Posts by velvetwolf8

I picked up a Garrett Ace a few days ago. After testing it out, I’ve concluded it isn't much of a gold machine—couldn't pick up a few pieces of gold jewelry nuggets at more than 6 cm. For ring-sized silver or coins, I'm getting maybe 20 cm. Small non-precious metal objects occasionally show up past 20 cm. A small garden trowel doesn't register beyond about 48 cm.
I'm not disappointed; my expectations weren't that high to begin with. My plan is to find enough decent non-precious finds to sell them off and fund a better detector.

Prospecting
I find it easy to navigate along the Atlantic Ocean, thanks to my coastal roots. But out here in the interior—where I actually grew up—I feel like a stranger in the forests of the Appalachian Mountains and the surrounding ranges I visited on a trip once (like the Blue Ridge Mountains or the Catskill Mountains). Even though I've identified several potential sites using old maps, I struggle to apply that logic to the actual terrain in the mainland. I want to try exploring some spots in the Appalachians, but I don't know how, given that I have nowhere to stay overnight and I'm wary of the wildlife. I also haven't figured out how to handle the winter, which isn't an issue back by the coast. I'm easy to please when it comes to comfort and can survive on minimal food and water, but I can't imagine just lying down under a tree in a continental forest and falling asleep.
How do you experienced detectorists manage staying at a site for several days? Do you sleep in your car parked near the location? I don't own a vehicle, so that option is off the table for me...
By the time you reach a location that matches an old map, trek through the terrain, analyze the soil and landmarks to pinpoint where an old settlement might have been (none of the structures remain now, likely because they were wood), and then start detecting thousands of square meters of that area, you're looking at days of relentless work, potentially around the clock. How do you veterans handle this kind of research?

Regards!

coppergardener40 said:Hi everyone. I have a question. If anyone can help, I'd appreciate it.
I've been dealing with this for a year and a half now. This nasty fluid or mucus constantly drains from my sinuses down my throat, making it hard to swallow. It gets slightly better occasionally, but it happens every single day and it’s incredibly frustrating. If I check my throat, I can see clear mucus sitting there—gross, I know. Also, whenever I sleep on one side, the other nostril feels partially blocked. It isn't a disaster, but it’s annoying. A few days ago, I had some pain on the left side of my head near my ear, including some discomfort inside the ear itself. About a year ago, I had constant pain above my right eyebrow for two weeks, but that cleared up. I find myself blowing my nose all the time. I've seen doctors several times and they prescribed various liquids and sinus sprays. I’ve been doing daily inhalations for a month at a time, but nothing has worked so far. Does anyone know what these symptoms might point to? I plan on seeing a doctor again and hopefully getting a sinus scan, but I'm currently out of the country, so I can't get anything done for about another month. In my case, would surgery be necessary? And if so, what kind? Thanks in advance. 🙂

I’m not sure if the doctors will actually pin down the sinus issue, but you should always demand a straight answer from them. Most physicians don't bother with the details because they assume patients won't grasp the complexity—which isn't entirely wrong, given most aren't trained to explain it simply. Then again, they often stay vague when they genuinely don't know the answer themselves. It feels like old-school medicine; they have a handful of catch-all diagnoses for everything they can't explain. For years—five years, give or take—I’ve dealt with a rotating list of issues: intermittent ear infections (never both at once), sore throats, pain behind the eyes that occasionally blurs my vision, constant nerves, aching in my jawbone and joints, skin patches like psoriasis, redness on my face and neck, and joint pain in my fingers and knees. The medical runaround was endless. They prescribed eye and ear drops, fever reducers, throat swabs, blood work, eucalyptus steam inhalation, dermatology consults, even therapy. After all that, the final verdict? They basically treated me like an idiot for not just Googling my own symptoms to see if they shared a single root cause. So, I did exactly that. Based on scientific papers and a close look at my own mouth, I realized my wisdom teeth were protruding sideways and acting as a focal point for the trouble. Three dentists and an orthodontist later, they confirmed it: those teeth were either a likely culprit or the definitive cause for several of my symptoms. Some of the other issues were just nervous reactions triggered by the dull, persistent pain, which only made the sensations in the connected tissues feel more intense. In my case, according to X-rays, those wisdom teeth are direct neighbors to my jaw, other teeth, throat, eye sockets, and inner ear.
I should add that about eight years ago, I had to undergo throat surgery because the tissue was essentially rotting across the entire surface. It was almost painless, but progressive and pretty gruesome to look at. After the procedure, the surgeon warned me that if we hadn't acted, that necrosis would have likely spread to my trachea or lungs. He also mentioned it could have triggered chronic joint issues since they were already compromised, and he didn't rule out the possibility of death. Unfortunately, When I asked about the cause, he had no answer. Years later, purely out of curiosity, I decided to dig into it just like I did with my dental issues. I looked at all the symptoms I went through during that period as one big picture and found medical literature describing similar cases. The root was severe depression and intense suicidal ideation, which causes some people to lose all energy and essentially surrender to death. In that unhealthy state, my circulation was so poor that I was practically anorexic regardless of how much I ate (except for my face, which looked okay due to my bone structure), my hair fell out in clumps and lost its shine and wave, my hands and feet were freezing with blue fingertips, and various skin irritations kept cycling through. After the surgery, I somehow "woke up" and started actually caring about my health—approaching problems differently—just so I wouldn't end up as a literal walking corpse again. Lol

Anyway, the point is that it could be anything. Listen to your body. Take everything happening in your life into account and try to "logic out" the potential causes, then present those ideas to the doctors you see. If it weren't for my aunt—who is self-taught but highly competent in medicine—along with my mother or father using their "influential connections" at the right moment, I would have been sent through endless useless tests by some young doctors just to satisfy their research papers when I first walked into the hospital, before I ever got to see the "real" specialists. Good luck..