Autumn is beginning to show her face around here now. The evenings have become dark again. The morning air is crisper. The wind is carrying needles and the green hills are now dotted with yellow. The forest floor is deep green and flaming red and is filled with berries. I have a feeling this season will be shorter than last years`..
We strolled into the woods which was now fairly dry after having been showered well the last days. Our mission was as it often is when we visit this forest, berries, mushrooms and treasures. We hadn`t been here since october last year so I was excited when turning on the metal detector. Girlfriend was picking berries and I checked some signals given by the detector. When I was digging up a rusted can she nodded to the ground next to where she was standing, "Did you see this?" she asked. I had not seen it. She had found some large bits of metal poking out from under the moss. It was a pair of large steel spring suspensions together with several brackets. The best thing though was a large jack for a German vehicle . It is of course rusted but I think this one easily can get new life. It`ll be a perfect jack to have in my VW T4.
Around some small birch trees were a lot of different signals. Just a few meters away from where I had found lots of coins and such on our previous trip here. I took away the top layer of moss and let the pin pointer guide me. It pointed me to coin after coin. Uniform buttons, a K98 muzzle cover, and lots of 7.92 rifle ammo that had exploded in a fire. Between those I found several bullets as well, but a couple of the bullets drew extra attention. They were obviously "B-patronen" that had a small explosive charge, and it had also exploded, tearing the bullets open. I spent an hour crawling around the birches before Girlfriend returned with 6 liter of Crowberries wanting a tea break. That suited me fine so we enjoyed a break sitting on a carpet of moss, enjoying life, listening to the forest and were lucky enough and got a little entertainment from a squirrel too.
I had a small section left around the birch trees with still some signals so I removed the moss and picked out a few more of the exploded casings before luck really struck. I found a ring! The face of the ring was a brass shield with the Finnish lion, and it was attached to a brass band. A really great little find I am very happy with. Not long after I got another great find. I had uncovered a small decorated square, it was attached to another square with two metal rings. I thought it could be one of those Lapplandfront medals so it got my pulse up a little. I dug more of the item free and then I saw it was a bracelet made up of several of these square links. One of the squares was decorated with a polar bear, another had a reindeer with a sled and a third had a viking ship and the ones between those had some flower decoration. This was also one of those finds that will find its way to the display cabinet.
We moved a bit further into the forest and kept at if for several hours more. I didn`t find much though. I stumbled upon a little pile of rifle ammo, some oven parts, another coin (again a Finnish one) and the strangest find of the day, a musical note sheet stand. In a pit, under a lot of rocks I found a brass plate, with two holes on the top. I don`t know for what it could have been but my first thought was a gong for the kitchen. Something to call the troops to dinner with..prehaps..
Girlfriend had filled two enormous bags with berries, and discovered a couple of dumping pits for me. But it was getting late and we had a big job ahead cleaning berries so we loaded up our findings and tumbled our way through the forest back to the car.
It had almost been midnight before we had finished cleaning the berries so it was a late start this morning. Girlfriend had to work but I wanted to do some more searching. It was a very light rain but it had been pouring down all night, so the minute after I stepped into the forest I was soaked. I opened up two small dumping pits. One had only garbage, but the other one had two or three non-garbage items. Three field torches, but one of them was broken,a Scho-Ka-Kola tin and a beautiful candle holder made from a signal flare! Trench-art, that is like relic-gold. Always a one-of-a-kind, so personal and it is like touching the history :D I am a huge fan of such soldier art. 
It took a little while but I found back to yesterdays dumping pit and began searching around the first one. It was a lot of signals and apparently it could be anything. The first two signals I dug there was a nail and a coin. Then I found several brackets of some kind, and a few more coins. All the coins but one were Finnish. The odd one out was a Norwegian from 1940. I opened up one of the corners in the dumping pit and that was a bit of a struggle. A strong network of roots, then rocks and roots before more roots, but below that was a good layer of relics. I pulled out food tins, medical ampoules, coins (again with the Finnish ones!!) buttons, and more of those brackets. A few perfume bottles, a leather EKM pouch and two handgrenades. A M39 egg, and a M24. The egg was empty but the M24 had the sprengkapsel in place so I dug it down rather deep.
