Early in the week I had planned to go searching but the hunting season opened that same day so all the good spots had from early morning become busier than usual. Not wanting to be mistaken for a moose (yeah,I know, a midget-moose prehaps:) ) I had little choice but to reconsider my plans. And that was probably wise coz on the news later in the week I read that some local huntsmen had shot a horse! 
I twisted my brain a little and decided to go visit a forest that had come up in research a few times but I hadn`t been to yet. Mostly because the patch of trees are quite small and squeezed in between neighbourhoods, but now it seemed like the best place to search as surely no hunters would go in there. The rest of the Gebirgsjäger camp lays on the oposite side of the neighbourhoods and the highway and has been searched a lot so I expected to find that the tiny forest also had been visited by other diggers.
 It was warm to be late september, around 15 degree celsius, and the forest was wet after the nights downpour. I quickly got some signals from the detector, but it was modern junk and a spoon. The next signal showed me that I was in the right place though. From quite deep came the top of a kraftstoff barrell and a crushed crate. A few meters away the Fisher picked up another signal and I opened up a plug in the sandy soil. Up with the shovel and sand came small bits of red paper. I worked carefully with the tip of the bayonet and had soon uncovered several packets of razorblades, a metal sign with "Wasser ablassen" written on it, bits of a cardboard cigarette box, a shoulderboard with one rank pip and the Gebirgsjäger green color showing, a pair of combs and some cream tubes. The sand had preserved the items surprisingly well, and this find raised my hopes for the forest.
 I walked around a bit and found a couple of obvious dumping pits with lots of metal sticking out from the grass. I searched along the edge of a barrack foundation and found in one spot several door lock plates,hinges, keys and key hole covers, a tent peg and a pouch made of some syntethic material . I moved to inside the barrack and picked up a signal circa in the middle of it. It was a round piece of metal and I suspected it could be a medal, probably the "Order of the Frozen Flesh". I cleaned it up a little and realized it was a very interesting variant of a Ullr badge. Ullr is the Norse god for skiing and a Patron of skiers. On the badge is the God on skis, holding a bow and on the backside is a enamelled heraldic shield for the town Kärnten. Along the edge is written "Geschutzpatron der Wintersportsler" (Guardian of the winter athlete). I was super happy with this find and continued searching the barrack, but could only find bits of wire, scrap from the building and some food tins.
 I continued with picking up a pocket knife, some empty mine detonators, a pioneer axe, parts of a wagon and one half of a blank EKM.
In the slope going through the forest I saw a small mound and decided to put my backpack there, but when I got to it I saw that it was a intact bomb shelter! How amazing. Still dry and well drained. It was getting close to dinner time, and the daylight would begin to wane pretty soon but I wanted to just have a quick look in the large dumping pit. Just sample it, kinda :D
I lifted away a rusted sheet of metal and saw bones from moose or a horse, and lots of food cans. A kitchen dump by the looks of it I thought. I lifted up another metal plate and instantly had eye contact with a German helmet! And it looked to be in a wonderful condition! The liner was intact and not a rustbubble in the metal! Oh, how I am looking forward to bathe this one in oxalic acid :D
The plan for the next day had been decided there and then and I started my walk back to the car. Excited about the helmet in my backpack and the prospect of what else could be in the dump, I realized I am probably the first digger to visit this spot. On the way I found the outer case of a S-Mine and the frame of a motorcycle side bag. Back at home I cleaned up the Ullr badge and even though a bit of the edge looks like it has been nibbled on by the langoliers its in rather good condition. The enamel is more or less totally intact and has very nice and clear colors.
Couldn`t have asked for a more exciting day :)

Thanks for reading, and stay happy :)
​

Yesterday we harvested the rest of our potatoes, because the frost had killed off the plants, so it was just to get it all out of the ground. Firewood has been stacked in the shed and the woolen underwear moved to the top of the drawer. Winter can come.. But I do hope it will give us a few more weeks of digging season before it arrives. This week it was pretty ok conditions for searching, not too cold, and not too much rain, and I managed to make two trips out there.
The first went to the Luftwaffe lazarett and the large dumping pit. I had to remove some logs and then the soil backfilled after last trip, so it took half hour or so before any relics popped out. It was a green 1 litre bottle that came out of the dumping pit first. Behind the bottle were several lightbulbs mixed together with spark plugs, it is really so random what one will find in these garbage pits. And then a large vehicle lamp tricked me into thinking it was a helmet. Two large "mystery items" took a bit of time to dig out. Some frame-like foldable structure (scroll down for pics) I have no idea what they are, but they looked interesting. Two long bladed knives came up together with the frames. They could have belonged in the field hospitals kitchen. Of course ampoules and small medical bottles also soon lined the edge of the pit. The most interesting bits to be dug up were several leg braces. They were made from rather thin metal so most of them had been destroyed by time, but I rescued three that weren`t in the worst condition. On the bottom of the pit I found a great relic, a canteen with its cork and with the felt cover still intact!  Circa mid way into the digging, it had begun raining, then hailing so I was wet to the skin when I closed up for the day.

