The weather this past weekend was unbelievably beautiful. The cool and crisp air paired with the bright sun shining in a brilliant blue sky made yard work an easy decision. Sunday morning I woke up eager to break in my new leg by spending the day getting ready for spring!
It wasn't hard for me to lure my little helper away from the XBox. I simply had to ask if he knew anybody who was good at digging in the dirt and he was off the couch and pulling on his cowboy boots. After he explained that he was six years old now and too old to use a child's shovel, Robby dragged the large tool out of the garage and asked me where I wanted my holes. He certainly does love digging.
I decided to spend the day creating a walkway through the flowerbed in front of our house. The muddy marks on my stairs are a constant reminder of the shortcut that I take on a daily basis. Since I don't see my habit changing, I decided to create a brick walk through the bed to minimize the dirt that we all traipse into the house. I marked the area that needed to be excavated and let Robby go to town.
After about twenty minutes, Robby's shovel struck something unusual. He brushed off the dirt and proudly proclaimed that he found a meteorite. Dropping the shovel he ran into the house (so much for keeping the dirt outside) and retrieved his metal detector. He began jumping up and down when the machine beeped, confirming the metal content of the mysterious object. Mr. Bill, hearing Robby squeal and seeing him excited, meandered over to help us investigate.
It turns out that Robby did not find a meteorite but unearthed part of a canon ball from the Civil War. Robby delighted in his first archeological find and took off running through the yard with his metal detector, determined to find more treasures.
Mr. Bill stopped working his yard and brought over his metal detector. The two friends spent the afternoon searching the yard and uncovering cans, nails and the occasional unidentified metallic object. I lost my digging buddy and finished the excavation by myself.
As the afternoon wore on, I began to suspect that Robby's archaeological find was not accidental. When I asked Mr. Bill if he planted the canon ball, he simply smiled and responded, "You never know where you're going to find them. I put 'em all over your yard." While my enthusiasm was somewhat squashed by this confession, Robby remains oblivious to the baiting of our yard.
I suspect that the canon balls were buried in an attempt to reignite Robby's interest in metal detecting with his friend. If that was the reason, it certainly worked. Robby is now counting down the days until he and Mr. Bill can go metal detecting in a "real field." It'll be fun to see what the pair digs up!
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