A little after lunch Jimmy, Tom and me stood in the forest looking at the dumping ditch, trying to decide where to begin. Jimmy was suprisingly sober this early on a weekend, and he took charge and began digging in the middle of todays section, and so me and Tom in each our end were going to dig towards Jimmy. This way we would be able to clear as much as possible of the ditch this afternoon. The first hour was all pain and sweat, trying to clear away rocks and reaching the relic-layer, but soon Jimmy shouted out that he might have found a helmet, he claimed he could feel the rim with his fingertips. He cleared away more rubble and disappointed dragged up the bottom of a karbid lamp. So far we have taken up more than ten good helmets here on our previous trips, so we were all hoping for more.
I reached the relic-layer after some fighting with the elements, but when the last rock were out of the way I could pry loose a nice MG spare barrel holder for a bicycle, and a bike seat and other Truppenfahrrad bits, and a Finnish coin.
 Next to where Tom was digging stood a large pine tree, so he had a bit of a struggle to get thick roots out of the way, but armed with both saw and axe it didnt take him too long to remove it. And when that was done he found a nice blowtorch.
 Again Jimmy had found a helmet, or so he thought, but this time it was a crushed bucket, and you could see he was getting pissed off. - Where are the HELMETS!!?? he kinda shouted in my face, my eyes tearing up from the wine fumes on his breath.
Several hours later we had dug through many meters of the ditch and still no lids, or anything really cool. The pile of finds had grown large, but it consisted of 99% junk. Tom had enough when he had cleared his part, and took his detector out for a legstretcher around in the forest.
When he returned, me and Jimmy had opened up the ditch on the oposite side of the pine tree, he showed us coins and a ring he had picked up, before he went off again. From the ditch it was mostly garbage coming out still. I had absolutely ran out of luck, all I found of "nice" things was a comb and a close combat knife scabbard, the second one coming out from here. Jimmy on the other hand had a little more luck, he found several Finnish Pukko knifes and two wooden tent pegs, a gasmask canister and some nice little bottles. But it was weird we had found so much good stuff in the start of the ditch, but the last 6-7 meters only tons of junk. 
Quite late in the evening we decided enough was enough. Tom had already left us and we were running on fumes, but we still had to tidy up after the job, which became quite the sweat producer. 
It had been a very hard dig, so we were exhausted, dirty, full of bruises and insect bites. But we were all grins and smiles anyway, coz it is not only about the finds. The excitement and the 6-7 hour long adrenaline rush, plus the excersise makes it all worth it..and of course the fantasies what can be buried in the next ten meter of the ditch which we will take another time :)

​Until next time, stay dirty, and more importantly keep smiling :)

On Saturday Jimmy and I made plans for an Adventure Afternoon in the Gebirgsjäger camp, so yesterday I found myself in a very warm forest waiting for Jimmys arrival. For a few days now its been real nice and sunny so these valleys becomes like ovens. I walked half kilometer on the outside of the camp area to check if there could be some undiscovered spots full of signals for us to hunt, but the only thing I found was the top of a 200l fuel barrell. No Jimmy still so I went down to the river to have lunch and drink coffee while waiting. Soon I got a message from him and I walked to the parking place to meet. He was quite the sight. The evening before he had been on a party, and fallen asleep outside. Now, in most of the world there is no hassle just taking a nap on a lawn, but here in the North we have this thing called the Midnight Sun a few weeks during summer, which apparently must have slipped his mind. Half the guy was so amazingly sunburnt, coca-cola red skin. The other half of his face was sweaty and pale, and looking at me with a mad feverish stare :D
 We quickly found our way to the ditch we had started digging in October. Back then we closed the season finding a whole bunch of helmets. The ditch was deep and filled with rocks and we spent nearly an hour just reaching the level where the relics live, but when we saw the soil shift color and there were little or no rocks left we knew the fun was about to begin. And a few minutes later I had found the days first Heer belt buckle, of course a steel version. We threw rocks and soil to one side and piled all the items we found on a tarpaulin so not to loose anything in the deep moss. Jimmy found a semi crushed bucket filled with things. Between the rubbish there he picked out a pair of full k98 ammo pouches, produced in Wien in 1939. Then he dragged up a gasmask canister in rather good condition, it was missing the mask but the filter was still stuck in the canister. We dug up a lot of bike parts, two bike seats, pedals and parts of the frame. Next to be dragged out from the cool soil were a large bolt cutter, several leather frogs for bayonets, and as I dug around the corner of the zig-zagged ditch I could feel the shape of the item that most diggers love to find. A helmet!! It didn`t have the leather bits inside, but it looked like it could be cleaned up nicely.
 The heat robbed us for some energy, but we kept pouring water in our heads so we could keep going a few hours more. Jimmy was tunneling under a large rock, which we found out was a large bag of concrete. We could still see imprint of the cloth bag which had surrounded it. It was really heavy, but with combined effort we flipped it out of the way and rolled it to the section of the ditch we had already cleared. Now it was Jimotheis turn to find the good stuff. He dug out a belt buckle, swearing and complaining a bit that it was steel and not the sought after alu buckles, and then shortly after he took out a helmet!! This lid was a bit more crusty, prehaps it had been in the middle of the fire when they burnt the ditch. But still,awesome finds! 
We were on the doorsteps of evening, but we had to complete the "zag" we were digging before we could call it quits. In the last meter or so we searched through, the items found worth mentioning were a nice pistol holster made of some late war ersatz material, the scabbard for a close combat knife and a metal Einheitslanterne (Karbid lamp). When filling back the ditch we checked the spoils thoroughly and the last item to be rescued was a super neat little find. A simple razor sharpener, but made from the very cool "uranium glass" which glows under UV light.
It had been a long day, and we were both dirty, tired and happy. We have heard some rumours about a capitulation site nearby, and we are considering going there for our next Adventure when that time comes :)
Now it is time for some hammock and sun.
​Thanks for reading, and Enjoy your day, folks :)