It was already getting close to dinnertime and the rain began its pouring again so I thought it was best to head home. But that dumping pit will be on my mind till the rain stops and I can get back to it. Just too bad it is supposed to rain a whole lot for several days now.

Early Monday morning when the forest opened up for business I was there, ready for my shift. I had brought lunch and some coffee as I probably would spend the entire day there. My plan was to finally complete the dumping pit.  It did not look like it was much of a job left but it took me until lunchtime to do. Other than food tins and bottles, the rests of a burnt up Volksempfanger radio, I also dug up a Finnish coin, an intact medical ampoule, a handfull of wrenches and a porcelain coffee mug. It was no markings on the mug, but it was intact and it might become my new go-to coffee cup.  After checking for more signals, probing a bit for glass, bakelite or porcelain it was clear that the pit was empty. I checked all the edges and the area around. I only picked up a few buttons and stripper clips. I made sure the place looked ok, and took a coffee break, hoping there would be some squirrel action.
The day was still relatively young so I began checking the forest for signals. I soon had a few meter long zig-zag ditch, it could almost look like a trench line, in front of me. It had some signals so I began digging. 40-50 cm down it became clear it was a ditch used to throw things in at some point. A bunch of rifle ammo in their stripper clips came out of the ditch first. Clip after clip till it became a little pile. Then a fishing lure and a pair of coins, Finnish ones again. A coin purse followed, together with a field torch. I have found many of those torches the last weeks. Then when I was digging away some soil with my hand I felt something rubbery and carefully dug free something that reminds of a gas mask but it is not. It is made of leather, with rubber inside connected to the hose with the air valve, like one is supposed to be able to inflate it somehow. If I saw it online with no context I would say "fetish-mask" but I do not think the Wehrmacht back then was that open minded.. :D So if anyone knows what the mask is please let me know :)
Scraping away at the soil some porcelain appeared. I scraped away carefully and the porcelain grew bigger, and bigger. I realized it had to be a large serving bowl. But would it be intact, and have markings? This was very exciting so I took it easy. But when I removed some sand from above the bowl a metal thing fell down. I managed to ninja-grab it before it hit the porcelain. And then I looked at the thing. It was a trench-art box!! Wow! I placed it in the relic pile and went back to the porcelain. I dug it free and saw when I reached the foot of it that it was in two pieces. That sucked a bit, but on the other hand it looked to be a nice clean break so it would be an easy fix. The best thing was the markings. The eagle and under it " O.T" - Organization Todt. An amazing find! Having the porcelain safely put aside I continued the ditch ca a meter more with only minor finds. Now a rusted barrell "blocked" the ditch and I realized it had become late and decided to deal with the barrell after a good nights rest.
I did not waste the morning dew today. I wanted porcelain hunting. Did the morning routine in record time and was in the forest before the squirrels. The barrell got dug free and removed and I continued to mole my way through the ditch. Bottles, bottles, and even more bottles. So many that I began to hope for broken ones just to mix it up a little. Very little metal at all. Meter after meter till the ditch was done. A champagne bottle still had its labels intact so that was a keeper. Parts of a helmet liner, toothbrushes, a bakelite bottle, a pair of sunglasses and a set of keys was basically it. Oh, and a thimble. A nice one, with a red band and Greek letters around the edge. Interesting to find two Greek items (the coin from last dig) here North.
It was still a couple of hours until dinner time so I walked around picking signals and trying to find another dumping place. Under the signal of a small Finnish coin was the rests of a burn pit. Lots of ashes, melted and broken glass but on the edge of it was two wooden bowls. One was broken into several pieces but the smaller one was in very good condition.

Back at home the porcelain bowl has been cleaned and glued together. It looks really great. I am very happy with that find. Im going back to that place soon after a little bit of rest and Im hoping there will be some more nice bits there :)
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Im just back home after another 7-8 hour shift in the dumping pit. I will feel this tomorrow. Moved a ton of soil and hardly had any breaks. I had a good few minutes break a few hours into the dig. Some racket from the trees above me got my attention. It was two squirrels parkouring like tiny furry marvel heroes from tree to tree. Always a real joy observing such shows. When I couldn`t see them any longer I continued badgering away. This section of the dump was from the bottom almost to the top just ashes with broken and melted glass and the occasional flakes of rust , while the top ten centimeters had some bottles, food tins and smaller items. I found several coins. Finnish ones, except a Greek coin from 1925. A handfull of gaming pieces were gathered up through the day, one of them was a blue dice. Next to a cigarette case was a white ball of thin plastic, like a ping-pong ball. Did the Germans play ping-pong?