On Friday I got up early and prepared for a long day of searching, and after the daily intake of coffee had been enjoyed I drove to a Gebirgsjäger camp. It is a good forest, but I havent found time to go there since spring. I had located a small dumping pit back then and decided that now was the time to dig it. I swept the detector across it and  it gave a massive signal for a lenght of about one meter. I am dreaming about finding a MG 34 or 42 and hoped this was the day, while I began removing roots and rocks to reach the signal. On the side of the short ditch was a small clump of nails rusted together. Just as I was about to toss it away I noticed a ring that was stuck to the clump! From the looks of it it was field made, from brass, and had simple patterns engraved to its sides and nothing on its face. I checked again with the pin pointer hoping there would be coins or medals nearby, but it was only a few more nails there. I continued taking away the rocks and could soon use the shovel on the sand underneath. Now several cast iron bits from a stove came landing on my shovel blade, and my hopes of finding the MG today died.
Instead I began assembling a small pile of relics to the side of the ditch. A field torch, cutlery, losantine boxes, food tins, another brass ring, measuring tape, and some of the internal bits of a field telephone. Most of the stuff was damaged by flames and heat, while other items seemed untouched. Like a very nice little porcelain tea pot  and a handfull of chess pieces. The pin pointer gave away the hiding spots for each piece of metal and soon there were only one left, and it was deeper. I kept digging, following the signal and then my fingertips touched something round. It had to be a helmet!! The hole had to be widened and lots of soil moved before I could get a better feel of the item. And this time there were no doubts, a helmet was down there for sure. I had found the very top of its dome, so it took a fair share of effort to tunnell away enough soil to reach under the rim so it could be dragged to the surface. It was a M42 lid! Not very often seen here north, it is usually the early war variants being found. The metal had bubbles and it looked like it had been licked by the flames, but a great find that ll be fun cleaning up. I made sure there were no more lids there before I could refill the ditch and stretch my legs and start the hour long drive back home.

If the weather doesn`t get too nasty there will be a trip or three this week as well, maybe I ll even manage to lure the Girlfriend out for a digging too :D

Thanks for reading and have a great week :)

​ 

A little after lunchtime on Sunday I went up to Jimmys place to see if he was ready for some digging. To my big surprise he was already awake and almost ready to go. A cup of coffee later we were in the forest digging signals given by the metaldetectors. Jimmy had located a dumping pit but it only held food tins, a couple of uniform buttons,two shaving mirrors and three or four toothpaste tubes. We found another pit, but in that one it was only modern food tins from army exercises. Half hour later we had only found a live M39 egg-grenade, an axehead used for target practise and a boyscout belt buckle, so we decided to drive to another Gebirgsjäger camp and continue the search there.
The new site was blanketed with all sorts of signals. Within moments Jimmy had found a very interesting hammer neither of us had ever seen before. Probably thrown out from the camps small blacksmiths hut that had stood a few meters away on the site. The next few signals I dug were scrap metal, but then I removed moss and roots from something I always wanted to find; an anti-aircraft sight for MG 34/42! The outer ring of it had been torn and bent, but I was very happy with that find.
 Meanwhile Jimmy had dug up a front Notek lamp. It lacked the bottom and internal bits but looked like it could clean up nicely. He also found a large tow hitch from a vehicle. And then I found a Notek lamp. Also only the shell of it, but they are fun to clean and one can of course never have enough Noteks. I opened up a small fireplace and dug out some uniform buttons, food tins, toothpaste tubes and a pioneer axe in decent condition. While Jimmy went for a roam around the camp I continued trying to find medals and vehicle parts. I found lots of the latter but no medals. Two license plates came out of the ground and a "winker", an early form of blinkers. The large license plate had been folded, and the small rear plate looked like it had been painted over with "dunkelgelb" paint. Prehaps to camoflage the vehicle better, as a white plate might make a nice target? 
Jimmy came back with another Notek shell while I dug up the bottom/internal parts for one of those lamps. So at least one would be completed, if only we could find a glass for it..
We had begun moving towards the cars as it was the end of the day and Jimmy had to check one last signal. A fourth Notek! Also a pretty good looking one. All three times he dug one up he had believed them to be helmets :D
Back home I tried to bend the anti-aircraft sight back into shape and although its far from perfect it will now fit as a backdrop in one of my little displays. 

