FINDERS KEEPERS

[Wilma]

What is the most unusual thing that you have ever found, that you couldn't return and that you enjoyed keeping?

Something I did this week started me thinking and the result was a memory of something we found one time that we couldn't return and we really enjoyed having.  Don't ask me how what I did and what I remembered are connected.  You would never be able to follow the way I think.

At one time we had quite a few outside cats.  We bought dry cat food for them and my husband fed them outside, twice a day.  He noticed that they seemed to clean up the feed better at night than during the day.  Then one night we discovered half a dozen possums were helping themselves at night.  This problem had to be solved.  So my husband decided that he could catch the possums and transport them to a new location some miles away from us.  We had a nice little cage that he had made for some baby rabbits that I raised and he used this cage to contain the possums while in transport.

To make a long story a little shorter, one night when we arrived at the destination of the new location, I thought I heard a chicken.  I got out of the truck and listened again.  I did, I did hear a chicken.  Upon further investigation, I discovered an overturned ice chest in the ditch, propped up as if for shelter and under it were some almost grown chickens.  Dilemma.  Why would there be an overturned ice chest, sheltering some almost grown chickens, out here far from habitation?  Should we leave them, hoping that they would make it to daylight and maybe find a home or should we take them home with us?  Deciding that they probably would fall prey to coyotes before morning and because we already had a nice empty cage with us, that the humane thing to do would be to take them home with us.  So we did.  They were easy to catch.

We also had a nice empty hen house to house them.  We decided that they had probably been raised by someone that found that when they were grown, they cost too much to feed, were too much trouble to keep or didn't have room for full grown chickens.  And dumping them in the country, hoping that they would be taken in, would be the easiest way to get rid of them.

There were 8 white pullets.  Pullets are young hens that haven't started laying yet.  This all happened in October.  On Christmas Day they presented us with their first egg.  We enjoyed fresh eggs and shared fresh eggs for quite some time while we had them.

That's my story.  What is yours?

[S-S]

I've never really found anything special. But one thing does come to mind....

A few years ago, I was helping Billy tear down an old barn or outbuilding. I won't disclose the location. Anyway, I mentioned how cool it would be to find something really old but just shrugged it off. The next day we came back to finish our job. Billy started pulling things out of the rafters that a rat had possibly left there. First, a few old tobacco tins, then sheep shears. About 30 minutes later, he felt something round and very heavy. He pulled it out and we both just stared at eachother.

It was an old pocketwatch. Possibly taken there by a rat, or Billy thought that when they were building the barn the man who owned the watch thought it to be heavy and removed it from his pocket. It is silver and needs a key to be wound. It still worked!! It's marked with Roman numerals and keeps the seconds in a smaller inset which is marked in numbers. It was made by the Hampden Watch Co. We looked it up on the internet and right now I can't remember if it was from London or Germany.

We couldn't return it because the man who owned the property was a single man who had died in the previous months. And so, the watch stays in our vanity. Pretty neat.

[bfrankjack]

Found and No way to return.....a chainsaw along the road.  Small one and not a name brand but it worked and was full of gas.

Cleaning out a barn.  We also kept looking for something neat/old/special.  There was a rat's nest as long as the barn on top of the old mangers for the milk cows.  Old Boards served as the bottom for the nest.  Must have been some tough rats the nest was straw and those yellow sticker bushes.  All we found was a beer can! Tough pickins for that ol'rat!!

[Clubine Ranch]

Found in the ditch of one of our properties that the previous owner used to dump trash was a very small glass cowboy boot that was unbroken or scratched. Dale brought it home and it was just perfect for all the dandelion blossoms or other little flowers the grandchildred have brought in to share their love and the beautiful they see in nature. Every table needs a tiny vase to display these treasures. Often wonder if it was used to hold flowers or toothpicks by those who have gone on before us.

[Catwoman]

I have found a $10 bill laying on the ground before...figured it was a gift from my guardian angel! lol

[srkruzich]

I found a 100% pure bred english cocker spanial pup a few years back.  Dumped off or something. He looked bad, mangy but was super friendly. I took him to the vet had him cleaned up, fixed and took him home.  Gave him to my mom two weeks later. He's still with her and walks her three times a day now   She named him a wonderful southern name, Beauregard.

[Diane Amberg]

In 1955 when we were visiting Cape Hatteras N.C.  ( the ship grave yard of the Atlantic) A huge storm came through one night. The next morning we walked the eroded beach to see what had been washed in. We found lots of seashells and tar globs from sunken wrecks. I found a very old penny with an Irish harp on it and also found a WWII helmet encrusted with barnacles. I hate to think how it got there.

[sixdogsmom]

When I was a girl, we had an awful storm one night. The next morning we found a half drowned speckled pullet in our yard. Mama dried her off and started asking around to find where she came from. Nobody around had speckled chickens so we kept her. She became my pet; followed me everywhere and ate what I ate. I named her Screwball because the silly thing would eat anything. We never did find where that chicken came from, it's hard telling how far she blew in that storm.

[flo]

have a couple things found by my late husband and his dad. One, found in the pages of an old bible that had been discarded, is a page from a journal dated Dec. 1808 on one side and on the other side Jan. 1809. Each side holds one month. Very small beautiful writing.  Appears to be a shop keeper.  On the left side it give the "time arose, time went to bed, day of week, day of month, direction of wind, state of the weather" then "remarks on passing events".  Such as Dec. 31, 1808 "We were alarmed by the cry of fire! directly after we opened the store in the morn. the corner house of water and south Street was burnt down.  ? left uncl?  The Market was small. "  I had to read this with a magnifying glass.  The other "find" was by my father in law.  He was hunting arrow heads and seen something sticking out of the river bank.  He dug it out and it is some sort of indian relic.  We call it "the rock".  It is carved and appears to be some sort of ceremonial bowl.  I have been told it is a shamun.  I tried to get tickets to the Antiques Roadshow, but was not selected.  Thought maybe I could finally find out just what it is. 

[Wilma]

Flo, Jimmie Ann might be able to tell you what it is.  She has had several years of study of Indian relics at WSU.  If she can't identify it, she might have a book or know where to look it up.  I will tell her about it when she comes over this evening.  I know she will be interested.