​There were several Odol mouthwash bottles in good condition, together with some toothbrushes and cream jars, tins and tubes. A razor and a few mirrors completed the personal hygiene relic pile on the edge where I was digging.
I dug up a few shot- and schnapps glasses and two saltshakers. One of them was very nice. Small and made of blue glass with brass fittings. The white round piece of porcelain I saw showing through the sand being scraped away turned out to be a Finnish made civillian tea cup that fit good with the plate I found last time and next to it was a orange butter jar which the German soldiers had in their food kit. Most times I find one of these it is broken, but today I was lucky and got a perfect one. A small aluminum tea egg was also in good enough shape to be rescued. I dug out a primus of the kind that were issued to soldiers and a few hooks from Y-straps. Stuck under a root was a canteen, with a bakelite screwcork togehter with a dog tag pouch in some synthetic material, a couple of pocket knives and a matchbox cover with engravings on! 
As afternoon approached the piles of bottles and relics had outgrown the space in my backpack so I had to leave a tiny patch of the pit for another day. 
Back home I emptied all the finds out over the floors and instructed the kitty to hunt out any spiders that might have hitchhiked, while I took a shower and after prepared dinner. Having completed the eating I picked up the matchbox cover and gave it a scrubbing, and under the much was some fine engravings. Great Success! It had lines around the edges, "1944" on one of the sides and a reindeer on the other side. Totally worth seven hours of work :D
Have a nice evening and a good week :)

Even if the weather was wet and nasty yesterday I spent the whole day out in the dumping pit. I really only noticed the weather the first couple of minutes of digging anyway. It is so exciting searching through a dumping pit, but it can be very hard work as well. Some times one is rewarded with a great find, or several ok finds, but often one only has the joy of the hunt in return when one just spent seven hours digging through food tins, rebar and wires. This dumping pit has so far been a mix of the two first options. 
​The first find I had was a bakelite cup for a canteen, but not the usual black-brownish variant. This one was orange. I have never seen one in that color before so I was pretty pleased to be able to add it to the collection. After spending some energy on removing different electrical wires and roots I hit a porcelain deposit. I carefully dug out a tea cup and plate, a dinner plate, another tea plate and a bowl. All were Norwegian produced except for one of the tea plates which had been made in Finland, and all of them were intact. Then I found a melted lightbulb! That was such a cool find. I love melted and deformed glassware. I thought I was pulling out a food tin which there have been quite a few of in this pit, but it was a gasmask container, feels like the mask and filter is present inside it too. Next to it was a rifle cleaning kit, also full, a pair of goggles and a radio tube. Now I had tunneled towards the bottom of the pit so I needed to dig away the edges and search through them before they collapsed on me, but before I did I pulled out another piece of metal. It was actually three pieces and I saw immediately what it was. Three gorgets! One of them was of a poor aluminum alloy and completely rotted. The two others were made of thin sheet metal and not in great condition. They had painted eagles on them I could see in a few small places, so it will be very exciting to clean those in oxalic acid although I do not have great hopes..
After a short break I kept at it. Digging up a lot of bottles I was lucky enough to get one with the label intact, some French brandy. A few gaming pieces got rescued and then I found another one of what I think is a cyanide capsule. I found one last season, and here was the second one. A small brass container, with cloth sewn around it, and inside is a glass ampoule,,strange stuff really.
