Joyce wins!

After looking at the pictures Joyce sent the link for I think she nailed it.

I was thinking porcupine quills but that didn't look right. It definitely matches the pictures of the sea urchin spines, and the theory about the wind chime makes sense as well.

My mom gets runner up for coming up with the sea urchin explanation as well but she gets a penalty for insisting at first that it was wood and for taking over night to come up with sea urchins.

Anyways, thanks Joyce.

So we found a thing...

OK, so Rob and I were digging some post holes in his back yard for a deck extension...

We dug this thing up. It was less than a foot from the foundation of his house in the top 10" of soil.

It's not metal or wood. It's kind of a reddish/brown mahogany color with two partial rings around one end, the rings are whitish/tan. It's pretty light weight, probably lighter than if it was a piece of pine the same size.

So I have one idea of what it is but it's really just a guess and I'm not going to bias anyone by saying what I think.

If anyone knows what this thing is Rob and I would love to hear your theories.