I ve been working a lot lately, on both my actual job and on some new miniature projects but the last days I ve managed to sneak in some time for digging. On the first dig the batteries for the camera dried up the moment I turned it on so shame on me for that. I found hundreds of the orange losantin bottles, a bunch of MG34 bolt bodies, a nice MG cradle and one tube for U.S 75mm grenade, three hours digging and both my backpacks and all my pockets was full so I struggled up the mountain side and back to the car.
Today I went back and continued on the same place. I was digging beneath a couple of corrugated roof sheets and it sort of became like a little cave with relics just falling off the walls. Again it was tons of the losantine containers,k98 oilers,gasmask canisters (most in a rotten condition) and some ammo drums,and maybe 7 or 8 MG bolt bodies. A few little items was very interesting though. Some glass ampoules which have survived 70 years between rocks and metal. The first one turned out to be from some kind of lightbulb, two of them I think is some form of teargas,and the last two I believe is from some kind of soil or gas testing kit.
 Suddenly the skies darkened and it started raining heavily. In a moment everything was soaked,but I sat halfway into the little cave so I wasn`t bothered. That was until it started dripping more and more water from the "roof" and the walls started dropping soil and relics, I quickly moved a step back and the walls just collapsed filling my little cave. My pile of finds was already quite sizeable so I filled the bag and went back home to dry up.
I hope to go back here very soon:)

Until then,stay dry, but muddy :)

Since I knew the dumping pit from yesterday was waiting for me I was quick with the breakfast and coffee routine this morning so I could get out there. The sandy soil there made it very easy to dig it out,but it kept no treasures, only rusted food tins,two beer bottles and a small perfume bottle. I did not despair though as it was still early and he forest is big. I soon found a couple of other dumping pits to search.  I didn`t have as much luck with the finds as yesterday, but I didn`t leave home empty handed. I found lots of communication wire, three tent pegs and some small bits. Also a porcelain cup and a large broken porcelain dish. I think I ll be able to glue it nicely together though. After digging the pits I strolled around locating a few more for another day and dug most of the signals I had around the forest. The last find was a bit interesting,at first I thought I had found a Mg loader, but it was a salt crusher I think. 
So,time for a shower and some dinner before I ll continue cleaning relics.
​Enjoy your day:)

Today I ll have a long evening cleaning relics..I just got back home from a great day in the forest. I went to the capitulation site again,hell bent on checking every single signal the Fisher would give me. Ofcourse digging in such a mode yields alot of rust,wirebits,nails and frustration, but suddenly you ll have a great find,or even discover a dumping pit. The mosquitoes soon smelled fresh blood so I had to give myself a good coating of mossie repellent,even took a swig of it,seemed to work as I wasnt bothered at all by them today.
The very first find of the day,not counting the rubbish found, was a Opel hubcap which hid beneath a piece of chain. Later I had located three small dumping pits where it was mostly food tins and bottles. The last of those pits had a nice item though,a small dish or ashtray with some engravings on,will be interesting to see it when its cleaned. 

After the dumping pits I found a cluster of signals spread around between some old trees. Had to chop a few roots to be able to dig out a k98 cleaning kit, some hooks and clasps from horse equipment, a few k98 rounds and two 9mm rounds also. And ofcourse it was here I found my first Edelweiss. I ve been digging GebirgsJäger sites for a couple of years now,but today finally I had a Edelweiss, a bit damaged but still,Happy with that find.

A few meters away from the Edelweiss I struck another dumping pit. The Fisher gave off signals for lots of different metal and that certainly needed to be investigated. In the pit was lots of barrell bands, a wheel from a wheelbarrel and a bunch of other stuff. Tent pegs, leather parts from a horse harness,a pair of soldier boots and a rotted to pieces rain coat with two D.R.G.M marked buttons. I also found two leather pouches for the Erkennungsmärken, but no tags,and a pair of spurs. The by far most interesting items in this pit was the two knifes,with bone handles. I never seen something like it before and they look to have been made by soldiers, abit macabre really.
Now I was exhausted and I had eaten all my food but was hungry as a wolf,so I began the walk back to the car and on my way I discovered a new dumping pit which seems to be a large one. I ll go back there tomorrow.
Stay muddy:)

This morning I had doubts to if I should make a trip to the forest, or stay home working on another project I have going, but in the end the need for hearing the mossies buzz around my head won. Glad am I for that, it was a little bit of an exciting day. I went to one of the capitulation sites and swung the detector around for a while,digging every signal I got. Most of them was unrecognisable rusted metal, and I probably found a dumping pit, but it was covered with some large wire coils so I ll save them for another day. At one point I lost my bayonet which I use for digging dumping pits and when I searched for it I came across a big bear dropping. I wonder if it is the same bear I ve seen tracks from the previous years. I found the bayonet and continued searching for some kind of treasure. 50-60 meters of searching I stopped,I smelled bear. They have a strong smell. I looked around in the grass and there I saw a flattened area, and next to it two other a bit smaller spots with flattened grass, someone had been laying there not so long ago. I couldn`t see or hear them anywhere so I decided it was safe to continue, but made some extra noise to make them aware a humanoid was visiting their forest. Bears are mostly very shy,and they rarely attack people but a mommy bear with kids can be sketchy at best.
When I started digging the next signal a few hundred meters further into the forest I forgot all about any bears, here was a nice little dumping pit and german beer and wine bottles was pouring out from under the moss and soil. 

I dug clean one of the sides first,then turned around and began digging the other side and the first thing I find is the handle of a K98 bayonet. I carefully dug it free and it still had the leather frog, but a part of it fell of when I tried to get some of the soil off it. Very happy with that one, have it on the bench ready for cleaning now. There was still alot of metal left but between the ever present food tins the only other nice find was a pair of spurs which look like they will clean up nice. After making sure there was nothing left I filled the pit back and searched around for a couple of hours without any interesting finds. On the way back to the car I had moved onto the forest road and was searching the sides of it when I met a couple out walking their dog. They was interested in what I had found and they told me about a place near the river where it supposedly had been dumped alot of things. Ofcourse I went over there but as I walked down a small slope I again saw a spot with flattened grass and the next 3-4 meters I walked I saw 6 (!) large bear droppings! I tried search the area but it was very difficult to move around as it is totally overgrown with bushes and young sapplings standing thick as a wall. I might be able to find a clearing approaching from the oposite side but I have to wait a few weeks until the river calms down and withdraw from the little side rivers which I need to cross, so it is for later this summer unless Im eaten by bears before that.
​Until next time, keep digging:)
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I spent one more day clearing the big dumping pit (see my previous post) but there was absolutely nothing more of interest to find, just more of the broken iron ovens, and the large box on the bottom. The box was hard to dig out but in the end I got it loose and managed to get all the rust-water out of it but sadly it was no good items inside it.
When I was sure there was nothing more to find in this pit I began filling it back up, which took a while but when it was done you couldn`t see much traces of any digging. Always close the holes you dig, there is no need for any trekkers or animals to fall into it hurting themselves :)
​After I had done that I strolled around the forest trying to find some more interesting places to dig,and I think I might have found 2-3 larger dumping pits I ll open up in the coming weeks:)