In just a few days the peace and quiet is over. The Girlfriend is coming home for a little rest before the next part of her fieldwork begin. So the last couple of days I have been cleaning the house, carrying a half ton of relics from the kitchen to my workroom and trying to make the house look like home again and not a storage for sand and mud.
Last night when it was all done I decided to go early to bed and have a long day out in the forest today. I went to a quite large camp I have been digging the last three seasons. I have found lots of good stuff here and I was pretty sure there would still be more relics waiting to be discovered. A few minutes after turning on the detector I opened up a dumping pit. After getting some rust and bottles out of the way, gaming pieces began to appear. A nice glass escaped the blade of my shovel and I am happy for that, I love relics that can be used. A large piece of metal took some pulling and swearing to get out of the pit and I think it is a siren or part of an air filtration system. I wonder what it was mounted on.. I also found a small bakelite container, probably it was for some kind of lip balm.
I didn`t have to stroll for long before I had another dumping pit to dig. This one was full of rusted frames to put inside the gasmasks. I picked out a handfull of the ones that wasn`t too far gone. On the bottom of this pit was two gasmask containers. The first one was smashed up but the other was intact and still had the mask inside.
Searching for another dumping pit I got a few single signals. Two rifle barrell covers, a length of MG belt with excersise rounds and a bayonet scabbard.
​The third dumping pit I found was a big one. It started as a crappy iron signal, but getting the rubbish out of the way the signal got better and stronger. I spent nearly four hours digging through this pit and it was full of stuff. Batteries, bottles, a pocket watch, five intact field torches, and at least four broken ones. Several parts for the Einheitslanterne (karbid lamp), cream tubes, some map tools, two frying pans, a Notek regulator,a cool coffeegrinder marked 1941, a canteen and some more of the usual bits. The best find from this pit came when I was checking the edges before filling it back up. There was a small but beautiful trench-art box!! What a lovely little find! 
Now my backpack was getting really heavy and I slowly began taking direction towards the car. But I went in to a little patch of good signals that I had to check. Here I found another pocket watch, silver this time, but it was not complete, the entire mechanism was gone so it was actually only the back part of the housing, still nice though. I also dug up a small part from a scope. When I got back up on my feet the batteries on the detector died so it was not much more to do than to waddle my way through the forest and get back home to dry up and start cleaning relics.
We ll see if there will be another trip out tomorrow, or monday, for sure I am not done with this camp:)
​Until next time, enjoy life the best you can :)
​

Yesterday was a slow day. I went out to the forest early. I wanted to continue on the large dumping pit in the stinging nettle shrubbery I found a few weeks ago. So far this season I have had some great finds from this camp, so I figured it have to be something good waiting in this dumping pit. I cut down some of the nettles so I had some space to work and began digging. As I removed the top layer of the section I wanted to dig a few relics popped out. A göffel or two, a medical bottle, parts of a bike lamp, a gaming piece and a mystery piece. Then for the next two hours not a single item worth saving. I dug up nothing but animal bones, rocks and a few tin cans, plus some barrell bands. It became a very boring project and there is still lots left of the pit to check out but I decided it was enough for the day. I switched on the detector and strolled towards the area where I had found the last helmet. It was a few signals along the way worth checking but it wasn`t anything interesting,. And I discovered a couple of small dumping pits which didn`t deliver any relics.
The weather had become warmer and a large swarm of mosquitoes and black flies was following me around and constantly trying to get inside my head.
The whole day went like this, 7 or 8 hours, combing the forest but the relic gods didn`t want to give me anything but exercise and zen training. One signal almost delivered but it was a live K98 rifle grenade. Scary stuff. Another place was a whole cache of 9mm ammo, in great looking condition. I emptied a few to make key rings or something off them later. Another hours search yielded a nice looking tent peg but that was it. After a long circling back to the car I had checked several more signals but gotten no finds. I did manage to get some insect bites, I saw a squirrell and I found some good spots for berry picking in a few weeks. 
