End of Digging Season is Near
This morning we have - 6.5 Celsius, and yesterday it was snowing! The cold has made small birds interested in coming indoors, so the last days we have had three of them flying around inside the house, to my great amusement. It is safe to say that King Winter is just around the corner with all his freezingness.
I saw this coming already last weekend, so I have had a busy week, trying to spend any free moment out searching.
The first two trips went to a couple of rather depleted sites I wanted to check off my list. On the first site there was a small dumping pit I had probed earlier, which I believed could have some potential. A few hours later I half-disappointedly refilled it having found only a 7.5 cm casing and a few bits of its transport container. The rest were "modern" rubbish from the 1950`s and 60`s.
7.5 cm casing. Broken coffee cup. Old school batteries.
On my next trip to another gebirgsjäger camp, I completed a large relic spill I had searched through most of on previous visits. Here I had found coins, rings, awards and field gear, but this time I came up more or less empty handed.
I dug up some bottles and jars, a few pocket knives, parts of bikes and fire extinguishers, food tins, and lots of rifle rounds and stripper clips. The most interesting find was a single wehrmacht uniform button made of plastic.
The rest of the afternoon I detected the surrounding forest but other than more food tins nothing interesting came out of the ground.
A big relic spill, but no good finds. A mystery find. Nozzle for a fire extinguisher.
Thursday morning I drove to one of my main hunting grounds. I had the remains of two-three barracks there which I had barely done any searching around. The reason for that is that the spots are overgrown with sapplings and shrubbery, so it is very difficult to detect there. Lately I have been using the smallest coil on my detector, and with this I imagined it would be a bit easier to get between the young closely spaced trees.
It was a struggle that lasted a few hours before I fought my way back out of the thicket warm and sweaty. Empty handed. The only things I had dug up was rubbish left behind by post-war Norwegian- and Nato troops.
Out in the open I looked around, speculating where to continue, when my eyes fell on a small hill half a kilometer away. I had been there several years ago and remembered that I had found lots of Nato garbage, but also a small dumping pit with wehrmacht radio equipment, so I decided to give it a try.
That was a smart move. Immediately I had a good signal. A frame for a pocket watch. The next signal was a field made whisk. Then I noticed a circa meter long hole in the ground, which were full of signals. Dumping pit!
The rest of the day I was moving sand and rocks, rusted food tins, bottles, and all sorts of destroyed zink bowls and buckets. In between all the junk were good relics as well. Coins, honey jars, a Kriegsmarine uniform button, a named lid of a mess kit, a canteen with a bakelite cup, signaller equipment and cutlery.
I wasn`t even half way into the pit before I noticed that dusk was creeping in on me, and I had to pack up and leave.
Box from a battery. Cutlery,Esbit burners, a honey jar, and food tins Canteen and bakelite cup.
The next morning I was back on site to continue. I cut away some of the edge of the pit and out fell the relic which made the week. A beautifully preserved SA Sportsabzeichen! With its needle intact I think it is the best one of these badges I have ever found.
Happy with the find I continued to pull relics out of the soil. Göffels in both aluminum and steel, esbit burners, a mess kit, an aluminum coffee mug and a field kitchen dinner plate, different tools, a woolen sock and a big soup container in pretty decent condition, but no more medals or badges.
I put the scrap and soil back and continued with the metal detector after lunch. I decided it was too late for opening another dumping pit, so I wandered around checking signals. It was a good mix of Nato- and wehrmacht stuff, but I discovered a slope below a barrack full of stuff and none of the items I dug up was modern.
There were bottles, cream tubes, shovels, tent pegs, more signaller equipment, parts of lanterns and lamps, and a large wooden bucket. In the final hour spent in the forest I found ten ZZ42 zunders scattered around, more food tins, an ashtray with "Greetings from Narvik" engraved and five small 0.33l German bottles.
Bakelite boxes. Göffels. Soup container.
On my way back to the car I had to cross a small stream, not even a meter wide, and barely ancle deep. As I was stepping into the water a fish noticed that it was about to get a foot on its head, and like a lightning it shot upstream, scaring the bejesus out of me as I for a brief moment thought it was a Kraaken or Huldra coming for me.
Luckily my quite loud, and surely very masculine shriek, was only heard by the ravens who took to their wings to come inspect what the rucckus was about.
Seeing how the frost is settling in and hardening the ground, and snow creeping down into the tree line, this might very well have been the last real digging trip this season. If there will be some milder days coming I might of course venture out there again, crossing more places off my list, but the hill will be for next spring.
Now it is time to get dressed in some warm clothes and go outside to put winter tires onto the cars.
I have had an amazing ride this season, with lots of great finds and fantastic nature experiences, and I hope you readers have enjoyed tagging along.
Thanks for reading! Keep Smiling, and follow your dreams!
Some of the finds. Mess kit lid named Karl Schwarzer. SA Sportsabzeichen cleaned up. Its needle was intact. Numbered and producer marked. Parts of Noteks. Pocket knife. Truppenfahrrad part. Plastic uniform button. Nice views. A square bottle. A rifle round with the bullet inverted. Stripper clips. Backpack hook. Fieldmade whisk. Lamp cover. Perfume bottles Line pole part. Razor. Mess kit lid. Rifle casing. Mess kit. Esbit burners. A mystery wooden handle with a hook from a nail. Spoons. Pillow from a radio carrier. Aluminum mug. Odol mouthwash. Litterature. Lamp part. Dinner plate. Hammer. Woolen sock. German shovel, and a plastic playing card. I think the playing card is modern. Shroomie. A zink bowl ontop of a pile of barbed wire, which is covering a strong aluminum signal. Next season I will cut through this bundle of wire. Doramad. A wooden bucket. A clamp for line-or antenna rods. Electric meter cover. Producers mark. Bottles. Tent peg. Zunders. Egg parts. Winter is creeping down on us.
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