Have you ever lost anything outdoors? It happens to all of us and I seem to lose a lot of things from glasses to rods and reels. Fortunately, I have never gotten myself very lost and have always been able to find my way back home, but sometimes I make it back without everything I had when I left.

A few weeks ago I decided to pull the two black plastic pipes I use for siphons from my upper pond to the lower pond. Once I got the 75 foot pipes moving it wasn’t too bad, but a limb brushed my head and knocked off my cap and prescription sun glasses. I picked them up and put them in my shirt pocket.

A little later I tripped and they fell out. I picked them up again, got the pipes to the lower pond and got one working. I had to put a concrete block in the edge of the water and run the pipe through it to fill it with water. The purpose of all this exercise was to drop the water level a little to try to find the holes the otters are living in. From the scat piles it looks like an otter has eaten every bass in that pond, but that is a different story.

A few days later I could not find my sunglasses and figured I dropped them in the woods. I walked back over the path I drug the pipes but found nothing. I even moved the concrete block in the edge of the pond since I had bent over it a good bit but still nothing.

Two days later it was bright and sunny and I looked again, thinking the glasses might shine in the sun. I walked over the trail but nothing. When I got to the block in the water I looked and saw a little glint of light. Sure enough, the glasses were there, buried in the muck in about a foot of water. I was real lucky to get them.

Another experience with sunglasses did not turn out as good. I was fishing by myself at Lake Martin and stopped to fish a spot up the river in about 15 feet of water. I bent down and picked up a rod and reel and when I did the handle of another rod caught on the line and flipped out of the boat. I grabbed for it and was suddenly under the water.

The first thing I did when I came up was look around and see if anyone was laughing at me. Then I started hoping they were, I could not get back in the boat and needed help. I got a little scared but finally got to the motor and used it to climb back in the boat. Lying on the back deck, panting and recovering, I realized if I had just thrown out a marker I could have snagged my rod.

About the same time I remembered the prescription bifocal sunglasses I had been wearing. Had being the operative word. So that day I left a $300 pair of sunglasses and a $200 rod and reel on the bottom of the lake and I guess they are still there.

I used to keep my cell phone on a clip on my belt but now keep it in a pocket. A couple of years ago I was using my backhoe to fill in some rough patches on the road going down to my pond. After moving several scoops of dirt I parked the tractor then realized I did not have my phone. A search of the truck did not turn it up.

I got a phone from the barn and called the number, hoping to hear it ring. I walked over the area where I had been working but found and heard nothing. At that point I got a hoe and started scratching dirt. After about five pulls of the hoe I turned it up. It still worked so I guess I did not run over it, but as long as I had it there was a slash on the cover where I hit it with the hoe.

Another time a tractor almost cost me my sunglasses. I was cutting grass beside the pond and a bug flew in my face. When I hit at it I knocked off my sunglasses. I stopped the tractor immediately and searched all over and under it without finding anything. I knew they had to be there but could not find them. I decided to move the tractor back so I could look better. As soon as I moved it I found them – they had been under the left rear tire. Amazingly, they were not broken.

I guess things are not really lost until you don’t find them. Be more careful than I am so you won’t have those kinds of problems!