So some days are like this one, long, warm ,tedious and exhausting for no other pay than fresh air, nice views and memories of nature,,definately not a waste of time :) 
​But I do hope for more finds on the next trip out there:)

For about a week now the summer seems to have turned into autumn two months earlier than usual. One morning a few days ago it was even fresh snow on the mountain tops, and it is raining a lot. Yesterday the weather was supposed to be a bit nicer so me and Baard decided it was time for another little expedition. I met up with him and Skule quite early and drove to a nearby German camp we visited two years ago. It was prehaps less rain than the previous days but the forest was wet and all day rainshowers didn`t exactly make things any drier.
We began digging a slope where we had found some good stuff last time around. The hopes of some really good relics waiting there had been haunting us both for a while now so we stripped off the top layer and started sifting through broken glass, charcoal and rusted bits. It took us a few hours to complete the slope and even though none of the finds would fall into the "spectacular" category it was a few nice findings there. Baard picked out a simple yet nice trench-art ashtray, lots of shaving soap jars, toothpaste tubes, small perfume bottles and one or two "rigs" that were used to keep the shape of gasmasks. 
​My pile of relics contained a few bottles, a Finnish coin, a cigarette box with a roller, a silver pen, a göffel, a couple of gaming pieces,  a small glass dish and two nice uniform buttons of which I am still unsure of from which army.
After a coffee and a little to eat we moved a few meters along the slope to where there were a few good signals. Here I found a small coinspill with a couple of Finnish coins and 13-14 German coins, an axe, a silver spoon , two other spoons and some radio parts. I also dug out a key, an eraser, scabbard for a close combat knife and an interesting German bakelite button. The button was marked "Nappa. Deutsche Arbeit". Amazingly we had dug through a ton of broken glass without any cuts or stabbings!
 While Baard and me had been digging the slope Skule kept falling down from trees before he decided to build himself a shelter to keep warm and dry :D But he also broke his fathers shovel so as punishment he had to trek down through the forest to pick up my Fiskars from the car :D
 When there were no more interesting signals in the slope, we moved around a bit with the detectors, looking for other dumpsites or good signals. The area was rather quiet and it seems the rubbish had been thrown only a few places, not scattered around all over as it often is. We had seen a big dumping pit someone had been doing some digging in before us and we chose to go through it. That was a wise move. Here we spent the rest of the day trying not to stab our fingers or knees on all the sharp and jagged bits of glass while the piles of relics grew.
​Here I found a few pieces from a field telephone, a Red Army enamel cup, three toothbrushes, several more spoons and yet another göffel. The most interesting bits I pulled out from the mud here was a ceramic drinking bowl for a dog, a MG 34 cradle of a construction I have never seen before. It look like it had been mounted on prehaps a wooden wagon. Also a pair of lady earrings was something I had never expected to find in a massive German dumping pit. A piece of soap marked "Gamburg", a pair of goggles and a Scho-Ka-Kola tin found their way onto my pile as well.
Baard had a bit better luck here as he dug up a nice Rosodont box, a Norwegian 7.5 centimeter shell casing, an early field flask drinking cup made from alu, a parade belt buckle (minus its roundell) and a trench-art ashtray made from a 7.5 cm Norwegian casing and a trench-art picture frame!! 
I am of course jealous on his trench-art findings but am glad that he found some good stuff and not only the nails and bolts he secretly collects.
Sadly their holiday here north is rapidly coming to an end, but we have plans for next time, and hopes for a long autumn lockdown which could allow them to have an extra vacation up here :D
Today it is time to relax with some housework but if the weather allows it I might make a little trip to the Gebirgsjäger camp tomorrow :)

It was nasty looking weather when I peeked out the window. Wind and rain. Lots of rain. I had gotten up late, with just an hour or two before lunchtime. I tried to get some work done on a diorama but I couldn`t concentrate. I looked out the window again. The forest was calling me. But, the rain... It shifted gear it looked like, 100 more liter pr second. After torturing myself with "should or should not" for an hour more I got into my digger clothes and drove to the gebirgsjäger camp. It was a wise move. Here it was just a light rain, and quite warm. I was going to begin searching where I left off last time so when I got close to the site I turned on the Fisher and made a sweep with it. Great signal! The signal was deep and next to a pine tree so I had to cut my way through some roots to discover a layer of rocks. "Thar be dumping pit waters, yarrr!" I thought in a piratey voice as I piled up the rocks behind the tree. After a while I had cleared away enough so I could see the metal. It could be two things. A squashed bucket, or a helmet!! Some more sweat had to be put in it before it was possible to pull it up to the surface.
