of God's creatures, but I'm wondering why He invented scorpions, and a few of the others. I guess we many never know?