Winter is slowly approaching here north. The last few mornings fresh snow has been spotted on the tallest mountain tops and the temperature is rapidly declining. Yesterday morning it was only +6 degree Celsius when we had our morning coffee and prepared to go to the forest, so an extra layer of clothes was put on. We went to the forest where the plan was to find some rust, and some berries. I walked right on a small dumping pit where I found a nice ink jar and a few gaming pieces between a bunch of rusted junk, and during the time it took me to search through the dump, Girlfriend had filled half bag of Cloudberries. We made a little basecamp in the middle of a barrack foundation in an old German camp and spent the next hours roaming around, getting leg training while picking berries and checking signals from the detector. We met up now and then for a warming cup of  Chaga or some food. The day went on but I had no luck with my searching. The grounds were full of metal but I couldn`t find the good stuff. Only a few items I felt was worth saving. A broken entrenching tool, a nice enamelled bowl, a little bit rusted enamelled cup, a RAD marked karbid lamp, a belt made of tyre rubber and two small ashtrays with some embossed nature scene. I found a whole bunch of K98 rounds which I buried, a few engine parts, a few rusted kraftstoff cans, kilometers of barbed wire and bits of a cast iron stove, all left where I found it. The last signal I dug was a cigarett case which I saved even if it had been broken in two. Even if I didn`t have any luck with the relics, Girlfriend had luck with berries and mushrooms :)
The rest of the day we spent together filling a couple of bags with big and juicy blueberries so we can have some jam for the winter, and when we got back home we ate a bowl of it with sugar, a really nice pre-dinner snack :D

Today Girlfriend went early to work, so I got up and prepared for another day in the forest. My plan was to start a dumping pit I found a few weeks ago, a big one. I stocked up on some food and water and took off as soon as the coffee jar was empty. I had gps marked the place so it was easy enough to find back to it and I went to work. A few hours in and I had dug out a whole lot of bottles, and even more rusted junk and the pile kept growing the more I dug. Now and then a nice looking relic was placed in another pile that didn`t grow as rapidly as the junk pile. I could feel the fresh and sharp autumn air everytime I took a few minutes break, and it was quite cozy with the rays from the low autumn sun penetrating the yellowing canopy, but as soon as I began searching through the dumping pit again all that was forgotten. I pulled out a lantern of the type often used on airfields and with panzers, a big vaffel iron (!), a pair of ski boots, a civillian field torch, a giant vinagre bottle which is quite rare, a few coins and a whole bunch of gaming pieces. I also found a bakelite butter dish lid which was quite nice as I`ve found two bottom parts earlier so now at least one of them will be complete, a leather K98 ammo pouch and a whole bunch of 7.92 rounds. I was struggling a bit with a large piece of metal I couldn`t really identify before I had it up on the surface, and to my surprise it was a rather nice and almost intact bunker stove. I have earlier found a few of the parts that it was missing so thats a project I have for winter now, cleaning it up and making it look presentable again. With the backpack now filled to the point of bursting, and afternoon creeping up it was time to fill back the hole and find my way back to the car, barely able to walk under the weight of the relics :D As soon as I get the time I ll be back continuing this dumping pit as it is large and might take 5 or 6 more visits, maybe I ll manage it before King Winter is upon us..
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Soon after Girlfriend went to work this morning I headed out to the forest for some searching. I went to one of the dumping pits I had located earlier and got on with the digging. Sadly it was only a small corner of this pit that was possible to dig, the rest was filled with a deep layer of barbed wires, but between the rust and broken glass I pulled out a nice schnapps glass, several cognac bottles, a cigarett case and a very cool little Finnish map tool. From time to time a red and fluffy squirrel came down a nearby tree to check on me which was very funny.
Next I went a few kilometers further in to the forest where I was going to try locate the site of three-four barracks I knew should be there somewhere. On the way there I checked the occasional signal picked up by the Fisher F5 and I kept looking at the birch trees for the Chaga mushroom which makes an exellent and super healthy tea, and I did find a few chuncks of it. I reached the hillside and began looking around for the barrack foundations and soon the detector began giving of some signals again. Over a few hundred meters I picked up a whole bunch of German 5 cm mortar tail fins, a few of their fuses and lots of shrapnel and fragments from them. I wonder whats been going on there as I don`t think this site saw any fighting.. Another half kilometer of strolling and I found the site with the barracks and began searching around them. Here were lots of signals. Mostly nails, food tins and bits from cast iron ovens. Near a large rock I found a Zeiler field torch and not too far from it a very nice looking MG34 cradle!! Together with the cradle was a bolt of some kind, long, spiked in one end and the other end machined to perfectly fit into the cradle, prehaps some trench-/field mount set up.
I spent some hours around here digging signals and hoping to find a dumping pit or two but when heavy rain moved in I had not had much more luck. I had found some small items like belt support hooks, an Esbit burner, an Odol mouthwash bottle and Odol toothpast tube, a Norwegian coin, a 4711 bottle and a pair of Gebirgsjäger ski goggles. 
The rain didn`t make any signs of stopping so when I was wet all the way through I gave in and started my little journey back to the car, but I am going back here pretty soon as there is more rust to find and lots of blueberries to pick:)

