Frozen day at the Iceberg

[Danimal]

I met Zoso today at 11am at the Iceberg and we decided to give it a go. The temp upon our arrival was hovering around 20deg F. and within a few hours the wind increased and hard driving snow ensued and the temp dropped steadily the rest of the afternoon. As we left at dark it was about 8deg F.
The normally soft ground at the "wheat field" was as hard as pavement. I brought my relic shovel and even with that and my heavy Herman Survivor boots it was near impossible to dig. Nearly every coin was encased in frozen soil and had to be chipped out. Thank goodness there were no key dates (sadly I dug no silver today either, but I am happy with what was dug considering) as a lot of coins got whacked by the shovel or my Lesche.
Dave and I were dressed plenty warm and it wasn't that bad unless you faced into the wind.
Too tired and sore (had an accident out there and gashed my head badly and am fighting a concussion headache right now) to count the coins tonight. I did see a 1910 and a 1919s wheatie in there. Two junk rings as well as a Jefferson nickle that had been run over and squished...kinda cool.

Never let anyone say it's too cold to go out hunting.

HH all!!

Dave (Zoso) trying to somehow drive his digger into terra firma.

Dave holding out the resultant wheat cent

It was COLD

Typical wheatie encased in icy dirt

Totals cleaned

closeup of 1910 wheat cent

 

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[doyboy]

Daniel, good luck at the Berg!

 

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[renegade_7]

Can't say that I blame you for going out in this cold. A productive site like that one would be hard to stay away from for any length of time. Beats the cabin fever I currently have.

 

[hed11877]

What a blast!

For as cold as it was, It didn't feel like it. I started the day off in a flannel and long sleeve shirt. That lasted for about 3 hours then the heavy
jacket came out. The wind and snow kicked up across the field and my warm coffee that I just poured onto the ground was already frozen
in less then a minute. My only complaint was I didn't have knee pads (tomorrows shopping trip) my knees were cold most of the day. But after the knees on my jeans froze solid it really wasn't bad, Until the car trip home...When they thawed!

The digging was a task! almost 4x the recovery time of a normal day. My very first hole had 9 Wheat's in it and it took a good 20 minutes to recover them from the frozen bits and pieces of earth without damaging them. Some did suffer damage as I stabbed the Lesche into the ground, But nothing with value was hurt. The Wheat's would freeze to your gloves after picking them up. I ended up changing gloves because they froze up with soil and coffee over run.

If the sun didn't set so early I would still be there!

My take today was 38 Wheat's and 9 Mem's...Zero clad..A Square Nail..A old Hair Curler..And a half-way decent Pocket Knife




ZoSo71

I think I found that exact pocket knife in the same condition last week, had to do a double take

 

[doyboy]

You guys are TOUGH!

 

[Danimal]

You guys are TOUGH!

Not nearly as tough as your "money mafia" group Kirk

To brave the -10 temps you did says quite a bit about you intestinal fortitude. You are a credit to the hobby. Anyone that says differently is itchin for a fight!!

 

[stoney56]

Danimal, this thread was so bone chilling that when I opened the thread, the monitor frosted over. Nice going guys, guess though you could put the dirt clods with signals in your pouch and take them home to thaw out.

 

[justin75790]

Nice finds!.... Its 65 and Sunny here in Texas.

 

[ZoSo71]

Nice going guys, guess though you could put the dirt clods with signals in your pouch and take them home to thaw out.

I did just that. My pouch was a muddy mess by the time I got home. And my first pair of gloves thawed inside my backpack with the same results. Needless to say i went out and bought a new backpack!


HH
ZoSo71