The new week has begun, the weather is quite terrible, but I hope there will be some digging again soon. In the meantime I will clean some relics :)

​Have a nice day! 

After several days with work and chores I had a day off and decided to spend it in the Luftwaffe workshop/camp near the lazarette I ve been digging a dumping pit in this season. Last year I found a LW vehicle license plate and some other goodies so my hopes were up for this trip.
It was supposed to be a relatively dry day according to the weather reports, but while I was driving there early morning it began raining a little. By the time I had turned on the metal detector on site, I was soaked. And it was pretty cold as well, only 5 or 6 degrees Celsius. The first couple of signals I dug was an old electrical cable coiling itself around the area, but it hadn`t gone long before I found the remains of a small fire place. Rusted nails, chains, bits of melted glass and some rifle casings. But also a few interesting items had escaped the flames. A Norwegian uniform button, produced by Scully Ltd in Montreal, Canada, and what I thought was a small coin. Later when I cleaned up a few of the finds I found that it was not a coin, but a silver disc with "H. M." engraved, prehaps part of a bracelet. On the side of the fire place a bakelite drinking cup seemed to have been untouched by the fire, and the same with a thick walled shotglass.
 Continuing with the search I dug up a big Pertrix battery, a lighter and the bakelite housing of a elecric bell. The next signal from the detector wasn`t the best, but I dug on it anyway and a few minutes later I had won two German gasmask canisters! It felt like both of them had the contents intact.
​Here and there k98 ammo had been tossed around, some single casings and some full clips. The next signal hid under a few rocks. It was a small dumping pit with a couple of bottles, a set of keys, a bell, and a German helmet! Parts of its liner looked to be intact and I could see both green and white paint between soil and rust. Pieces of a fishing net were stuck to it as well and could possible have been used as a camo cover. 
After a break I discovered a large shrubbery of plants that usually grows on disturbed soil, so I moved towards it and soon the detector became noisy. Here was a quite large spot blanketed with signals, so I just began in a corner by digging out a bicycle, prehaps a Truppenfahrrad.. Between rusted buckets and food tins lay broken bottles, and sometimes a piece of porcelain. Bigger bits of metal from vehicles and carts, but smaller personal items also turned up. For example a very nice brass cylinder for red lipstick, from a popular `30s brand, "Louis Philippe".
One of the coolest bottles I ever found while digging came out from under a sheet of metal. A green pear shaped bottle embossed with "A. Smit & zoon". I thought it was for alcohol, but after doing a little reading I think that it had held some kind of leather treatment fluid. 
 The rain had picked up and it was late on the day so I began dreaming about dinner and warm chairs in front of the fireplace, but I dug on for about an hour more. It was an productive hour and made my backpack rather heavy. First I found a type of vehicle heater or portable stove, then a rear carrier rack for a truppenfahrrad and the last signal before I packed up was twelve pairs of Gebirgsjägers snowshoes! They were in too good condition to just be left behind so I fought with them till I reached the car, soaking wet and tired.
The next morning the air felt fresh in the bedroom when the cheerful Girlfriend came to tell me to look outside the window. The world had frozen. Everything was covered in tiny ice crystals. It was a beautiful and calm view, until I look down at the garden and realize the frost had wiped out my spice garden.
I hope the real winter wont arrive just yet, there is still so much to dig :D 
 