A M39 egg grenade found its way back up to the daylight after 80 years underground. Now it had rotted and presented no threat any longer. When it was way past dinner time I wanted to go home and rest and I was wet and hungry. I scraped away some soil and got the last finds of the day. Three bits of bakelite. A lense cover for binoculars, a small bowl and a toothbrush. The toothbrush was interesting because it had been made in Australia. I wonder how that ended up here, sometimes it would be really great if these items could talk to us and tell their story :D
I still have a little bit left of the dumping pit so maybe I ll get back there tomorrow :)
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Sometimes time flies fast. This last week was like that. On wednesday the Girlfriend came back home from the course she had been attending, but yesterday morning she drove to Finnmark where she is doing her fieldwork. Like a snap with the fingers.  We have been busy together these days though. One of the days we went to the mountain where she harvested a lot of plants while I was crawling around with my pinpointer picking small bits of metal. A few days earlier I had dug some MG bits there and now I wanted to collect them all. During a few hours I filled a box with parts and when there was only food tins left I joined the Girlfriend who was now picking blueberries.
The rest of the weekend was spent making tea from the plants she had collected. When it had dried we weighed it to alittle more than a kilo and the tea is now curing on glass jars, and I am looking forward to have a cup when it is ready. We also launched a small raid on the strawberry field.
After she left yesterday morning I went back up to the mountain to continue the search in the Gebirgsjäger camp. I had very little luck. I brought home a handfull of k98 casings and two medical ampoules. After searching many hours I finally had a massive signal stretching for about a meter long and half meter wide. It turned out it was a dumping pit for horseshoes. Small and big, new and worn thin. Nearby I had found what probably was the camp kitchen so I wonder if these horses who had worn the shoes had become dinner for hungry troops. In the afternoon I still hadn`t found anything interesting so I enjoyed the nice weather for a while, just sitting by a tree eating blueberries I could grab from around me.
Today I decided to go to a huge dumping pit I still hadn`t finished from last season. I have gotten many good finds from it so I was pleased to see that nobody else had found it, which is kinda strange as I know of at least one other digger searching this camp. I started from where I had left off. It was just lifting away the top vegetation and begin moving sand. Very soon the first bottles, wires and food tins got removed and I could see the edge of a porcelain plate. I pulled out three plates but only one was intact. It had no German markings, just the Norwegian producers logo. The next find was a fork, and two large buckets that I spent a lot of time on getting out of the way. It was two items behind the buckets. I thought it was a speedometer at first but it is some other kind of meter which look like it could fit to a cars dashboard. The other item was made of porcelain. I moved away some sand and saw it was a coffee cup. But would it be intact, and would it have markings? Exciting. I got it loose and it was a intact Luftwaffe cup! Awesome! Last season I found a Heer cup here. I wonder if there is a SS cup in the other corner :D 
Bottles kept pouring out like it was a  glass recycling station I was digging. Mostly it was small perfume- and ink bottles with the occasional wine bottle in between. I spent another hour digging around a big mess of wires to get the bundle free and out of the way, it was really annoying but I was rewarded with two bakelite boxes. One small for powder charge for Gebirgs Geschutz and a larger for a field artillery gun. A small porcelain lighter and a roller date stamp was also rescued from time and deterioration. The date on the stamp said 22. Nov 1946. 
​I found the bottom of the section I was digging and picked up some rubbery material. Attached to its underside was a medal!! The Eastern Front medal, "the order of the frozen flesh" as it was called. It looked to be in decent condition, for sure far better than the last one I found. Some plastic foil turned out to be a car pennant when I got the sand brushed off it. Too bad it was completely destroyed, it would have been a cool thing to have in the collection. Behind a bunch of the remains of field telephone headsets was a porcelain bowl. Intact but again only Norwegian markings on it. And behind that again was a drinking glass and a few gaming pieces. 
But now it began raining. At first I just continued digging as I hoped it would just be a quick shower. It didn`t stop. It just grew stronger and wetter. It was time to fill the treasures into the backpack and get home. Seems it would have been the end today anyway because I could barely close the backpack it was so full :D 
I cleaned up the dig site so it looked nice but I think I might go back there tomorrow if the rain stops :)

On Friday the Girlfriend left for a work related course so I would have to manage by myself for almost a week. The weekend was sunny and warm so I hung up my hammock and spent two days there, reading and eating icecream, living the Life. Monday morning was a bit cloudy and wet  so it was an easy choice to make, skip all housework and go digging. 