It was a nice helmet! With lots of color showing and a decal too!! The liner had been ripped out and is maybe laying around somewhere near. The last find on the previous trip was a helmet and today the first find! What a crazy time we are living in! :D 
In front of me I saw a couple of holes in the ground and they all had signals in them so I spent the next few hours checking them out. It wasn`t too much in them, but some bottles and a whole lot of Göffels. Too bad they were all made of steel so they were all rotted. The next pit had some bakelite. Four "cups" for fuzes, but none of their lids could be found.
Around in the forest it was also a lot of signals, but it was mostly bolts, nails, wires and rubbish. I did find a small pile of signal flares and a strange trench-art thing. Something to hang keys or towels on maybe. Two of the signals were of a bit more scary nature. First I found a 1kg pioneer slab, a Sprengbüchse 24. The second was a big surprise, a magnetic antitank charge, a "Hafthohlladung". So I guess EOD will have fun later :D 
I kept at if for an hour more but as I didn`t find anything else, the blackflies were feasting on me, I was soaked and it started raining I began moving to the car. As I was about to drive home the landowner came by and we had a chat where he gave me a tip about a place where it could be some rust. Hopefully I will find something there :)
Now it is time to dry up a bit :) 

Early yesterday morning I was on the road heading south to meet my friends. The weather had finally cleared up a little so we had to take the opportunity and go searching some more in the large German camp. Roadworks and tourists sightseeing while driving slowed me down a bit but I arrived only a few minutes later than Baard and Skule. I gave Baard some small relics and a scabbard for the close combat knife from last trip and then we loaded the digger gear into my van and took off towards the forest roads. Mr.Weatherman had promised us clouds with no rain but the clouds dispersed and soon the sky was all blue and sunny. The ground was a little wet from the last days of raining but that is just good coz the detectors will pick up signals better in such conditions.
Baard still had his bolts and nails dumping pit to finish up so I found another quite good signal to dig. Directly under the surface was a german messkit lid waiting for me, and next to it another lid, possibly from a Norwegian messkit (those were often used by POWs) and then I pulled out a scabbard for a close combat knife :D So I had very quickly gotten a replacement for the one I gave away half hour earlier. On the wall of the dumping pit I began to see white porcelain shining through the soil, that is always very exciting. Would it be intact, and with stamps?? I carefully used my bayonet to get it loose from the soil. It was a small teapot, the lid was missing but I might have found one some years ago so I ll need to go through the porcelain crate in my storage, and it only had Norwegian producer markings. A great find anyways. I kept digging the small pit and found a handfull of gaming pieces and some K98 ammo. After filling back the spoils I checked the surface around the pit. There was a not so good but very clear signal. I tore away some of the moss and ripped my way through a fine webbing of roots before I saw metal. From the centimeter of visible metal it could be a file or a bayonet! Exciting! I took away some more of the roots and soil and saw a bakelite grip! As I held up the lovely find I shouted over to Baard "Are you ready to hate me again??!!" and expected a barrage of bolts flying towards me, but he is luckily a peaceful fellow :D

 He had dug through half his pit and pulled up two rather large bakelite lids, which I have seen before but cannot remember what they belonged to, he also found more soldier boots and skeleton bits of probably half a horse. 
