my mineral collection:

The reason why I started to collect minerals was a simple walk through a small rock show. At once I was fascinated by all these nice rocks. One of the sellers told me about his rock hounding trips at the region of Idar-Oberstein (the quarry Juchem at the Fischbachtal in Rhineland Palatinate). He told me to go there. He said: "go there and you will sure find something". And he was right! Now for something about 20 years I'm rock hounding at the Fischbachtal. During the years the region of Idar-Oberstein has become my second homestead. I'm still an enthusiastic rock hound and my collection is still growing. I love collecting minerals because for me it's a wonderful thing-the possibility to find the little wonders of mother earth and getting fresh air. Isn't this a very good combination? I only collect minerals from the region around Idar-Oberstein. All pieces of my collection are mostly from the quarry Juchem and the old quarry Bernhard. I've found most of my pieces up to 1996. Meanwhile the situation at my favourite quarry is very poor. But it's still possible to find some nice pieces.

In 1999 I've also started collecting petrified wood. For me it's absolutely fascinating to see the old wood. You can see a lot of things happened millions of years ago. It's like a little window to the past. Unfortunally it is very hard to find real good petrified wood in Germany. Most of the good collecting areas are closed or off limits. I love petrified wood from North America because of the great variety, the perfect preservation and the wonderful colours.
 

notice:
The situation at every quarry is getting more worse. So every rock hound should take care to the property and comply with the rules of the owner. Rock hounding is a wonderful hobby but we all depend on the property owners. So everybody should take care!