The Gold Master

I know, when you think of somebody using a metal detector, the first picture that comes to mind is of some flinty-eyed old miser scrabbling around in the dust looking for dropped quarters at the county fair.  And, hey, I, for one, am not above scrabbling for quarters.  But the treasure hunt I had this week was far less remunerative:  I was looking for nails.

Next week we plan to have a contractor remove spruce beetle infested and killed trees from one of our semi-developed recreation sites.  The problem with rec sites is that all the trees have nails.  I mean, how are you going to hang your laundry, your lantern, and your dish towel without a nail?  Unfortunately, nails and chainsaw chains don't mix.  Want to ruin your chain at 8AM?  Cut a nail on the first cut.

Despite being somewhat miserly, I am not a very expert metal detector operator, so I make no guarantees, but my efforts should at least alert the sawyer to the most hazardous cutting locations.  One other point I'd like to make is that the metal detector available to me was not designed to find nails, but gold.  Nuggets.  This metal detector is a gold nugget finder:  The Gold Master.  Maybe next week I should try it.  At $1200 per ounce, just one gold nugget would be worth a truck load of quarters.