​I kept checking the area around and found a few fieldkitchen related bits. A metal dish, the lid from a coffee container, a few spoons and a enamelled soup bowl, but soon I wanted more dumping pit rather than single signals. Last time I had begun digging a possible dump, so I decided to give it another go. It was difficult because of the hard and heavy clay that held a large kettle in a firm grip so I moved to the other end of it and opened it up from that direction instead. After getting rid of the initial layer of rotted food tins some goodies peaked out. The first item was a really nice one. A medical scissor like tool, for bones or muscles probably. It was in an amazing condition, like new with only some clay stuck to it! Then some bottles and gaming pieces came out from the pit, followed by an intact coffee cup and tea plate of civillian types. I kept working on the pit for a couple of hours. Some large rocks had to be brought to the surface and relics kept coming. More gaming pieces, candles, bottles, two condoms, a really nice crystal ashtray, another medical tool and some personal hygiene items like toothpaste and razors. In the end I managed to get the large kettle out of the way but that was the end of it, the flow of relics from this pit dried out so I filled back the scrap and moved my finds to the relic pile.
Now Skule had discovered the K98 rounds and was feeding his pyromaniac tendencies and what is better than enjoying lunch in a cloud of  cordite smell. :)

​ Baard had closed the bolt pit and went around looking for more treasures. I did the same but found nothing more than an axe head, 14 or 15 k98 stripper clips, a toothbrush and a couple of large pegs possibly for a huge tent tarpaulin.
 The day rapidly moved towards evening so we decided to move a bit around to take a quick look at other parts of the forest before calling it quits. A small hill next to the forest road had a lot of signals and under a big birch tree was a small dump in the ground that looked like a two man foxhole. Here I got a strong signal. I had to check it of course. I dug down a bit, removed some rocks, cutted my way through some thick roots but still could not find the reason to the signal. After getting a new coil for the Fisher it really picks up deep stuff! I kept at it and almost a meter deep down I finally saw metal. A roundish shape..could it be a helmet??!! I had high hopes. I expanded the hole, got rid of the clay and finally I saw that it was a gasmask container I had in front of me. Then suddenly it was a second container there, and then a third!! I brought them up to the surface, happy that the three of us would get one each, and they looked to be in good condition, all had gasmasks inside and some color showing through the rust. But there were more. A strange looking gasmask I have never seen before, and then some more metal poked out from the side of the hole I had dug. And a small leather piece..chinstrap for a helmet??! Could it be? I dared not hope and just continued working at it, but soon I knew that I was about to pull out a German helmet! I was laying down to be able to reach the bottom of the pit and my legs were covered with ants. They would have pulled me away to their hive if I hadn`t stopped a moment to brush them off, and then I lifted the helmet out. It had liner and leather intact and I think this one can clean up well. With the two helmets I ve already found this season, and last summers big haul of lids I figured this one was for the boys and threw it at Skule who was busy fighting the ants as they had finally found a worthy opponent. I checked the pit and still there was strong signals down there. I laid back down and began pulling out cardboard box after cardboard box with wooden tipped exercise ammo for the K98 rifles. Hundreds of rounds. The other half of the pit also had some strong signals that very well could be helmets, and we thought there was a chance since it was 3 gasmask cannisters, why not three helmets.. While I had been doing this, Baard had been testing my detector and began picking up other things than nails and horseshoes so next time he ll be borrowing my spare Fisher as he is considering an upgrade from his old basic Garrett.
Since I was exhausted by now I let the guys dig the rest in case it was helmets there and they haven`t dug lots of that sort, but sadly it was just some scrap metal. I really wished it had been helmets, it would have been so awesome. They dug down till they also found boxes of the training ammo and we think the whole floor of the pit is covered by this in several layers, but that we will know for sure next time coz now it was late and we had to stop and get back to our homes.
Back at our starting point we made loose plans for the next trip, we just have to wait till the weather improves because the coming days will be seriously wet :)
Until then, Stay muddy and keep smiling:)
​

When it comes to digging expeditions my summers have two clear highlights. First is of course when the Military Archaeology Legenda expeditions is happening and the second is when my friend from Trondheim comes North to relax with his family on their summer place. They arrived some days ago and soon after I got a text from him asking when I would be ready for a dig. Yesterday morning I filled the car with my gear and drove ca an hour and a half to meet up. Baard and his son Skule were waiting for me on the stairs and I jumped out of the car to greet them, and threw a nice relic german helmet on Skule as a little summer gift. I think he was quite happy with that as he likes to make lamps from helmets to have around in his room. Baard had been doing his research again and organized permissions for us from a landowner. After a short drive we stopped at the farm and met the farmer. He sent us further on a forest road some half kilometer where it should be a huge camp. This camp had housed four thousand German soldiers and had a shooting range and a horse track. The area is huge and we had no idea about the layout of the camp so we just switched on the detectors and began sweeping grass. The best thing about it was that no one has ever been digging here before us!