Razor sharpener in uranium glass..

This week spring really bloomed into a full blown summer with warm rainy days, and some warm sunny days. I had to work a few days but there were also time for some playing in the woods. I was searching a bit in two different camps, a few short hours in a barbed wire pit, and a whole day in a SS pioneer camp that we discovered late last autumn.
The barbed wire pit I had already found a few years ago but never took time to check out. It looked like it was a big jumble of wire and rusted metal sheets, but having cut through the top layer of wire I managed to kinda fold away the sheets and wires and get to the trash underneath it. Hoping for good trash I dived in and pulled out some flattened German jerry cans, a 10l triangular fuel can, a few vehicle lamps, a single boot and a destroyed speedometer. Some more modern army junk also began to appear, ammo cans, a vehicle tail light cover and some plastic exercise ammo, which made sense as parts of the camp was used by the Norwegian Army until the 90`s sometime. I wonder if they had been harvesting fodder for their horses, because I also dug out 6 or 7 scythes. When I was digging out the blades the day was cut short in the moment I tried to pull out one of the scythes from the pit and the still sharp blade just sliced both the glove and my finger open. Rather annoying :)

Two days later I had healed enough and brought the Girlfriend with me for a trip to the SS pioneer camp we had found in September. Here a small unit of pioneers, together with a small contigent of Soviet POWs, kept busy constructing roads and fighting positions in the mountains above. In the morning we had a cozy walk through a beautiful and lush forest before we reached the site. We set up a small "camp" for the day and enjoyed a cup of tea before getting out the equipment. As the Girlfriend took out the insect net from her backpack, I discovered that I had lost my digging-bayonet in the barbed wire pit. That sucked, but luckily I had all my other stash. 
The next three or four hours I roamed around looking for signals to dig. The first I got was a nice set of keys. It lay by the corner of a barrack, and I could just imagine the officer throwing them over his shoulder as he left the camp that last time in the spring of 1945. In and around the barrack was a lot of nails, wires, building parts etc, but also some equipment such as parts from ski poles and hundreds of bolts for construction. The next barrack was similar, so I decided that these had been for storage. On the oposite side of the camps "main street" was also two barrack foundations, and there more interesting items turned up. A very good signal was a piece of brass, that something had been cut from, possibly a piece of trench-art. Then a tooth cream tube from under a root. And a button. All good things pointing towards living quarters. By the barracks entrance I dug up the find of the season so far. A fieldmade waymarker. An arrow cut from thin metal, a bolt fitted to its middle so it could be attached to something and it was in very good condition. Pouring some water on it I could see numbers on the arrow head, looks like it says "68" and some vague letters on the arrow. This is an awesome find and I cannot wait to sink it in a tub of oxalic acid :)
It was a lot of signals around. Rifle ammo, cutlery, buttons, coins, cream tubes, shovels, gas mask parts and bottles, plus rubbish metal. The day had gone in a whiff and suddenly the Girlfriend came and collected me, promising a new trip here very soon as I am certain that there is a medal hiding out there under a piece of moss.