​

This week I only found time for a half-day in the forest after work one day. That morning the mountaintops had gotten a cover of fresh snow. I left from work an hour before lunchtime and decided to drive to the Luftwaffe camp and continue a little in the dumping pit there. Removing the loose soil where I had left off last time was a good warm-up because soon I was wrestling with a stuck barrell band and what looked like a large surgical cabinet. When I finally managed to free it, I had come to realize it was not a cabinet but some kind of an instrument sterilizer. Too bad it was heavily damaged, if not I would have brought it with me. Just when I had removed it from the pit I saw the corner of another box. This one was equally difficult to get loose but in the end the crate landed up on the side of the pit. It was still intact and closed, and it felt like something was inside it. I was very curious to what it could contain, but I was going to bring it home so the Girlfriend could take part in the excitement of opening it. When I continued digging I found the top for a field kitchens salt container, and bits from the crushed container. Well, at least the lid had survived, and I have a container which is missing a lid in my storage so hopefully they will fit together. Another bakelite part to come out of the sandy soil was the drinking cup from a soldiers canteen, and it even had initials engraved on the underside, "V.O"
The pit has been full of ampoules, medical glassware and bottles and today was no different. I carefully placed the fragile items safely away from any rocks and metal. 
Creamtubes, coins, a razor sharpener, gaming pieces, toothbrushes and shards from smashed porcelain bowls slowly found their way to the pile. I always collect porcelain bits during a dig, coz sometimes they puzzle together nicely. This time the only salvagable bit was a piece with the eagle and swastika. I dug up bits from at least six karbid lanterns and a leather boot cut down to find use as a slipper. The other one might still be somewhere in the untouched parts of the pit, or it went up in flames when the pit was burnt.
I had to get home for dinner because I was starving, and hadn`t brought food for a long day out, but first I needed to spend my remaining energy on pulling what felt like the top of a kraftstoff barrel out from under a rock, and when I had it out I felt another one. They were both very nice, and one had interesting stencilings added. A blue " D " and a black "L" inside a triangle. I wonder what meanings those had..
Now I had a proper load of relics to carry back to the car, and it was almost so I welcomed the returning winter and the break from carrying rust it would bring :D
 After dinner me and the Girlfriend went outside to figure out what was inside the box. Opening it was easy and was done without damaging it, although a hole appeard from under some crust on the lid. Inside was a medical tray where the lid had rotted away, but the bottom and the tray itself were in nice condition. Other than that was two large needles and a smaller box made from presstoff. Inside that was a leather pouch with loops for instuments, but only a small metal cone was present. Not the treasure we had been hoping for, but prehaps the thrill of it was the treasure :)

​Today there were no digging with Jimmy coz he was overseeing a Yatzy tournament, but hopefully there will be some searching again in the coming week :)

Yesterday it was finally time again for a trip out to the woods together with Jimmy. He has been busy this summer trying to make wine into water, but luckily his holiday has ended so we could get some searching done. We met at the landowners place and there it was talk about a large garbage dump the guy recalled from childhood. While me and Jimmy began searching around the property the guy jumped on his ATV and sped off to try located the old dumping place. When he returned all we had found relating to the wartime was a food tin and a few rolls of barbed wire.
 Having got directions we strolled off across the field and into the forest. A few meters in on the bank of a dried out side arm of the river were piles of rust laying. We could spot a soup container in all the mess. Jimmy pryed it loose but it was missing the lid and was full of hardened tar. The dump seemed to contain a lot of vehicle bits and we began piling the useable bits on top of the river bank. From under a steel plate Jimmy dragged out a super looking Panzerhandlampe. A rare find and one of the best examples I have seen come out of the ground. We found a small part of a motorcycle fender still with the license plate attached, and a dinged up and partly ripped vehicle license plate. Those will be fun to sink into the oxalic bath. Several shovels and axe heads had been dumped there, but we didn`t find much other tools. I bet the locals back then took most of the things they could use around the farms for themselves. I found a door from a vehicle. I am not sure which vehicle it belongs to but it is similar to a Horch door. It was in really good condition and I am very excited to clean it up. Jimmy moved across the riverbed and in the middle of it he picked up a smashed Einheitslanterne. While I was piling up the last of the serviceable bits he found a second pile of rust. 
​ A partly destroyed kettle from a fieldkitchen was the first item I spotted, together with several large rubber wheels. We removed a layer of wires before going through a thick layer of items rusting away. Here we found Noteks lamps, both front- and rear lamps. Part of a RSO wheel, a Finnish canteen and a bakelite bodied horn from a vehicle. Then weapon related parts began coming out from the side of the river. One bakelite grip, from a MP38/40 I think, a bolt for the same and a MG bolt. Some parts from an MG lafette and several MG spare barrell containers, one of which in amazing condition. 
We were lucky it was such a dry summer, if not we would have needed scuba gear to find and save these parts. I filled the backpack as much as possible and was barely able to get it on my back, and it was a sweaty and painfull stroll back to the car. Of course lots had to be left on the bank, but will be collected at first oportunity.
Now we headed off into the Gebirgsjäger camp area to see what was hidden under layers of moss and roots there. We spent a couple of hours checking signals and a few good items surfaced. Jimmy got the best find straight away. Silver jewelry. A pendant with a piece of amber. And later he dug up some coins, 5- and 10 Reichpfennigs. I dug up a tiny stove. A toy I thought, but when I turned it upside down I noticed in the bottom was a pencil sharpener. Then I found a german tent peg in aluminum, and several karbid lamps. Then I thought I had a helmet! But it was a partly crushed vehicle headlight. A couple of vehicle- and equipment ID and instruction tags got put into the pockets and I spent a little time getting a steering wheel loose from some sturdy roots. Just before we were out of energy and called it quits I dug on a rubbish signal that prooved to be a quite nice find. A vehicle license plate! And the last item to be dug up was a 5 cm cannon casing! 
The day had been a great success, we had found relics we were happy with, gotten lots of fresh air and become slimmer and fitter :D

