Last week we were all under the impression that winter had arrived, but instead the temperature kept jumping between a few zero degrees to almost comfortable spring temps. My digger clothes had just dried from the last wash of the season when the village drun..ehm, Jimmy called me on Friday, suggesting that we do some searching the next day.
 Surprisingly coherent he served coffee and cake when I arrived some time before lunch at his place Saturday morning. Watching his squirrell picking fights with the birds around the feeding station we drank coffee and made plans for the day. We knew of a long ditch that someone had been raiding last year, but not completely finished, and decided we should begin with that. And so we did. We will never know what the other diggers had found there, but they had left behind a very nice looking insert for a German soup container, lots of bottles and gaming pieces, a Norwegian coin, a silver razor, tent pegs and a whole bunch of other relics. 
 We completed the ditch, tidied up and started hunting for more metal around in the forest. It was not far between the signals, and the ground was easy to dig even if we could feel the frost in the top  centimeters. I picked up some food tins while Jimmy dug up a stunner of a Finnish Pukko in a leather scabbard. Behind a tree the detector picked up a weak signal, it wasn`t a great signal, but interesting enough to open it up and have a look. Of course the tree had an oversized root just above the signal. Thick as a fat ladys thigh. I tried widening the hole in the ground to the oposite direction, but there was another huge root. Luckily there were space enough between them to poke around and bring up rocks and handfulls of soil. Soon bits of cloth came up together with the sand. 7.92 casings, full stripper clips and small pieces of leather as well. Then a small glass jug and a full leather k98 ammo pouch. With all these good bits of metal coming out from the ground I pondered over how weak signal this metal had given, and landed on that the thick roots and the rocks must have blocked it considerably. I dug up a canteens drinking cup, the early metal version, then the field flasks screw cork and two RG34 rifle cleaning kits. Directly under the root, quite deep, I felt it. The round shape we love to feel. The iconic German helmet. Even though it is far from the coolest item for me to find, I much more prefer trench-art, EKMs etc, but this is the relic that gives me the biggest excitement and adrenaline rush. Probably because it was the main thing I dreamt about finding for so many years. I had to work a little to get the lid loose, but when I tried to get it to the surface it wouldn`t fit between the massive roots!! I could feel the frustration growing, desperately looking around for my saw, but realizing that it would never make it through the roots. I took away a little more soil, cut away a thinner root going between the fat ones, and then I managed to lure the helmet out. It was in a great condition, winter camo showing and the liner looks to be intact. 
I opened up the ground on the other side of the root and found a porcelain dinner plate. Jimmy had come by to have a look and we were both sure it was a German plate, but were disappointed when I turned it around and it only had a small Norwegian producer mark. But now the relics seeped out from the rest of the ditch which I dug along the roots. First up was a steel hand plane for wood work. Then came civillian porcelain coffee cups, several ski goggles, a small porcelain hen, two more rifle cleaning kits, toothbrushes and tubes, buttons and bottles and the last piece to come out before it was empty was a late war canteen. Usually they were made of red laquered steel, but this one was green, which I have never seen before.
While I was completing the hole, Jimmy had started tunnelling straight down. At first I thought he was drunk and wanted to check the depth of the forest, but it turned out it was actually a signal down there. I had to run to the car to bring the Fiskars shovel that was much longer than his shovel to be able to actually reach the item down there. From almost exactly one meters depth we managed to pull up a gas mask container, it was empty but had a little bit of color showing. 
 There were more signals coming from the hole, but it was late afternoon and Jimmy had to leave because his squirrell had gotten himself into the house and was making a chaos in the kitchen! So now I had to deal with the well he had been digging. I dug down a step so I could easier reach the bottom and had to struggle with a large rock on the side to where the canister had been. In the end I could move it a little and reach behind it. Another helmet!! Woohaa! It wasnt as perfect as the other one and missing the liner, but a lid is a lid :)
 I was getting hungry and it slowly began to be dark, but I knew this was the very last chance before winter so I ran around a little picking up signals. I found a small Juwel primus, a few PPSh rounds and on the last signal this season I won a small lot of relics that had been dumped 80 years ago. A canteen together with two toothbrushes, a battery and a small bottle with its lable intact, which is not often I am finding. 
Suddenly it was a lot darker. It goes so fast. It became difficult to see all my stuff, so I hastily collected it and had to make two trips to get it all back to the car. 
Before driving home I sent Jimmy a pic of the last helmet and a few hours later he called me back. Slightly on the wine I think, he raved on about how evil winter was and that he wanted to dig all season through, so he had ordered several industrial heating mats, a generator and 5000 liter diesel! I cant wait to see how that will unfold :D

