Around 11 yesterday morning I left home to go see if Jimmy was ready for some rust hunting. Surprisingly he was already on his legs, but we had to drink some coffee before heading out to the woods so that "he could drive legally". Half hour later we turned on the metal detectors and strolled into the Gebirgsjäger forest. We walked straight into a patch that had signals all over, and dug there for a while. Nothing good was found. We had only dug up bits from ovens, food tins, bunker candles and a little cloth from a tunic which still had a few of the buttons present. Jimmy had located two ditches that needed to be checked, so we took directions to the first one and searched our way towards it.
 The ditch was a few meters long and full of metal so we just began in one of the ends. The top of it was full of rocks of course but soon we were pulling metal and glass out of the ground. After an hours work we had a few finds. Some rifle ammo, food tins, a harmonica, an empty M24 head, a porcelain coffee mug, bottles, Esbit burners and some tools, and a "Wifo" fuel barrell top. But also an unusual and surprising find. An intact ping pong ball! A few trees were growing next to the ditch and the thick roots made it difficult to dig. Since the daylight hours are very short now here north we decided to save the rest of the ditch till next season and rather try our luck on another ditch. According to Jimmy it was 70 meter long and overflowing with signals probably from helmets. I didn`t comment on the 70 meter part of his tale, but am always keen on digging lids so I followed along. Once more we stepped right into a patch full of signals and spent a little time cutting through the moss again. First I found a Esbit burner, but then the luck changed and I had to call Jimothy over to share the joy over the best find of the day so far. I had picked up half a German Erkennungsmarke, From a Gebirgsjäger unit. I saw that he was about to knock me out so I hurried back on my feet, pointed to some trees and said "Look there! Rust!", to direct his attention on to something else. He is much like a labrador that way luckily.
 We found the other ditch and although it was far from 70 meters, it was by far the longest ditch full of signals I have ever seen. Very exciting! 

Jimmy started digging in the end of the ditch and I a couple of meters down it. While he began pulling out finds I was still removing the layer of rocks but not long after I also reached the relics. He dug up bakelite light switches, sockets and connectors while I found a rusted MG ammo box. I was fighting with parts of a big coil of copper wire when I suddenly heard a womanly shriek from the other end of the ditch. Jimmy had found a helmet! And it was an unusual helmet. A WW1 variant. The liner was intact and both color and winter camo were visible! What an amazing find!! And while I dug up three gasmask canisters, Jimmy found two belt buckles! Steel Heer buckles. 
Now I had the rim of a motorcycle tyre in the ditch ahead, but the copper wire had to go first. The wire cutter came out of the backpack and I began cutting my way through it. The wire was well over into Jimmys side as well and when the bugger pulled the wire out, two helmets followed!! Now what the heck was going on? What a treasure chest!
We got the coil out of the ditch and could continue digging. Now I had a little luck and pulled out a pipe which I saw was a Panzerfaust 30 Klein, with lots of color intact! Awesome! But the joy soon turned when I noticed that the tail was still stuck inside it, and knew it had to be left behind. While Jimmy finished up his end of the ditch by finding a beautiful k98 bayonet in its scabbard I finally managed to get the motorcycle wheel loose and to the surface, and then another one was behind it, but it was much easier to get out. 
 On the bottom of the ditch we picked up more gasmask canisters, two Tetra fire extinguishers, some tent pegs and a rifle grenade launcher, plus a bucket full of rifle ammo! We still had some time before darkness so Jimmy went a couple of meters ahead and dug towards me. I had a large steering wheel in front of me. I wondered what it could be, from a vehicle, cannon or some tool maybe. A few drops of sweat later the heavy piece of metal was on the side of the ditch. It was a large drill. And not many minutes later we had found two more parts for it, making it into a pillar drilling machine. During this process Jimmy dug out yet another belt buckle! 
 We removed a large tool box and I was trying to find the bottom of the ditch when Jimmy began talking about calling it quits. The same moment he said it I felt the shape of a helmet 20 cm below surface. Rocks and soil got scooped away and pryed loose with the bayonet, uncovering the rims of two helmets! We got one of them up and it looked good. Some color and camo showing. Then the next one, also in good condition. The daylight kept fading but we had still not reached the bottom, and helmets kept coming. When we finally had the bottom of the ditch, we had pulled out five helmets. One of them almost completely without rust, green and white. Also on the bottom was another Heer belt buckle and a PPSh magazine. What a crazy end of the day! And what lay waiting in the ditch ahead? In total we got 8 lids and 4 buckles. :D
 As we were filling back the ditch I heard a sound behind me. I turned my head, screamed and fell over into the ditch as a wolf came running at me. In the same moment I of course realized it was not a wolf but the dog from a team of moose hunters :D 
I was soaked, cold and hungry when I came home, and my car more muddy inside than outside, but what a small cost for such an amazing day. It could easily have been the last Adventure Afteroon this season as the first snow will probably fall this evening according to the weather folks. But lets hope we`ll get one or two more trips there before it is the end.

