Mine is now underway here and just like out on the hunt, it seems a piece falls in place or loose ends get tied little by little each day.  Tonight I was thinking back to research seasons of the past.  I remember the first research season, I didn’t quite know what to do. I was all anxious about finding locations to hunt and upgrading my gear, that I never really did get much done.  Then the hunt season came and it seemed like all that I had worked on was just as well thrown out the window.  The sites demanded more from me than I had prepared for in research season and the style of my hunting began to change from that coin shooter to the relic and treasure hunter I am becoming today.

That next research season was fascinating because I had a site that I had worked a long time on obtaining and it was finally opening up come Spring.  I spent countless hours sifting through some pretty wacky tobaccy sites online and in print to glean a glimpse of what I hoped to find on that site.  Prepared, and prepared some more until finally I was able to get on that site and get Grizzly hunting for relic and treasure.  LOL, I got on the site and the illusion or greenery was quickly revealed.  I had to throw out all the hooey ballooey I had waded neck deep in during the research season out the window and learn a whole new set of archaic knowledge that was very hard to find anything about it!  Worse yet, Sentinels came streaming in with the panties in a wad because of what I just discovered would really put a kink in their cover story.

The hilarious way life works sometimes just has to make you laugh out loud when no one can hear you.  The sentinels and the land owner conspired against me blowing their fantasy.  Boy did that piss me off.  I took it hard being I found some things there that would rock your world.  It sure did mine.  But, I dusted off my sandals and concentrated on my plan B site, that was just suppose to be maybe a couple weeks or a month long hunt at the most.  Well, if I did not just find a better site, untouched, no protected land, and finds that blew my socks off, damn near right in my own backyard!  The other site I was whining about was a 3 hour drive one way!  This site, if I don’t want to prove that Grizzly shit in the woods, I can go home and use the dream fulfilled throne and be back hunting in a half hour!

Life is funny!  And so is research season.  It is funny but this is the first research season where I have everything I need to make at least the first part of this 2013 hunt season work pretty slick.  I know now where I need to concentrate and dig deep.  I know where I need to scout out more and document.  I am not running around frantic hoping to line up properties because the properties I have if I am lucky I can do them justice this year.  I am running around trying to process all the relic and treasure found last year.  Some valuable but most only valuable because they hold a clue or tell a portion of the story or stories I am chasing along with the rusty nails.

I am sure there are a million and one things that I should be doing and preparing for this next hunt season.  But you know what?  I have learned that no matter what you do, how much you prepare, you will always be challenged on the hunt once you swing the coil and dig the plug, it is on baby.  You just never know what you will find and what story will grab you by the collar and demand to be told.

So prepare as much as you can this research season, but don’t sweat it too much.  Take your metal detecting a swing of the coil at a time or a shovel full at a time.  Don’t get anxious over the little stuff.  Spring will come when God brings it.