Life is short, don’t wait too long to hunt relic and treasure my friend.  Most come to this hobby in their retirement years.  By then they have the resources and the leisure time to enjoy the hobby.  Yet after a lifetime of working for someone else, their bodies are worn out.  The heart and mind is still young at heart but the knees and body just don’t have the same stamina that they had working for that paycheck.

Still, others utilize that same drive that raised a family on that paycheck to go on and become very successful in relic and treasure hunting.

Photographed here is one of my favorite photos from my childhood.  I can still remember this day as if it was yesterday.  Grandpa Edwin Everson and Grandma Sylvia Everson had come to the Winter Show I believe and I was busy riding my horse I had just received that consisted of a wooden dowel and a fabric horse head equipped with reigns.  Grandpa Edwin brought horses into my life and I was riding before I could walk.  Ralph Everson my dad worked hard to raise us and keep horses of our own Red and I can’t remember the other horses name right now.  But Danny was foaled and even though my father never officially gave me the horse, I always considered it my own.

My inheritance from both my grandfather Edwin and my father Ralph was merely everything a man needs to survive in this world.  A great work ethic that never quits until the task at hand is complete, a smile that opens closed doors and the ability to make the task at hand enjoyable even if it really isn’t.

I remember my father grabbing me and hoisting me on my grandfather’s shoulders for this photo.  I don’t think my grandfather was amused when I rode him like he taught me ride, but luckily enough my mother was there to snap this picture that I love to this day.

My grandfather was a beloved farmer and father of 14 children that homesteaded in Walum, North Dakota.  He was the son of E.W. Everson my great grandfather who defeated socialism in his day by recalling the very first governor in USA history with his IVA that he united Conservative Republicans, Democrats and Independents to get the job done.  E.W. Everson’s friend and political right hand man was Theodore Nelson who was the secretary of the IVA.  Together E.W. and Theodore took on the most powerful political machine of their day and brought it to it’s knees.  My father and I share Theodore as our middle name in honor of E.W.’s and Theodore Nelson’s friendship and battle scars.

Edwin never ventured into the state political ring as he witnessed one of the worst smear campaigns against his father E.W. known in North Dakota politics.  My family never even shared with me my great grandfather’s great American story as they suffered generation after generation its consequences as E.W.’s opponents and stupidity out living my great grandfather.  I had to dig up this great American hero story through my research often finding missing pieces of the puzzle in the vain oppositions archives.

Edwin with my lovely grandmother Sylvia would raise their 14 children, their extended church family and a few counties of friends and family on their meager income they mustered from their farm.  Edwin had a touch for veterinarian work and people came from miles around to purchase Edwin’s horses that my uncles and aunts would break, train and race at local fairs.  Edwin had a special salve recipe that died with him that would damn near cure any livestock ills.  His rough hand was tempered with his children’s soft touch and the family was known to produce good working and racing horses often selling them right out from under the uncles and aunts riding in the pasture and fields.  I still giggle thinking of all the stories I have heard around the bon fire of that special pony that dad (grandpa Edwin) sold right out from under them.

Edwin and Sylvia farmed to raise a generation of the hardest workers and citizens this nation has known.  They served in every war from the second world war and are still serving today.  They never had much in today’s economic standards but they always had food on the table, music filled their home and no one ever left hungry.  They always enjoyed a hard work day and pursued their interests with vigor and mastery.  At the end of Edwin’s life he was still sneaking out of the house and hoping in his pickup or on the tractor much to my grandma, uncles and aunts discontent.

My father chose a different life yet always yearned for the life my grandfather had.  He always had one foot in both worlds.  Ralph worked for a great company and worked his way up to kind of being the last man standing as he represented his company working solo in our town.  When he started there was a whole crew of people working with him and at the end of his career he was the only service man standing as he took on more and more responsibility.  Always on call and tied to the paycheck my father worked for his retirement.

He raised 3 boys with the assistance of my working mother that left myself and my brothers as latch key kids to raise ourselves.  When I was young we did not have much and after I was off to college we had plenty. Yet the strong family bond was broken. My father never made it to his coveted retirement. He did retire early but after being sick for many years his fully stocked wood shop was never really utilized, the horses we worked so hard to have were sold and his dreams were never fully realized. He always put his dreams off to a retirement he would never realize. His once strong and boundless energy was extinguished when his workplace ills caught up to him way too young. I miss him to this day but his experience taught me once again how to live my own life.

Shortly before my father’s death I vowed that I would not put off my dreams for this life until my retirement and work for a paycheck that I could never cash knowing I would succumb to a similar fate. I started my own business and struggled through many failures and learning experiences. I turned my interests and passions into my every day work like I watched my grandfather attain. I chose to work each day up to my own death in modesty and frugality so that I could enjoy the freedoms of chasing a dream and suffering and enjoying the failures of it along the way.

I can see how a paycheck is so alluring to most, but for me, even if I have to scrap and existence together always being a day late and hundreds of dollars short I would not change it for the world. My decision has taken me to places I would of never been afforded to realize if I was still managing retail stores. This year I signed an exclusivity agreement with a production company to bring my relic and treasure hunting to the masses. It still means nothing until it is fully realized but the point I am trying to make here is that we assume all the risk in our own lives. If you want it, don’t wait for it, make it happen. Work towards your goals and assume the risks with a smile even though you feel the weight of the world on your shoulders.

Life is short, tomorrow may never come and if relic and treasure hunting interests you, today is the day to dive into it head first.

Relic and treasure hunting is a craft you must do in order to learn. It is hands on and never ending in acquiring skills and strategy to obtain the treasure you seek. Now if your retired or still a young pup, today is the day to begin because you will regret if you don’t. We are only gifted so many days of hunting each year and 21 lifetimes is still not enough time to fine tune this craft.

Start today and whether it is as a weekend warrior or a full time venture like my own, you can’t simply put it off any longer.