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- Written by: Rod Boyle
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Today, rainy, cool. No snow on the ground, not at lake level, and it being a Sunday I'm out walking, looking for arrowheads on the beaches on the lake front.
This area, most of it deformed, built up with big basalt boulders, chances of finding anything - zip.
But there are a few little spits that look like they've never been adjusted, and those are where I'll spend the day.
Not entirely unproductive...
The piece on the left, a scraper of some such, made out of Kootenay Argillite, quarried somewhere by Kaslo. Easy to recognize, I've found a lot similar in Balfour.
The left-most edge looks to have been worked, maybe as a scraper, note the many small divots.
The piece on the right, not sure, black jasper? and - again - a big paleo-maybe, unsure if it was a tool or a fluke of erosion. Not the same material I'm used to finding, and too weathered all-round to be sure.
Note that in Nelson there SHOULD be other tools showing up, different materials, but I'm not sure this is it.
Anyways, a lot of searching and staring at the ground for a lot of hours for precious little return. Need to get back to Balfour...!!!!
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Reading, the Nelson Star, the "Hugs and Slugs" section and someone has written in a complaint about the botched job of the ferry landing renovations. The same as my own rant previously on that theme, only shorter. But - an additional complaint that I hadn't noted, that the pipe installed to drain the parking lot was causing a lot of erosion on the beach...
And in my head I think: "Great, that'd be good for looking for flakes and arrowheads..."
A couple of days later I get a message from the owner of the restaurant there, she's found a whole pile of rocks she thinks might be arrowheads. And half of me is "Damn, why didn't I go when I had the thought". Nevermind, I'm in.
This morning finds me on the early bus to Balfour.
We visit, her finds, mostly triangular bits of schist or quartzite, nothing that shows any sign of having been worked. Except for this: (apologies for the poor quality photo, not mine)
Which is definitely knapped (detail in photo doesn't show), just not an arrowhead as you might think at first but in fact a fishing weight, the notches used to tie it onto the line or the netting.
So, visit, I'm thinking that she just threw some photos of rocks together as an excuse to socialize. Chat, catch up, then I'm down to properly investigate the wash, probably a 30 yard stretch that's been eroded. Flakes, some worked more than others, a few, a few more, then:
And this gets me excited, you can see it's been napped on opposite sides, it's been a while since I've found an arrowhead and this is a pretty good piece. Small, an inch and a quarter long. But it gets me going, and going back over the area the second time I find this:
Which is probably not even an arrowhead, I'm thinking the thickness of the haft suggests it was a spearhead. An even 2 inches in length.
And that's it for the day. I've got to get back there with my screen and shovel because if this is what's a couple of feet below the surface, why then, there's miles of beach here to be dug and I can hear the Indiana Jones Song in my head...but soon, it better be soon because the ground will be freezing and I don't want to be waiting for spring...
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And a few of the other treasures I've come across...
This in one of the "reserved" boxes of treasures. A 100+ year old dollhouse chair, why are they hanging on to it? Because it's old...
"But LOOK AT THE CONDITION of it" I say, to no avail. The back of the thrift shop is filled with tat like this, of great "sentimental" value but no practical worth.
A seriously disturbed little baby. Provenance unknown.
A handpainted rock. We get a lot of these, believe it or not...
Turn it over and:
You know, I mean - you know. "Year Completed", which raises it up to the status of a Mona Lisa, years, decades in the works, how many years did Emma labor on this I wonder?
In the "Shrine" a hand-carved wooden beaver-toothed Indian Chief. Racist as all fuck. But that's not the best part...
Go to pick him up and...
Charming!!!
Then there's...
Creepy doll, of which we have countless, and they never sell.
And then there's the Shrine, which is a collection of "M********"'s special reserved treasures, that he can't seem to part with. Since he's away I've been in charge of maintaining it...
Some vintage star wars figurines, and handmade tile...
A cap gun, we can't sell (community doesn't like that), a "Thou Shalt Not Steal" admonishing Monk Cookie Jar, and - leaning in front of it - legit, a 1 oz silver bar. Who donates this stuff? Anyways, the best thing I'd seen in a week so I was rather pleased...
An obscenely detailed South American Pottery Figurine obscured by a hitchhiking Elvis...
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And another find, we get something similar every month, an old album filled with someone's collection of vintage postcards. The complete housecleaning of someone deceased, nothing left behind. Ranging from Dublin, England, to Yellowstone, Arizona and even Medicine Hat and Regina. Plus a few from right here in the Kootenays.
Right click on the photos to embiggen in another window and read the location.
It would be worth properly scanning the whole album, but I'm not paid for that, still, a curious thing...
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One of the more interesting discoveries of the past couple of weeks - an EMF Healthcard.
Now I've been pitching these to the boy for a while, he should be manufacturing EMF Mitigation/5G Blockers/Vaccine Reversal Pills and all other manners of quack medical placebos to the Alberta Government. Because it's rare you get that level of top-tier stupidity elected, although it's becoming a bit of a rule in Alberta.
Anyways, the card is thick, plastic, heavy, and sells for approximately $85 Euros.
Bloody hell.
Link Here: https://emfhealthcard.com/nl/
I mean...Wow. I need to branch into the medical field...