The weather people are talking about big amounts of rain in the coming days, but I hope they are wrong, coz there is more rust and berries to collect before the season ends :)

The two first trips to the forest this week gave me some of the best finds this season. I had a couple of short days at work and was wise to spend the rest of those days in the old gebirgsjäger camp. It is a camp picked over well even before my first trip to it. God knows how many diggers have been there through the years but still good things are being found. Recently a bunch of helmets were dug up there by some other digger, and I found two lids there not long ago. So I was very surprised to get the finds I did earlier this week. 
The Fisher picks up a not great signal from a depression in the ground and I decide to dig it. Two large items lay under the soil. A lid for a frying pan or kettle, and a small kettle. I rummage around with the pinpointer to one of the sides and grabs a handfull of soil to remove it, and feel a pointed piece of metal. I shake the soil away and see the blue enamel on a Nordfront- or Lapplandfront Cross. It was pretty damaged though. Bent backwards so the front plate had come off and gone missing, and one of the arms of the swastika had been twisted and broken off. I spent a good while trying to find the front plate for it in the area, but the Fisher didn`t pick up any matching signal.
I moved on and dug signals along the way. Only rubbish. After a while I get a cluster of signals and find the remains of a fireplace under the berry bushes. Burnt food tins, broken and partly melted glass and unrecognisable bits of metal. I close it up and sweep the detector around it. I get a brass signal. I tear away some moss and roots and grab a brass screw. I give it a check with the pinpointer and tunnel in a little with my fingers to reach for the cause of the signal I get. A sharp and pointed corner is all I feel but somehow I am 100% sure of what it is! I always get sure like that, but am most of the times wrong, helmets being car headlights, hammers being pistols etc. But this time I really am right. I drag out from the side of the fireplace an Iron Cross!! What a crazy find! Upon closer inspection I see it has been lucky to survive the heat. Bubbles in the metal has begun to appear, and two corners are partly melted. The damages gives it some real character. Later I gave it a light wash and it is a little black from soot. I think I will keep it like it is and dont clean it further. I dug around some more and ended up with a handfull of gaming pieces, a belt support hook and a 10 pfennig coin.

A couple of days later I was back in the Gebirgsjäger camp to try my luck again. I wander around for a bit and find an ashtray, some harness from a horse, a plate from a field kitchen and half of an esbit burner. Next to a small birch I get a mixed signal. When I get down there I see that someone had dug there, and an armlength away I spot a freshly dug food tin. Someone had dug it up and left the other signals down there untouched. I open up a small patch of berry bush covered ground and scrape a little bit in the soil. There was another food tin, and uniform buttons, D-rings, an ashtray, a lighter, cigarett case, gaming pieces and a belt buckle catch! Out comes a very nice Göffel, some bottles and when I remove a rock I have to blink twice. It looks like the soil has writing! I can read "Gott Mit Uns". I take away some more soil and fine roots and uncovers a really nice denazified Heer belt buckle. And the best part is it was made from aluminum, not the boring steel! I dig out another catch, a cork opener, two pocket knives and fishing lure before the spot is depleted.

The rest of the week went on with biking and berry picking with the Girlfriend, lots of berries, and today was spent in another camp together with Jimmy, but we`ll get back to that bit tomorrow :)