In the last 48 hours I have been out searching for ca 19. It was a lot of walking involved. And digging a great number of signals. Very much of what I dug up was rubbish, maybe even more than usually. The terrain in the camp area is hilly and a mix of forest and marsh. To begin with I found a small stash of M24 stick grenade parts. Mostly the metal fittings for the wooden stick, but there were a few brennzunders as well. A few meters away I found the head for a grenade too, it had been emptied and looked to be well preserved, we ll see later after I give it a bath in oxalic acid. During the next ten minutes I dug up four 2 cm casings and a 7.5 cm LiG casing, all in steel but in good condition.
When I was taking a rest and some lunch I heard a dog barking nearby, and suddenly a happy Retriever came jumping out of the bushes. He had a yellow west with red cross markings and a radio. Apparently a rescue dog under training. Its handlers was calling him back, but the next hour I got "rescued" by him three more times. I suggested to the Red Cross guys that they could hire me and I`d happily roam the forests being found by the ecstatic dog.
​On top of a hill I emptied a small dumping pit. In it was a German coin, a toothpaste tube, some bottles and ampoules, and a steel Heer belt buckle. It also held some cutlery and a nice cigarette casing with the owners initials scratched in. I had noticed the forest floor was abundant with berries. Mostly blueberries and cloudberries. I picked a bag of the latter for the Girlfriend, and ate several handfulls of delicious blueberries.
After a few hours with no finds I noticed what was a pond earlier this summer had now dried out. O`Joy!! Every time I had walked past the pond I had been wondering what might be hidden under the water. Now I would know. I spent the rest of the day digging the muddy pond bottom and found several horseshoes, bolts, a tent peg, an axe and lots of rifle ammo. When I had done about half the area of the pond I had to call it quits. I was tired, all wet and very hungry. As I strolled out of the woods taking a tractor road I had never walked before I found a decomposing reindeer in the middle of it. Quite nasty and smelly.
This morning I was on my legs before 07. My muscles and joints were aching, so to punish them for whining I decided to take them out for more digging, maybe that will teach them! Half hour later I parked the car, and the second I slammed the door shut my head was swarmed by gnats. Those agressive little beasts was in my ears nose, mouth and eyes. It was something else I tell you! They should use these bugs for interrogation or torture! From a pocket in the backpack I yanked a seldom used mosquito netting to wear over the head. I am so happy I had that, or else there would not have been any expedition today.
​ I found my way to the pond and continued the searching there. A few hours later I was done. I had only found crap. A few large files, lots of horseshoes, more ammo, a bent tent peg and parts of a horse drawn wagon. None of the helmets, guns and dog-tags I had dreamed would be there.
​Now I strolled into the area where several barracks and huts had stood. The foundations of them is clearly visible and here and there ovens are still laying around. Of course the amount of signals increased in this area but much were low quality signals, like nails and wires and the occasional red plastic excersise ammo, and food tins, oh, the food tins... The Fisher gave happy noises when I sweeped it over a small ditch and it was ten 7.5 cm casings. I have found a lot of those this season. I need to figure out something cool to make with them. Another ditch also had a good signal but that find went right into the mystery-part category. First I thought that I was digging up a rubber coat, but when I finally had it on the surface it was several bags. I have no idea what they was used for, what nationality or if its war or post-war. Hopefully some of you readers will be familiar with them and let me know. The next signal was 25 rounds for the Mauser rifle and next to a dug-out I found a Panzerfaust Klein tube!! That was really a nice find for me, and I can`t wait to clean it up to see if colors have survived. 
A few garbage finds later I began digging a hole filled with rocks. Really difficult work but the signal was too good to be ignored. Half hour digging payed off. I pulled up a grease box and a MG oil can! Except a small hole in the can it was in great condition and will display wonderfully.
Just centimeters under the moss I excavated a live 7.5 cm grenade, took a pic, covered it back and GPS marked the location. It is far away from where people usually roam but maybe the EOD will want to play with it.
The day had passed rather fast and I was on the move towards the car when I came across a spot with a lot of signals, so much that it ll take several trips. I spent an hour and half picking up a lot of small MG parts, and maybe some K98 parts and also a shovel a pick axe and three detonators, Sprengkapsel No.8, used for grenades.
It has been two great days out in the nature, and the mosquito netting made it bearable. But everytime I removed the netting to drink or eat the gnat bastards did their thing and when I got back home I could count 36 bites in my face. It is itchy and my face is as swollen as it hasn`t been since my boxing days :D
Well, the Girlfriend will be back tomorrow so there will be a few days till next dig. But I will try lure her with me out under the guise of berry picking ;)

Until next time, keep smiling and keep free from bug bites.