Late last evening Jimmy called me to hear if I maybe had brought two of his belt buckles, coz he suspected he had left them by a tree near the ditch. I had to look through my backpack and finds, but no luck. I couldn`t stand the thought of the buckles being alone out there in the big forest, cold and covered in rust, so I drove back this morning to fetch them. 
They were by the tree and I could finally relax when I had stuck them into my pocket. I turned on the detector and walked back to the car. I checked a good signal and it was an interesting find. A flag pole that probably stood on top of a building as it is just a little longer than a meter. The next one I dug was a real nice surprise.A medal! An Allgemeine Sturmabzeichen (General Assault Badge). The needle was missing, and it need some carefull cleaning but I think it will look good. Before I reached the car I dug up a food tin and a nice Tetra Fire extinguisher. I would have loved to spend the day there digging , but I had to put on the cars winter tyres and make this write-up, so no time for more fun and games today :D

​Thanks for reading, and have a great day :)

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With King Winter on the doorstep it has been less tempting with any outdoor activities. Since my last write-up it rained like crazy, and if it didn`t rain it was frosty and way to cold to play around in the dirt with nitril- and rubber clad fingers. Just when I began to think the season had ended, Monday arrived with exellent weather. The Girlfriend and I decided it was time for another roadtrip to get some nice views and to do a little recce for next season to a site where it supposedly had been a POW camp and a nearby soldier camp.
It was a beautiful drive in the morning. It was only +5 Celsius, but the sun would warm things up a little as the day progressed. We found the place easily and after a short walk into a wonderfull forest we saw earthen walls from several buildings, stoves made from fuel barrells and other metal sticking out from the ground. The metal detector gave off signals all over the place, but a lot were poor signals like from rusted food tins, nails and wires etc. I opened a few better signals and found several bits of scraps from trench-art production. I dug up a rifle cleaning kit, and in what seemed to be a long dumping ditch I picked up "Forest Lego" as Girlfriend called it, a broken coffee cup with Heer eagle. I tried to find all the pieces so that I could glue it back together later.
 Then we moved a kilometer or so to see if we could find the soldier camp, but after some searching and berry picking we came up short on both. The winter usually linger longer in this area but late June next season I hope to be back and see what this place hides.
The next few rainy days I glued together the coffee mug, and a Luftwaffe plate I had found somewhere earlier, and they both looks presentable enough to be put into the collection.

Yesterday also had nice and relatively soft weather, and before nine I was ready in the forest on my latest permission to do some strolling around. I found a small dumping pit right away and soon my fingers were in pain from the cold soil. For a change this pit didn`t have any rocks filled on top so I saved my fingers a bit by just scooping fine sand and rust out with the shovel. As often it was mostly trash in it but a very few items made it into my backpack: A simple multi-tool, a civillian porcelain cup, a enamelled fieldkitchen plate, a few buttons, toothcream and a small hammer. Several pairs of rotted combat boots and a handfull of bottles went back into the pit. 
A few hours later all I had grabbed with me was a small 200 gram weight, and a piece of metal from an Esbit stove. The temperature was much better as the sun had worked for some hours but the ground maintained its coldness. After eating and searching some more I was on my way back to the car when I pushed through a shrubbery and in the midst of it was the remains of a building. It was large and full of signals. I opened up a few of them across the building and it made me believe the entire thing might be like a big burn pit, or more likely the building was full of stuff and then burnt down. In one end of it I dug till I found the top of what I think is a large steel stove. The metal looks perfectly preserved and it is standing upright, so it will be a big job getting it to the surface. I found a German Reichspfennig coin from 1926, a soup container which I hope have the inner kettle and ladle present, a soup bowl and some bottles, a rifle cleaning kit and several bits of broken porcelain. The last signal I checked was a Kraftstoff barrell top. The second one this season. 
After ca 6 hours I was tired, all wet and my fingers had fell off so I retreated back home and got the oven going, before making dinner.
This morning it was wintery again with -4 Celsius, and worse weather is coming.. 
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During the last week I have been checking up on some leads, legends and rumours about Wehrmacht camps and installations in the region. Before the weekend I walked several kilometers over two days on sites where it supposedly should have been a Heer camp and a kitchen. All I found were a few Norwegian 6.5 mm rifle casings and a few bits of shrapnel that probably had been thrown out from a nearby ammo storage where things had become a little bit "explody" shortly after the liberation in 1945. So that was two days gone with no finds, but at least the places can be crossed off my list. 
Weekend came with frost and temps down to -5 Celsius, so the Girlfriend and I set up the tent, made a fire and enjoyed the evening grilling some food on the flames and watching the northern lights before we spent the night in the tent. Very cozy.

