No Vacation! Starring Snark W. Griswold

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Gonna go pick my mom up, take her out to lunch, aka grab a burger, and sit in the car and eat it, haha. Can't go in right now, so you gotta do what ya gotta do. Also, I got her a nice card, and a basket full of popcorn and candy.
 
Anyone else tired of these sub-freezing evening temps? Glad we have not planted anything yet.
 
we had frost Friday and Saturday - Monday's high was a record low. Yesterday we got up to 51f.
it's like we had April in March (lots of rain and a little warmer than normal), May in April (a couple good storms and fairly warm - even hit 92 one weekend), and now mother nature finally realized she missed March.
 
we've been right on the edge. I have sprouts in the back bed.
 
I've ventured outside of my regular hobby of fossil hunting and got myself a metal detector. The whole of Belgium is one big battlefield over the centuries anyway so you never know what you can find.

Today that thing arrived and I had to try it out. Luckily - well kinda, we wanted it finished already but had all kinds of bad luck- my yard is under construction, partly. It's been ploughed up and milled for a first time just a couple of days ago. I found a bunch of junk, rusty nails, freakin' chicken wire but also some other stuff...

Here's the junk. I guess that's a rusted up screwdriver. Also found a key.
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Here's the key again
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And now... I didn't know what this was so I asked around. Apparently this is the bronze fuse of WW1 German howitzer ammo.
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It says HZ 14 and some other stuff and a stamp of some kind. That should mean 'Haubitze Zunder' or something. Here's a pic of the internet, it's the top part.
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A bit later I found another one! This one is in a zinc alloy, and in really bad shape. Can't tell much more about it.
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So yeah. My first experience with metal detection went great. Beginners luck I suppose. I'm going to try and stabilize the zinc warhead with some glue. Maybe wood glue in order to seel it off from oxygen and water?
I can already feel this is gonna consume a lot of my free time again... But, time outside is never wasted.
Now however, it iss time for a bit of rest...
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Thanks guys!

I started looking through the web and also some books I have at home. Here's a very short walk-through of what happened.
1914: Germany invades Belgium and walks straight to Brussels. From there on out they moved north to the city of Aarschot in August. They were quartered in with civilians, pillaged stuff, were drunk et cetera. So their leader apparently opened up a window to tell to tone it down and he got hit by a lost German bullet and died on the spot. Karma. But apparently, one German shooting another was the major of Aarschot's fault so the Germans rounded up 200 civilian men on the town square and shot half of them at the spot.

This news struck hard in my town (10 miles north of Aarschot) which made pretty much the whole population flee towards Antwerp and the Netherlands.

The next two months, the Germans bomb my town with howitzers and large canons. There were several small skirmishes betwee' Belgian guerilla fighters who often hid between bushes, operated by bycicle and had a few armored cars they equipped with machine guns. Out of ammo and overpowered, they retreated towards Lier and Antwerp by the end of September of 1914. So in during the months of August and September 1914, the area I live in saw several gun fights, bombings, executions of civilians et cetera. The Germans really wanted to take my town since there's a hill here which is the highpoint of my province. It was already used by the Belgian army and resistance fighters/volunteers as a lookout where they converted old windmills to lookout posts. The Germans used these in their advantage after they took my town at the end of September.
There you have it!
 
Galeocerdoshark said:
Thanks guys!

I started looking through the web and also some books I have at home. Here's a very short walk-through of what happened.
1914: Germany invades Belgium and walks straight to Brussels. From there on out they moved north to the city of Aarschot in August. They were quartered in with civilians, pillaged stuff, were drunk et cetera. So their leader apparently opened up a window to tell to tone it down and he got hit by a lost German bullet and died on the spot. Karma. But apparently, one German shooting another was the major of Aarschot's fault so the Germans rounded up 200 civilian men on the town square and shot half of them at the spot.

This news struck hard in my town (10 miles north of Aarschot) which made pretty much the whole population flee towards Antwerp and the Netherlands.

The next two months, the Germans bomb my town with howitzers and large canons. There were several small skirmishes betwee' Belgian guerilla fighters who often hid between bushes, operated by bycicle and had a few armored cars they equipped with machine guns. Out of ammo and overpowered, they retreated towards Lier and Antwerp by the end of September of 1914. So in during the months of August and September 1914, the area I live in saw several gun fights, bombings, executions of civilians et cetera. The Germans really wanted to take my town since there's a hill here which is the highpoint of my province. It was already used by the Belgian army and resistance fighters/volunteers as a lookout where they converted old windmills to lookout posts. The Germans used these in their advantage after they took my town at the end of September.
There you have it!
Click to expand...
Interesting History :thumbsup: some cool finds :thumbsup::thumbsup:
 
A little update on the two fuses. Found some conflicting information. I've been asking around and several sources have confirmed that the Hz14 wasn't in production until 1915 and the zinc example is probablt from 1917.
The frontline was nowhere near where I found these and there are no records of nearby training camps or anything (confirmed by a local historian). So I'm guessing these are relics brought home from the front by a soldier maybe? Perhaps retreating Germans threw some stuff away? That last one doesn't explain that the Hz14 fuse was clearly deformed by impact. Weird stuff, but I'll take it.
 
Anybody else want a new BIG Becker? Since 2018 we’ve gotten the tuko, the Beckhart, and the harpoon; I want something large now. I’d take a reissued BK6 with a .2 blade thickness. :thumbsup:
 
I don't need a 4 because I have a 21. :)
Love my niner. Not sure what another large one would add, other than diffusing sales. The 20 was badass, but it was between the more pack-ready 9 and the yard-management 21, so I sent it on its way along with a 4.
 
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