Today we were going to find my lost digging bayonet but first we went on a little recco trip over to Finland, and took the opportunity to do some shopping. On the way home on a market we strolled into Jimothy the Digger, and we made plans for some Gebirgsjäger camp digging tomorrow so that ll be exciting. Hopefully I ll have a new report with good finds (or only rubbish) tomorrow evening or monday :)

Enjoy the rest of the weekend, guys and gals :)

Last week I continued searching through the fieldhospital dumping pit. My original plan had been to search another camp, but a bear was observed there recently, so I thought it best to wait a few days to be sure that it has wandered  well out of the area as I imagine Im a very tasty bear snack. In the Luftwaffe camp there is little chance to encounter anything bigger than a squirrel, or maybe a friendly labrador from the nearby neighbourhood. I found the dumping pit where I had left it and removed the soil so I could continue the dig. The corner of it was full of barrell bands and rusted metal sheets that once had been boxes and crates. It became a very exhausting and difficult day but I slowly managed to get the rubbish away so I later could continue along the wall towards the other end of the ditch. Just as I removed the first shovelful of sand I spotted a round bakelite item. I knew it was the karbid container to the Einheitslanterne, so now it would be exciting to find out if the rest of the lamp was attached to it. Digging around it a little loosened it enough for me to just drag it out from the soil and it became clear that half the lamp was missing and is probably still somewhere in the rest of the ditch in front of me. We ll see if I can locate it  this season.
 It became a long digging session and when I decided to stretch my legs I had made a decent pile of relics on the edge of the ditch. Mostly bottles and different medical glassware, some surgical tools in various states of decay and half burnt field dressings. There were enough broken glass and syringe needles to keep me alert at all times. I found the leftovers of several kerosene lanterns produced in Sweden, lots of handles and other metal parts from crates, and a very nice enamel measuring cup. 
When I was home I began washing and rinsing some of the finds and in the pile of ampoules I found a couple intact ones with text showing the content, some strong stuff (see the pics further down). I also had a nice time opening a couple of boxes from the ditch. The first one was a small box belonging in the surgical kit, I think it was used to lay tools on, but it had nothing inside. The other box was crusted and rusty and I could feel that it had contents. One of the corners had cracked open so with the screwdriver I just removed the whole side wall. Inside were some glass tubes and glass pipettes for lab samples, very fine and thin glass. 
I still have a little left on the ditch, enough for a good week of digging I think, but am not sure if thats where I am going next time as there is other spots I want to check out too :)
​Until next time, enjoy life as best you can :)

Late last season I discovered the ruins of the hospitalbuilding in a Luftwaffe camp. The hospital consisted of several more buildings, but a neighbourhood has slowly been taking over the area so I think the wall foundations I did some searching around is the last visible remains.
Now, the last two weeks it rained more or less constantly, and 1st june it even snowed quite heavily, but the other day it was quite nice, the snow had gone and one could even see some patches of blue sky. Lunch and snacks was organized, and I put on some music in my newly repaired van as it is a bit of a drive to the Luftwaffe camp. I arrived before nine, and sitting in the door of the van, gazing out into the forest I enjoyed an extra morning coffee which I had grabbed from a nearby roadside cafè. Last autumn I had already located what was possibly a dumping pit, but took the detector around for a stroll to warm up and to see what else the relic gods could offer this morning. Under a large rock I found a whole pile of nails and other than some food- and candywrappers I found nothing that could lead me to believe this was a WW2 site. Continuing searching would probably have given such finds, but I was impatient and went to check out if it really was a dumping pit I had over by an old fallen birch a few meters away from the concrete wall.
Just under the soil was a large coil of wire and some bottles. Then it was empty for 20-30 cm, only sand and a few rocks, but the detector and pin pointer told me to keep digging. After a little digging I hit metal again. Three shovels. No, four! Then from the wall of the ditch I had opened up was the corner of a rusted box sticking out. Oh, how I love to find boxes. It is always such a rush. Will it be complete? Closed or open? Is there anything inside? Possibly the most exciting things to come across when digging are intact and closed containers. This box was in poor condition and inside it was boiled out tubes of frostbite cream. I found a couple of such boxes. In the leftovers of other more or less rusted away crates was different glass jars and tubes. I dug very carefully as it is scary digging medical pits. It is often lots of sharp items such as needles and glass. I ve injured myself more than once searching through such dumps. I began finding ampoules, and soon I had a decent pile of both broken and intact ones. It was possible to read text on a few of them. "Novocaine" and " Camphor Forte", and who knows what elses can be in the rest. The ditch had been burned and sometimes a nicely melted bottle or tube surfaced. I found the bottom of the ditch and there I dug out a handfull of medical tools and instruments. But it was late afternoon by now and I had to get on my feet and find the car, so the rest of the pit will have to wait for another day, maybe tomorrow :)