​Have a good winter everyone :)

Last week I had two trips to the Gebirgsjäger camp, and it looks like these were the last strolls with the detector this time around.
On Tuesday I woke up to a fresh -6.3 Celsius below zero. The weather report indicated that the next days and nights would be cold so I thought it could be the last chance for any searching and prepared myself for a  fresh day outside.
When I stepped into the cold forest I slightly regretted my decision. The frozen vegetation made loud crunchy noises when I walked through it, and cold needles shot through the layers of clothes and into my bones as I kneeled to check a signal given by the detector. The first half hour it felt like my fingertips were made of pain, but after a while I got numb to it and didn`t feel them for a few hours. 
I wanted to check a ditch with some interesting signals I had found on a previous trip. I suspected it could be a dumping pit and needed to find out before the long winter began.  I checked every interesting signal on the way over to it, but it was all rubbish, a few padlocks, parts of a broken crate, boot heel irons, nails and wires. The ditch did not have much in it either. A few lenghts of wire and a food tin had given the good signals, but it was also a large vehicle lamp in the soil there. It wasn`t in the best shape though, the glass was missing and the rust had made large holes in the thin metal.
 I searched around the ditch and dug up a license plate from a vehicle and a pair of large aluminum electrical connectors made by Siemens. A bit farther away I found a small slope full of signals. I opened up a corner to see what it could be and spent the next few hours there. Just below the surface relics came popping out. It was a lot of junk, but I picked out a Finnish coin, belt support hooks, stripper clips, a few chess pieces, perfume bottles and a k98 winter trigger, and the coolest bottle of the season. A square, green, Schnapps bottle with embossings on three of its sides. It will be perfect for a display together with a few shot glasses, smoking paraphanalia and some trench-art. 
By now I had begun feeling my fingers again and decided it was time to end the season, sad that I hadn`t discovered the dumping ditch that I had hoped for, but super-happy with the bottle. I had only checked a small corner of the slope and it looks like a place where I can begin next season since the relics was laying so shallow and it ll be thawed up early by the spring sun.

The next days we had milder weather again and even if some snow had fell I figured Friday the 13th would be a good day to make another attempt on closing the season. Just after breakfast I waded into the woods in ancle deep snow, sweeping snow away in front of me with the detector. It soon gave me signals to dig and together with rusted food cans I found a very nice looking RG34 cleaning kit. It felt heavy so I bet all parts are present in it. Everytime I checked a signal I had to pay extra attention to where I placed my bayonet and root scissors as they kept disappearing in the snow. Of course the detector became much heavier  because of the snow getting caked on it, and it didnt take long before my trousers and gloves had been soaked through by the snow melting on me. Slowly I realized that the Friday 13th luck I had hoped for was escaping me and I ended up with very few finds, and the cold needles pulsating in my fingers made me call it quits just an hour after lunch. The last hour searching my way back to the car provided me with a couple of nice finds though. A very small dump I dug up was full of chess pieces and a silver-plated brass bracelet. One signal gave me two field torches, while another good signal was a great little find, a small keyring tag with a vehicles licenseplate info stamped into it. That one will be slipped right onto my Transporters keyring :D 
The last find I dug up from the snow was a M39 Nebel head, partly rusted through, still, it could be cleaned out and make for a nice pencil holder or something :)

I guess this is it then, unless the weather turns again and we ll get another mild periode. This season was definately a great one, one of the best since I began this blog ten years ago. I ve had lots of fun and had some great finds. It is difficult to choose which was the best of them all, but probably the Ullr badge and the Nordfrontkreuz.
​ Now starts the job of going through all the finds, giving some of them new homes, and making art from some, while displaying others. Planning and research for next season must be done, and some half-plans for interesting trips together with friends have begun brewing.