 We have been out in the forest hunting rust and berries again. Raspberries this time, very tasty. There is more rust than berries in the forest though. In places the signals were as many as needles under a pine tree, it is almost frustrating. Lots of the signals seems to be just rubbish though, unrecognisable pieces of metal. Sheet metal, iron bars , bolts, coils of wires etc, but in between there are the occasional interesting bits. One of the first finds I had worth saving was a fire extinguisher, a smaller one that all the others I have found. Under a tree I saw a M24 carrying rack, but it was in a sad condition, and next to it under some roots was a bracelet. Under another tree was a large mudguard from a vehicle, with some paint left and the fixture from a Notek light. Some of the items I dug up were horseshoes, parts from vehicles, and some other bits the rests of smashed up cast iron ovens and a whole bunch of boot heel irons. This is definately a place one can spend years digging up stuff before it is clean.
While fighting with some roots I heard noises from the treeline 50 meter away and noticed a few squirrels running up and around a tree, jumping between branches and having a great time. Such moments is a fantastic bonus to get while being in the forest. 
A few of the good finds today was the frame of a unit insignia flag for a vehicle, a RAD spoon, a flattened late war canteen and a RG34 rifle cleaning kit box. Near a treestump I had three signals half meter apart, it was the Notek headlight and two parts for it. At this point I was tired and hungry for lunch, so I collected the girlfriend who was crawling around under the trees taking photos of plants and insects. We strolled through the thick forest back to the car trying to avoid the Moose that is also roaming these parts and which we have seen the resting places of, huge flattened spots in the grass, we think it is a mom with two calfs.
​If it is not raining tomorrow we might be back :)

It has been a terrible weather lately but this morning it had cleared up and the rain stopped. The sun did its best to dry up the forest floor but it was still quite wet when I entered the forest shortly after the morning coffee. I walked a trail I`ve walked many times now since spring, but today I noticed a small square ditch between some ferns. I swept the detector across it and had a strong aluminum signal. I dug it open expecting a couple of food tins to peek out from under the roots, but it was a canteen and its carrying hook. I checked the sides of the little hole I had dug and down fell a few rubber muzzle caps for the K98. I expanded the hole and  there were more muzzle caps hiding, lots more. For about 20 minutes I kept scooping them out from the little ditch, and when it finally was empty I had a small mountain of them, more than 500 of them at least! After checking the area around I strolled on into the forest, stopping now and then checking signals, or for eating blueberries.
I found another small dumping pit but the only thing worth saving from it was a shotglass or candle holder from glass, and two long glass tubes filled with graphite sticks like the ones inside pencils, really strange. 
​I spent much of the day looking for treasures but except some k98 ammo, a messkit with bits cut out from it and a small ashtray it was all rubbish for me today. Anyway I had a very nice time and I might have discovered a dumping pit when I was going back to the car, but we ll know if Im right about that another day :)
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After the spectacular digging yesterday I was early on my feet and eager to get back out there to check the rest of the ditch. Excited as a fat kid in the candy store I checked it for signals and began digging. Almost immediately I pulled out two canteens, a big scoop, a food tin and a small wrench, but no helmets. I guess I got them all yesterday and it might be a while before the Relic Gods throw such a bone to me again :D I spent the next two hours following the ditch but nothing very interesting came out from it. I found parts of a burnt uniform where I managed to save a bunch of buttons, a pair of keys and quite interesting a small fishing lure and a lump of hooks, a piece of string and a spinner. By the way, one of the uniform buttons was also a bit interesting as it was made of bakelite or early plastic. I also dug out a silver plated bracelet. The rest of the ditch was fairly empty except from a pair of rotted boots, the lid from a crate, a karbid lamp and a bigger wrench.
The rest of the day I spent roaming around picking up signals here and there, and I located two-three dumping pits for a lazier day. I test dug a little bit in one of them and found a few coins and a bunch of gaming pieces. Before the mosquitos managed to drive me out of their forest I also managed to sit down and eat a whole bunch of blueberries, and on my way back to the car I found another vehicle fire extinguisher :) 
​Enjoy the week my friends:)

