At last I am back to searching the forest after two and a half week without any rust hunting. I was kept away from digging by the hot summer weather, and me and the Girlfriend did a week long course, and now this last week my car had broken down which I was happy to get back from the workshop yesterday. I really missed being in the woods, smelling the freshly dug soil and the sound of an interesting signal from the detector, and on Monday I finally managed to sneek off with Girlfriends car for a few hours searching. I went to continue to check the area where I dug the last dumping pit. I had gotten some very interesting signals from three ditches there and was hoping for them to be full of relics. The first one just had a smashed zink bucket and some rusted food cans and the second one had parts of a fuel barrel. The third had lots of food tins, an ashtray, cream tubes and bottles but the only interesting find was next to the ditch. There was a German SA Sportsbadge! That was a very nice find. Other than some more food tins I found a dinged up mess kit. Mr.Squirrel had entertained me with his tree-parkour while I was digging the ditch, it is always awesome to watch.
Yesterday the Girlfriend was going to the mountain to place an insect trap for her fieldwork and I was commandeered to be the driver. When she strolled off towards a top I took direction towards a nearby German camp to have a look. Not many meters into the stroll I threw the backpack on the ground, ripped it open and tried to find my mosquito net as fast as humanly possible. It was crazy. It felt like all the little vampires on the entire mountain just had seen me and came flying in for a feast. Protected my the fine mesh I could continue, but now with a buzzing cloud following me, diving at me trying to grab me through the mesh. Everytime I made a stop they all wanted to land on me, and I swear I could feel the weight from them. Or maybe I just imagined feeling it, we will never know for sure. One thing is certain though and that is if I had been abandoned in the wilderness like this without a net I`d just set fire to myself, one must be insane to be able to handle such an amount of hungry mosquitos. The camp was interesting. I found many foundations from buildings and it was lots of dug outs and trenchlines around. Metal peeked out from the moss here and there, and relics such as food tins and bottles laid on the surface and between rocks. I also saw a big owl flying through the mountain forest. A very promising site I need to get back to.
This morning we woke up early since Girlfriend was driving north for a few days of fieldwork. As she filled her car I took off to the Gebirgsjäger camp for some hours searching. I was really happy to discover that the forest had less mosquitos, also a light breeze probably helped keeping them away. I walked towards a previously discovered dumping pit, digging signals along the way. A button here and a zunder box there, and parts of a field radio over there, and of course some rifle casings, stripper clips and food tins. Opening the dumping pit was basically removing a large chimney cap. Under it was the lid from a MG ammo box and then rocks. After removing the layer of rocks and roots, leather bits began popping out as I removed soil. Parts from boots, pouches, mittens, Y-straps and horse harness bits. Most of the stuff was destroyed but some straps and belts were intact. Then I found porcelain. A complete unmarked plate, and a broken and almost complete plate with a Heer eagle on the bottom. Then I found a bayonet frog, and a soldiers belt, sadly no buckle though. It took many hours to go through the ditch and I had found a few nice bits in the end. I ended up with three leather frogs for bayonets, three soldier belts, all missing buckles but with the catches, a kitchen glass, a knife,spoon and fork and a long soup ladle for a field kitchen. I also found a great little trench-art item. A bakelite lid for a jar, engraved with flowers and ornaments, "1945" and initials in cyrillic. Im really happy with that one! The second best find was probably a simply constructed belt buckle I think is a German officer buckle. The single rubber glove of the medical kind took the prize as the strangest find of the day.
I had been out digging now for 6-7 hours and had more energy to spend but the rain came. At first I just ignored it, but when it shifted gears and felt more like it was throwing buckets and water balloons I scooped up my findings and began the retreat to drier grounds.
Hopefully I ll be back at it tomorrow, and the next day and so on :D
Yesterday the Girlfriend was going to the mountain to place an insect trap for her fieldwork and I was commandeered to be the driver. When she strolled off towards a top I took direction towards a nearby German camp to have a look. Not many meters into the stroll I threw the backpack on the ground, ripped it open and tried to find my mosquito net as fast as humanly possible. It was crazy. It felt like all the little vampires on the entire mountain just had seen me and came flying in for a feast. Protected my the fine mesh I could continue, but now with a buzzing cloud following me, diving at me trying to grab me through the mesh. Everytime I made a stop they all wanted to land on me, and I swear I could feel the weight from them. Or maybe I just imagined feeling it, we will never know for sure. One thing is certain though and that is if I had been abandoned in the wilderness like this without a net I`d just set fire to myself, one must be insane to be able to handle such an amount of hungry mosquitos. The camp was interesting. I found many foundations from buildings and it was lots of dug outs and trenchlines around. Metal peeked out from the moss here and there, and relics such as food tins and bottles laid on the surface and between rocks. I also saw a big owl flying through the mountain forest. A very promising site I need to get back to.
This morning we woke up early since Girlfriend was driving north for a few days of fieldwork. As she filled her car I took off to the Gebirgsjäger camp for some hours searching. I was really happy to discover that the forest had less mosquitos, also a light breeze probably helped keeping them away. I walked towards a previously discovered dumping pit, digging signals along the way. A button here and a zunder box there, and parts of a field radio over there, and of course some rifle casings, stripper clips and food tins. Opening the dumping pit was basically removing a large chimney cap. Under it was the lid from a MG ammo box and then rocks. After removing the layer of rocks and roots, leather bits began popping out as I removed soil. Parts from boots, pouches, mittens, Y-straps and horse harness bits. Most of the stuff was destroyed but some straps and belts were intact. Then I found porcelain. A complete unmarked plate, and a broken and almost complete plate with a Heer eagle on the bottom. Then I found a bayonet frog, and a soldiers belt, sadly no buckle though. It took many hours to go through the ditch and I had found a few nice bits in the end. I ended up with three leather frogs for bayonets, three soldier belts, all missing buckles but with the catches, a kitchen glass, a knife,spoon and fork and a long soup ladle for a field kitchen. I also found a great little trench-art item. A bakelite lid for a jar, engraved with flowers and ornaments, "1945" and initials in cyrillic. Im really happy with that one! The second best find was probably a simply constructed belt buckle I think is a German officer buckle. The single rubber glove of the medical kind took the prize as the strangest find of the day.
I had been out digging now for 6-7 hours and had more energy to spend but the rain came. At first I just ignored it, but when it shifted gears and felt more like it was throwing buckets and water balloons I scooped up my findings and began the retreat to drier grounds.
Hopefully I ll be back at it tomorrow, and the next day and so on :D
Food tin.
Cream tubes and an ink bottle.
This lot made a super great signal.
Ashtray.
Finding the SA Sportsbadge.
Mess kit.
In the mountain camp such stone walls was often spotted.
A ripped up mess kit.
From a handgrenade.
Mr. Dragonfly.
Mosquitohell.
Oven door.
A reindeer skull.
Button with some uniform cloth.
Rifle ammo.
Medical cream.
Radio parts.
Zunder box.
A nest.
Ammo box lid.
A belt!!
Leather scrap.
3D puzzle.
My first trench-art on bakelite piece.
Cutlery and a kitchen glass.
A doctors rubber glove?
Mystery bakelite part.
Belt buckle.
Leather frogs for bayonet.
A large soup ladle.
The SA sportsbadge.
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