Thanks to all of you who have followed my trips this season, I hope you have found it entertaining and interesting and will be back for more in spring :)

Have a good winter :)

I made two more trips to the small Gebirgsjäger forest this week, just before the weather turned bad. The last days its been windy, snowing and raining, and cold with only +2 Celsius. Not very perfect for digging so I am staying indoors today. But, a few days ago it was still +10 degree and liveable, so I greased up my boots and went rusthunting. I spent some time scanning around in the northern part of the little forest, but it was quieter there so I went back to where it was more metal in the ground. The first two nice finds was a single key, and a set of keys which had a small tag attached to the key ring. It read "M.H 380 679". The set of keys lay on the side of a fireplace, and together with it, unharmed by the fire was a pair of field made rubber suspenders. But that morning my detector seemed like it wanted me to mainly dig trash and did its best to steer me away from the good finds. A few ones slipped through though, like the empty m24 head which I found partly stuck under a root. And the group of uniform buttons together with a toothbrush under a empty blueberry bush.
I walked past a Juniper shrubbery when a hare jumped out  centimeters in front of me and ran off. One could say it woke me up a bit.. Then the detector picked up interesting signals I needed to check out. I removed the top layer and a bit confused I scooped up a big handful of rusted paperclips. It was hundreds of them. But they couldn`t have been the reason for the signal the detector had given. I took out "the carrot" and the pinpointer went off like mad in the clay-like sand. Before any more metal could be spotted I found a small clay pot and a porcelain milk jug. After a few more scoops with the shovel I saw a wire, and the top of a larger metal object. Minutes later I could lift out a German field radio. I found one of these before, but this one looked to be in better condition. The pinpointer wanted me to scratch some sand away from where the radio had sat. I did, and was rewarded with a small stack of Erkennungsmarken. I rubbed the sand away and it looked like it had been burnt, but it was a stamped one. I dug around some more and four other tags came out, 8 in total! All from the same unit; "STAB NZ.GEB.PI.BTL.91" (Stab Nachrichten Zug Gebirgs-Pionier-Bataillon) but none had the blood group punched in.

The next morning I was back on place. It had been a windy night and it had removed nearly all the leaves from the trees. The ground was an endless blanket of yellow. Very beautiful, but it also hid all signs of messed-with ground, so I risked checking a lot of signals already checked. I tried to minimize those chances by focusing on the edges of the forest where I hadn`t done so much searching yet. Here it was more modern trash from the neighbourhoods, but it didn`t take long before I found something from the wartime. A frame of some kind, probably from a wagon or vehicle. And I found a small hammer, and a ashtray with a viking ship and "Norge". Later an interesting signal turned into an hour-long fight with rocks and roots only to free several cast iron stove parts. Together with some rubbish was a nice bakelite lid for a charge tin belonging to a Gebirgsgeschutz 36. I was hungry so I took direction towards my backpack but soon I had another signal to check. "Rifle casing, stripperclip or piece of wire.." my mind went, as I opened a small hole in the moss. "Nordfrontkreuz!!" Wow! It was just laying there! I grabbed it before a bling-hungry crow had the chance to swoop in and rob me from it. The two last crosses I ve found had both been destroyed, but this one was in good condition. A few bits of missing enamel, a minor bend to one of the arms, but clear and nice colors. I wasn`t sure, but I suspected it was a variant new to my small collection of these. 
​After lunch I spent another couple of hours roaming around, still high on the great find. I dug interesting signals while trying to locate any other "hot-spots". I found two-three possible dumping pits,probably for next season, and one area with a lot of signals spread around. There I opened up a few signals and the first was a battery together with a vinagre bottle, the next was an aluminum luggage tag, slightly cooked by flames. It was unfinished and read "UFFZ Goldbacker". Man, I love such finds! The last one I dug up that afternoon was a close combat knife, also a bit burnt in a fire.