After having dug up a whole bunch of 7.92 rifle casings we were pretty sure we knew where the shooting range had been. Looking at some of the casings we saw that they had been shooting not only with the Mausers but also with machineguns. One can get bored rather fast from only picking spent ammo and we wanted to find the area the soldiers had been living.
The boiling sun also made the open area quite unbearable so we decided to check out a birch forest that outlined the area. Not far in between the trees I had the first signal. It was a lonely Soviet coin from the end of the 20`s. A very good indication that we were on the right track. Soon after I had another great signal and dug out a rifle cleaning kit and a cut down 10.5 cm brass casing. I also had in my hand a very nice signal flare but I dropped it and it disappeared down between some rocks and was never to be seen again. 
Baard was expanding his collection of nails and horseshoes while my Fisher F5 gave hints of a coin spill. In a 1x1 meter patch I found 18 coins. Both German and Finnish. I also found 7 German uniform buttons. I moved a meter or so and checked a not too good iron signal and pulled out a close combat dagger. Baard had grown to hate me by now naturally as he pulled out yet another horseshoe, little did he know that on the end of the day I would give him the close combat dagger :D
We could make out an old road going through the forest and on the sides of it we spotted holes in the ground, small and large ones, Possible dumping pits! I opened up one of them and there were some rust and bottles in it. I picked out two nice bottles from it, together with a toothbrush, a bayonet scabbard and a beautiful little bakelite cream jar. Opposite to that pit was a small burn pit with hundreds of spent 7.92 casings and we found the remains of the wooden crate they once had been stored in.
After a little coffee and lunchbreak we went back at it. Me and Baard searching while Skule tried to climb to the top of every little tree he could find and we worried if we would need to call in the ambulance helicopter every time he fell to the ground. I walked around a bit to try get a little overview and when I returned I could hear Baard, but damn if I could see him. I almost stepped on him there he was laying on the ground opening up a dumping pit. He had found what is probably the end of the barracked area coz we saw foundations of buildings and pit upon pit scattered around. All of them had good signals so I just chose one to start opening up. I had luck with my choice as relics just flowed out of it. It wasn`t a very big ditch, maybe 1 meter x 0.5 meter, but it was deep, and filled with the red pioneer wire so it took the rest of the day to empty it. 
The pile of relics grew steadily along with the scrap- and spoil heap. I found two bakelite cups for field flasks, lots of bottles, small and big ones, and a bayonet leather frog. Other items were the rests of a technical learning book, lots of gaming pieces (16 or 17 in total), a few coins, two or three rifle cleaning kits, some boots, bunker candles, tent pegs, a crystal ashtray, broken porcelain, two porcelain insulators and another toothbrush.
The last few items to come out from the wet-ish and heavy clay was a cardboardbox with 20 Mauser rounds, which Skule quickly grabbed, emptied and made a small "gagarin" with the gunpowder, and a few different bakelite boxes. The very last find was funny. I saw a small aluminum plate with letters stamped on it. I could read "..Bitch" !!  `What the heck` I thought, `How rude!!`. Baard cleaned it up while I was filling back the pit, and it was a tag that had belonged to Obergefreier Kobitch, apparently. A very fine end of the digging. 
Baard didn`t have too much luck this time, but that is quite usual when it is first time in a year one uses the detector. It takes a trip or two to get into it again, so I bet his luck will turn next time we go out there. Hopefully very soon. He had a interesting find though, a pair of soldier boots with a modified sole, I will add a pic of it and I hope some of you guys might have an explanation to why they were made like it.