 Around lunchtime on Sunday I had a call from Jimmy. Our weekly Adventure Afternoon was on, and another digger was joining in as well. I drove to the Gebirgsjäger forest, parked my car and strolled along the tractor road until I heard a shovel blade hit rocks. I found Jimmy digging while laying in the recovery position. Apparently he had been at a concert the night before and he claimed that unbeknownst to him someone must have poured alcohol in his glass. None the less, Im impressed. I mean the guy is pushing fifty and is out digging a dumping ditch a few hours after a party and with a hangover that could down a gorilla. And as if that wasn`t enough, five minutes after I begin digging up food tins he called me over. He had removed some trash and rocks and could feel the shape of a German helmet ca 40 cm under the surface. A moment later the helmet surfaced and it was awesome! Really nice condition. Green with wither camo still showing, and very little rust! All Hail Jimothy!
 I continued digging my signal and piled up food tin after food tin. A broken winker from a car was in the hole and also a dust pan. I had soon depleted the small trash pit and the next signal I got gave a bit better result. It was a small silver ring. Probably from a necklace or maybe an earring. Then I found another ditch that had some good strong signals and spent the next hours digging that. The result was sad though. Two large corrugated plates, a few bottles, a pickaxe and a few creamtubes. As I closed up the ditch Jimmy returned from a wandering-around and he brought me a nice rear Notek light. Highly appreciated. Then the other digger, Tom, returned from his walkabout. He had pockets full of freshly dug coins, a compass and a small piece of metal that was the "Gott mit uns" part from a German beltbuckle that had been denazified. 

Yesterday me and the Girlfriend went to check out another site where it had been a German camp or storage. We found the place easily, and could see remains of earthen cellars spread out in the woods. A round with the detector showed that it was very little metal in the ground. The few signals I had, and dug, was bits from an iron cast oven and a few food tins, but nothing interesting and the place felt kind of empty, but come spring and we`ll do some better checking.

This morning I was on my legs early, pouring coffee into my head and preparing for a cold day in the woods. The weather guys had promised us plus degrees but everything outside had a white frosting, and the car windows had to be scraped. I drove to the Luftwaffe camp to do another attempt on locating the area where the living quarters had been. Here it was even colder than at home, and the sound of frozen vegatation getting crushed under my shoes felt deafening. Soon the detector picked up something. Lots of signals were spread out in front of me. I opened up a square of the frozen ground and cut away the network of roots protecting the relics. Food tins and some bottles. Proof of Germaqn activity. I scraped soil away with the bayonet and spotted a shotglass made from a 2 cm flak casing! That was the find I wanted! What a great surprise! I found several buttons from civillian clothes. All made of glass and with flowers as decorations. Some rusted cutlery and bottles was next to be dug up, and then I found another shotglass! Also from a 2 cm casing. I spent two-three hours sifting through the 80 year old fireplace and got another little handfull of finds out of it. In the end I stuck into the backpack a Luftwaffe porcelain plate, a bit broken but I grabbed all the litte bits from it I could find, a small ashtray, a toothbrush and a few cream tubes.
My toes and knees were cold by now so I needed to get up and move around. And I had a lot more area to check. Only a few steps away and the Fisher gave off a strong clear signal. Just below a thick layer of moss was a compass. In amazing condition. The first really well preserved compass I have dug up so I was all smiles. I made a big loop through the forest. I found a slope with a lot of signals, where barrells and other bits of metals were poking out of the ground. One of the signals I dug was yet another food tin, but next to it was a small red plastic thing, with a cat on it. Almost like the end of a childs toothbrush maybe. A strange but fun find.
Another place was the foundation of a building. I checked signals now and again and it was a mix of things that could be from the war and some more modern garbage. 
I was almost back to the car when a good signal made me stop. The signal was quite long,, ca 1 meter or more, and narrow. Could it be a weapon? An MG prehaps. Oh how I wished as I removed vegetation and soil. I didn`t pull up a weapon from the ground this time either. But it was still a good find. A  vehicle license plate attached to some kind of rod. The plate is not nearly as good as the one I found last time, but it will be fun cleaning it up trying to figure out what branch it might have belonged to.

It looks like the next few days might become a bit wet and stormy, so I might finally get some housework done, but very soon we`ll head out for some more rust hunting :D

​Thanks for reading. Stay happy and live life the best way you can :)