Thanks for reading. Have a great day :)

STAB NZ.GEB.PI.BTL.91" (Stab Nachrichten Zug Gebirgs-Pionier-Bataillon) ​

Early on the day after finding the Ullr badge I was up and ready for forest even before the squirrells had finished their morning raiding party to our birdfeeder. The weather was still weirdly good with almost summer temperatures, but the weather reports had begun dropping hints about a winterish next week, so I felt I had no time to waste. 
 I quickly checked the edges of the dumping pit for any signals before I dived into it. I took away the vegetation on the top and cut away some roots to be able to remove the first piece of metal, a thick plate. I lifted the heavy part out of the pit and saw that it wasn`t just a plate, but a trench sniper shield! I have seen these type of shields come out of WW1 positions in Latvia, and knew the Germans had brought them to the Northern front during WW2, but I was very surprised to find one here this morning. And it was not only one, but two of them! I knew it was going to be so much "fun" getting these beasts with me out of the forest. But, under the second shield was something else. A German helmet!! It had become a bit squashed from having the shields thrown on top of it. Half of it looked like it had winter camo still showing, but the other side had been cooked a bit by the fire and was bubbly and flakey. What a start to the day! The rest of the corner had nothing but animal bones and food tins, but from the middle towards the other corner of the pits short end more interesting bits turned up again. I dug out an early metal version of a canteen drinking cup, small bottles for ether and perfumes, pad locks, keys, the top of a messkit, and a blank german belt buckle. I thought it could be one of the rare Norwegian NS Hirdbattalion buckles, but when having a closer look I saw it was a unfinished field made example! How awesome was that!?! Not something one see very often. More of the regular stuff poured out from the soil. Flashlights, ski goggles, a ribbon bar, a blank EKM, bakelite boxes, ashtrays and toothbrushes, and lots more. 
Circa in the middle of the pit was a large water pitcher made from zink. It was laying sideways and when I pulled it out I noticed it was full of stuff. Someone had stuck a shoe brush in it, a really nice ashtray made from frosted glass, a ladle, a Soviet enamel mug, a food tin , the footrest from a motorcycle and a göffel from WW1. Everything in super condition, like it had been buried last month.
After a break and stroll to stretch the legs and my back, I continued finding the good stuff. The next pile of rescued relics consited of two messkits, several tent pegs, and then I hit an ore of trench-art. First one half of a cigarette case. Engraved with a horse, then 4 or 5 shaving cups, where three of them had been decorated and then I found the other half of the cigarette case, having a romantic motive engraved. 
In the last corner of the pit was a second helmet waiting for me! (third if we count the one from the other day). This one was more rusted than the other two, but could still clean up nicely with a little luck. The last relics to be saved was two large "winkers" for a vehicle and a nice and complete square oil can.
I had been digging for 5-6 hours and was dirty, wet, hungry, half eaten by blackflies and tired, but I still had to get myself and the treasures back to the car half a kilometer away. I loaded all the relics into the backpack and could barely get it on my back, and then a massive trench shield in each hand. I was slow and heavy while trying to not collapse in the undergrowth and had to make breaks every few meters, but in the end I could see the car and knew a shower and dry clothes was within reach. 
In the afternoon I cleaned up the trench-art items and looks like they all had been made after the liberation in 1945. It was cozy motives with animals, nature and romantic scenes with girls. On one of the shaving cups me and the Girlfriend could even recognize which mountains the artist had engraved on it, and could practically see where he had stood when he captured the image. Quite amazing.

​Happy Days :)
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