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The two previous summers the Girlfriend and I missed the chance to visit a local military museum, the Troms Forsvarsmuseum, but this year we managed to get there. It is located in Setermoen, ca in the middle between Narvik and Tromsø. The museum have a small collection of vehicles and weapons which one can have a closer look at on the lawn outside the museum building. The entrance fee to see the rest of the collection is 70 Nkr pr person, which we paid in cash as they do not take cards, so remember to bring real money. They have a small museumshop with some books and a few souvenirs. Also by the entrance is a lot of mimiature models displayed.
The exhibition is based around the local military history, ww2, the Cold War and modern International Operations. There is plenty of items to study but I felt it was a bit messy, lacked info and texts and the lighting was often bad and sometimes missing so they could do with some improvements. But, if you are a history geek the museum is well worth a visit! When we got back outside again  the Girlfriend ran around a bit and climbed the tank before we jumped into the car and drove home :)

Since the Girlfriend had to spend some hours at her office in the city yesterday I jumped into the car and drove to the Wehrmacht camp I visited on saturday. The weather was nearly perfect for digging, some clouds and a little sun and not too warm. The forest was still a little wet from rain but before lunch it had mostly dried up. The insects seemed to be extra happy seeing me again. They were starving and I was their buffet. Biting midges, mosquitoes and blackflies worked together on trying to take me down. Even before I was finished digging the first signal my face felt swollen from all their biting and stinging. I got some roots out of the way and pulled out two vehicle rifle holder parts, both had the leather padding intact. What i thought had been just a single signal turned out to be a small dumping pit because below the two parts I dug up a nice kitchen knife with the Wehrmacht eagle on it. Next to the knife was a oil- or water can for a machine gun. Then I dragged up a few flat-ish metal parts with a familiar shape to them, and realized it was a crushed helmet! 3D puzzle style. I searched well and long for other bits belonging to it but with no luck. Looks like there might be possible to get some of its original color showing after cleaning so it ll be a fun autumn project.
Nearby I had another signal, and I saw that I had dug it before, last season maybe. I opened it up again anyway to check, and it was a large piece of something I had found on the very end of a dig once and given up on because I had been too exhausted. Now it was early days and I was full of energy so I spent the next hour getting the part dug out. It was some kind of large box that I suspect it is from a vehicle, and underneath it was another large item, also a bit of a mystery part still. On the bottom of this hole I saw porcelain! It was a broken cup and when I got it to the surface I was very surprised to see Mickey and Minnie Mouse! An unusual find in an old Wehrmacht camp. I found it very funny that the Mickey drawing showed him digging.
Next I searched around the area where I had found the scope part and pocket watch body last time. Food tins were strewn around there and was the cause of most of the good signals. I did pick up some coins between them though. It was a leather wallet that had rotted away, and it held six small coins, a tiny key, a few buttons and a bullet from a rifle casing. I found a couple of M39 egg grenades, and a signal under a heap of branches was a Notek headlight. It was a bit smashed but the internal frame and the glass were intact and are good spare parts to have. Together with the lamp was a fraction of a vehicles license plate, with some goodwill one could barely make out the "WH" on it. 
The next few hours was quite uneventful but with a lot of digging. I found one dumping pit, but it was full of bolts, nails, food tins and other rubbish not worth saving. Also I had moved into a very polluted section of the forest. Birds are dragging food wrappings from some nearby containers into the forest so one gets a variety of good signals all over the place which makes the search very frustrating. I found a few relics between the garbage before I ended the search. I dug up the largest cream tube I have ever seen which was a bit funny, a pair of goggles, a doorknob and the rests of a harmonica. Walking out of the forest I picked up a NATO used flare and a fork from the Norwegian Army. The best thing I found on my stroll back to the car was a whole bunch of ready blueberries. Seems that next week I will start foraging berries alongside the rust :)
Maybe I ll be back out digging on Friday, but for sure I ll be in the forests in the weekend if weather allows since the Girlfriend is gonna do some work on her fieldproject :)
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