The Girlfriend is gone for work so I figured I would spend the day in the forest, it would be a quiet day, but I brought the detector so at least there would be some sounds besides the buzz from the hordes of mosquitos. After a few days of rain the sun had dried up the forest so it was perfect conditions for some searching. I began by checking a couple of what looked like dumping pits we had found the last time we were here, but it was only rubbish in them, so I strolled further into the forest checking the different signals the Fisher gave. It must have been a stable in this camp because I found several horseshoes, a horse comb and a few horseshoe ice cleats as well.  I dug up a couple of gasmask cannisters and a nice little axe head, and several food tins of the aluminum type, and of course the usual nails in all sizes. Quite a few of the annoying barrel bands found their way to the surface, as did a couple of smashed zinc buckets.
I began checking near one of the barracks and had a strong signal, not too different from a barrel band so prehaps it was two of them this time. I removed the upper layer of the forest floor and quickly found the root of the signal, and it did not look like a barrel band, but more like the rim of not one, but three helmets!!
Finding three helmets at once was pretty awesome and they were in good condition, one of them having winter camo even, and all of them the liners. As I had gotten them out from the soil I saw a chinstrap and while trying to get it out without breaking it I discovered it was four more helmets down there!! And then more,and more and more!! I could not believe what was happening, but I continued digging the ditch and the helmets just popped out like zits on a teenager. Helmet number 15 or 16 had a little surprise inside it, a M39 egg hand grenade, but luckily it was quite rotted so it presented no immediate danger, still, I dug a little slower after that. I cleared the corner of the ditch and had 20 helmets piled up on the edge and began realizing that getting all of these treasures back to the car would take me a couple of trips and it was quite far back to the road. Most of the helmets had the liners intact and near all of them looks like they might clean up well and some of them were really good looking. I closed up the ditch and initiated the "bringing-them-home" project, and an hour or so, and two liters of sweat later I had them all safely in my car and sped homewards to prepare an oxalic bath for us all:) This was truly a dream come true, and I am worried I`ll be waking up soon, sweaty and pissed off it was all a dream :D
Guess what I ll be doing tomorrow,,yep,I will be back there to check the rest of that ditch :D
Stay muddy my friends:)

We had to make a trip out to the fields of rust before the stormy weather drew in over our heads. We had located a few more of the barrack foundations in the forest and stepped in between the trees. I armed with my detector and Girlfriend with her bug hunting gear. We found the spot easy enough but I was surprised over the lack of signals in the ground. The barracks were huge, but not a single nail which was really strange. After checking two more foundations with the same result we pushed through a thick forest heading towards a waterfall as the Bug Hunter wanted to collect some insects from there. It was a very nice view there, the Northern Norwegian nature is unbeatable when it comes to stunning views:) 
Next we followed an old no longer used forest road not too far from the empty barracks, and then suddenly the detector began making its happy duck sounding noises. I checked the signal and it was a German k98 round, and the next signal an aluminum food tin, and then the detector wouldn`t shut up. Signals were all over the place. I checked a few of the signals and it was all old German rust, and the metals blanketed a large area, ca 3 x 10-15 meters, a huge dumping site!! I spent the next couple of hours opening a small ditch to see what kind of stuff could be hiding underneath the grass. I dug out bottles, wires , nails, rusted cutlery, food tins, larger metal parts, burnt paper and cloth, all sorts of stuff really. It looked like it was a burnt layer, not very deep, covering the whole site, a place to spend the rest of the season prehaps. I didn`t find any spectacular things searching through the little starter ditch, but found a gaming dice, a porcelain egg cup, a very cool viking-decoration style bottle opener, a gasmask cannister with something inside it (will open it today), some signal flares, a Norwegian coin from 1902, a bunch of German vehicle fire extinguishers and a couple of razors.
The day moved towards evening so I finished the little test ditch and then did a little search in the surrounding area. Half hour later I had discovered several more dumping pits and lots of signals strewn around in the forest, one place I dug up a German gasmask, and another half of a large forge blower, and a few horseshoes.
Now it was time to call it quits coz we had some blueberry picking to do so we could have fresh jam for next days vaffel making when we`d be sitting at home enjoying the sounds of a rain storm outside the windows.
Enjoy the beginning of autumn (if you are on the Northern hemisphere).