It had been a super day, alittle bit because of the finds but mostly because of the company. I think I ll launch a campaign to have them move back up here permanently, it is just silly living in a city in mid- to south of the country :D
Well,it was hard to dig the heavy clay so today is all about relaxing in the sun. So I wish you all a great end to the weekend and a nice week :)
​See you again soon.

It has been a long week without any digging. Its been a great week though. We have been blessed with some superior summer weather and the Girlfriend was home for a break from her fieldwork so we got to hang together a bit. We enjoyed life in our hammock between some big old trees in the garden, and we went to a beautiful mountain lake for a little bathing. This morning she had to go back to her fieldwork and instead of sitting alone at home feeling on the emptiness I went to the Gebirgsjäger camp I evacuated because of bugs last week. The horseflies was not very active today, and the mosquitoes I managed to keep away with the bug spray, but damn the little black flies flocked around me. They were a bit annoying but soon forgotten when the detector gave off good signals.
Before continuing on the ditch I had opened earlier, I walked around a bit and picked up a relic here and there. First I found a dump with some canned fish tins, gasmask parts and a enamel lid for a bucket. The next signal was very good and it really surprised me when I saw the piece of metal. It was a full magazine for the Red Army DP-28 machine gun in quite good condition. A really nice find to start the day with.
Towards the ditch I found a tent peg, a small ditch where the only good relic was a razor in see-through plastic, some clasps and a small decorated brass disc.
I spent the rest of the day searching through the big ditch. I dug out lots of small parts which I think might be from a waffenmeister, the buttplate from a K98, a small lighter, the hook from a karbid lamp and another great little find, the scabbard for a close combat knife! When I decided it was enough for today I sifted through the spoils and found a small trench-art piece, a brass piece with the unit insignia of the "Enzian" division - 4. Gebirgs-Division hammered in. Very cool!
Tomorrow I will meet up with a friend and we will go search a hopefully interesting site. 

Todays expedition became a short one. I started early where I left off yesterday. It was sunny and quite warm and it soon became obvious that I had entered one of Hells waiting rooms. The marshy area was invaded by a billion horseflies of which I hadn`t seen a single one yesterday. Having those big angry flesh eaters going after my face all-the-time quickly lost its charm. It is like they are having a warning system as well, if you by some god given luck manage to smash one there is like 70 of them swarming you the next second. So the tiny flying zombies won this round and I retreated back to the car swearing I would return and torch the forest, and drove to higher and drier grounds to a place that came up in my research this winter. It is a rather large area so I decided to just begin in one end. 
I soon found signs of activity of both Wehrmacht, Norwegian Army and tourists or trekkers. There were building foundations, a little old rust sticking out from the ground and a staggering amount of modern rubbish. Of course I try to take with me as much as possible of the modern waste littering the surface but it angers me how lazy some people are just throwing their garbage around. Well, the place I had chosen to start searching had been heavily used and I got signals from the detector almost everywhere. I even found a couple of small dumping pits. The weird thing was that I could only find food cans, fish tins, nails and barrell bands. I really dug a lot of signals, but nothing. Definatley this must have been an area for cooking food, storing food and eating food. It is very idyllic so it does makes sense kind of. 
The day had become really warm, not the 14 degree Celsius I had been promised. It had to have climbed above +20 and it was difficult to find the energy to keep on detecting and digging. I found myself taking frequent rests enjoying the views and drinking my cold water. This summer I started taking frozen water with me on expedition. It is so good to have an ice cold drink when taking a break.
I began realising that a continued search was futile and that I should go home and just chill out in the sun. With that descision made I went back to the car and took off towards home. On the way I remembered that my friend wanted some of the red plastic exercise ammo so I stopped where I knew there would be some, climbed the hill, found some positions that were full of the plastic casings and filled my bag.
 Back home I threw all the sandy and rusty gear on the floors and found my relaxation sandals and went out in the sun to hang out with the Cat. And that is what I will be doing the next few days as the weather seems to be on warm summer mode for the moment, relaxing at home and around the house. There will still be rust in the forests in a few days when the temperatures drops to more comfy digging levels.

So until next time, Enjoy life as good as you can :)