Needle in a Haystack

Today Tiffany and I worked in the yard for 2.5 hours. We cleared off what seemed to be 1000 pounds of forest debris: vines, leaves, pine needles, dirt, rocks, small trees and even trash that was decades old. Our pile of rubbish stood 4 feet tall, 8 feet wide, and 15 feet long. We then got ready to float the river in our canoe. After we had loaded the canoe on top of the car, and were about to pull out of the drive way headed for the river, we realized that Tiff's keys were missing.

We searched the whole house 3 times, and finally determined that the keys had to be some where in the yard. I walked the perimeter of the yard twice, and was ready to call it a lost cause. But Tiffany was determined to find them. I looked through the house a couple more times, cause I was certain there was no way they could have fallen out of her pocket. She decided to move through the pile one rake load at a time. She moved the location of our pile over the length of the pile. I came out a couple of times and begged her to give up, cause it was an impossible task. Finally, cause I was getting lonely inside - I came out to help. She was about 9/10ths of the way through the pile and this is what we saw.


Here's a picture, after the fact, of Tiffany standing by the pile.

Please remember this pile - when we finished our work - was 15 feet to the left of where you see it here.

I salute my wife. She is a trooper. I CANNOT believe that she found her keys. UNBELIEVABLE. I would have NEVER searched for them in that pile. Never.