After staying at home yesterday I had abstinences and in need of digging some rust, so I woke up the Girlfriend and dragged her with me to the forest. We found the dumping pit from the other day and continued the work there. After getting rocks and roots out of the way we had a coffee and then Girlfriend went off into the forest to collect herbs and whatnot so we can have some good teas for wintertime.
The dumping pit was full of broken glass, and it was deep, so when she came back several hours later I had become a mole and sat underground trying to pry loose the last relics from the bottom of the pit. Medical bottles seemed to be the theme today as I pulled out 14-15 intact ones, four of them some nice "Aether Pro Narcosi" (Ether for narcosis") bottles. A few reagens tubes, a whole bunch of both glass- and metal tablet tubes and a few lab bottles and jars. I found a very deteriorated Heer buckle, but after cleaning it up later it looks good enough so that I can use it for some artsy diorama project. A nice spoon with both the German eagle and a name engraved found its way to the pile together with a K98 cleaning kit, a field torch and some rusted surgical tools. Gaming pieces kept coming out from the soil and charcoal, many of them melted together which was pretty cool I think. I also found several surgical steel syringe needles, one of them found its way through my glove and embedded itself under my fingernail for a very painful moment. Luckily that happened when I had reached the last few inches of the pit so it was a perfect time to call it quits and get back home to find the disinfectants and later clean some of the finds.
​Happy Days and may summer last forever! :)

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Syringe and needles.

The last few days me and Girlfriend have been roaming around in the forests a bit. We have done a few recce trips to check out if rumors about some German camps held water, we`ve been doing some metal detecting and today we were out putting up an insect trap for her work, and found something interesting,,more about that further down on the page :)
 Yesterday the day began with a visit to the doctor as I ve gotten some inflamation in the legs after working on concrete floors the last weeks, old age creeping up on me I guess,,but, walking in forest and uneven terrain should be a good medicine apparently, so I rushed back home with the good tidings and off we went to the forest, loaded up with detector, coffee, food and insect hunting gear. We plotted the coordinates on the autopilot in the car, leaned back and relaxed our way to the German camp where we earlier had discovered the field hospital barrack. 
For a bit more than an hour I went around with the detector trying to find some good signals but the area is covered with not only metals but some rocky mineral that gives of very good signals, so the hunt soon turned towards frustration after digging the sixtyseventh rock. Luck started to turn when I found a small patch with lots of rifle casings, and when Girlfriend a few meter away said "I think this might be a dumping pit, it is metal sticking out of the ground here!", I knew what I was going to do the next couple of hours.
The pit was about two meter long and ca half meter wide, and the top of it had typically been filled with large rocks. As soon as I had gotten the rocks away, and could see relics starting to pop out I sliced one of my middle fingers on a broken glass, it seems to have become a thing for me that now :) With a fresh Hello Kitty plaster and new gloves I went back to it and continued digging out sharp and jagged shards of glass and the occasional piece of metal. After a while more and more metal began showing up. It was also clear now that the pit had been set on fire as it was lots of blackened bits and melted blobs of glass and aluminum. 
A few hours in I took a break and we went to the car to pick up the food, and while I continued making the pile of relics bigger, the Bug Hunter cooked us some tomato soup and adding some mosquito proteins to it. It was delish, and with a hot cup of coffee after dinner I was fueled and ready to take on the rest of the dumping pit. At one point I felt a roundish object and after ruling out it being a rock it could only be two things, a pee pot or a helmet, and I was a big smile when I pulled out the latter. One of the last finds was also very exciting. A closed medical metal box with something inside it, as it was getting late we decided to try open it once home.
In the end I spent 4-5 hours searching through it and between a ton of rubbish there were quite a few nice relics worth bringing home. In the pile was a nice Wehrmacht razor, several medical tools and bottles, enamelled pots and plates, some gaming pieces, a lighter, a Gebirgsjäger boot, a canteen and three different canteen cups, one of them the bakelite type that I always had wanted to find, and the list goes on. There is many pics further down showing the finds.
Back home we opened the medical box and inside it was a couple of scissors, scalpel handles, a plier, a piece of bandage and several syringe needles, alll in quite good condition,,a nice find and it was very exciting to open it of course!
Today we slept a bit longer than usual as it had been a long day in the forest, and after breakfast we went into one of the valleys to put up an insect trap for the Girlfriends work. In this area it had been very much German activity as the famous Lyngen line went through the valleys and mountains here. Next to the parking lot we saw some rusted gate looking thing in the forest. Of course I was on my way over before Girlfriend managed to stop me and in the little clearing there was tons of metal laying around.  Bits from engines and vehicle parts, ovens and parts of a field haubitze, buckets, jerry cans and whatnot splayed out across the forest floor! That was spectacular, but we had another mission today so we went ahead into the valley where thirsty mosquitoes big as birds was waiting for us...
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Piece of a porcelain plate.