We had a family camp at Mannum this year, it was planned this time, unlike last time 2019 when we just rocked up and caught Jimmy Barnes.
Miss 15 and I turned up on the Tuesday afternoon and pitched camp, we got our excellent position that we luckily had last year
when it was packed out. Same loud and drunk neighbours as last year (good guys actually, respected the kids very well last year and this year)
2x 6 man tents
8x air mattresses
7x sleep bags
2x gazebo 3x3m
14x chairs
3x tables
Whole kitchen setup, BBQ, single burner, eskies
2x kayaks
10x kids size boyancy vests
shite load wet booties
Inflatable pool with 400+L of water
Along with all the other crap to be done when 2x Adults and 7x kids follow the next day.
NO food or Water, went to town across the river and picked up some supply's.
Next day Miss 15 and I dropped into our friends on the top of the hill at their equipment sheds, they were loading Lentils 30Ton, we had a chat and
then headed over to a house that we could metal detect around, we have the run of their property for this.
Miss 15 is such a hound, she sniffed out a Rising Sun hat badge WW1, as I headed over to pick her up, saw her locate, dig it up and jump for joy all in about 5 seconds !
This out in a paddock !
Went back to the boys and showed them the find, very happy for her.
Later she was invited to drive a load to Dublin for delivery at 5am the next morning.
Went back to camp to find our invading party had taken over the campsite, made use of the pool, got their sleeping gear together and settled in.
I still had to cook chicken yiros for all. The 50,000 fly's enjoyed it too. :8
4.30am arrived and I got Miss 15 up for her trip to Dublin, our friend met her at the ferry and she climbed into the cab half asleep, I thought that this will be
a good education for her. Got back by 9.30am, she was wide awake and babbling on about the processes that she was shown and had explained to her.
It's not just dumping a load and driving off, she saw it all.
Pancakes today and or cereal with fresh fruit, milk and juice.
I asked if she drove the truck, because that's what the boys do to the kids "want to drive it?" is not unusual to hear.
Later that day we were back up on the property (handy it is so close to the river), she detected more at that spot where the hat badge was,
and found a lot of stuff, I was detecting and we each found one half of a 1880 harmonica and a pocket knife but they were well separated in the soil by 25m and 30m.
We are confident that we have located a burn dump for the house.
My best find was a lead toy plane - a Mosquito WW2 about the size of a box of matches
The next few days were spent between the river, the property, teaching two 10 yr old girls to drive, hunting dirt, eating flys (Miss 15), collecting hay bales, and then
Miss 15 had the invite to drive the truck around the sheds and park it under the grain Auger to load more Lentils 30Ton.
She actually jumped into the seat with confidence, that's great, and she drove well and parked it perfectly. We loaded from one silo and went to the next moving
the Auger and positioning it again, then finished the load for next morning. She drove it out to the house under instruction.
How good is that ? Unfortunately no pics - blame me. :/
On the Sat we got one last dirt hunt in and most of it we could not identify well, but the burn dump site was well defined now, spread out by farming equipment.
She puts lots of hours into this hobby, and never tires of it.
Dropped over to see the boys and another brother turned up, she spread out the finds and you could see the eyes going thru it all, lots of unexpected identification of items.
The oldest brother thinks he used the harmonica when he was a kid.
Apparently the back of the property was used at some time by the military for exercises in the 50's or 60's.
Then we were told about them being willing to shift soil to give Miss 15 access to older buildings that have been pushed over, a few hundred ton of soil !
The footings had bottle bases used as hinge points under the door frame, like upside down champagne bottles.
We dropped in the next day on the way home, great guys, we very much appreciate their time, knowledge and making us welcome. :trophy:
Some pics to follow.....
Our neighbours -
Free loading Ducks and Kids gear everywhere - LOL O
Kato's prize find - so proud of her
About 1hr into it, she is always filling the holes
Tamps it down and moves on
I have to get her a camera, this is her phone from the campsite on the river
Two days later and not giving up
