VE-Day & New Season

The shovel has been in the ground and rust has been dug up, so it is safe to say that winter is over and spring is here. Winter was kinda mild this time and we didn`t get much snow either. Every time it looked like conditions were good for skiing, rain came and destroyed the fun. Instead the snowshoes saw some use up and down the forested hillside. It was a good winter for the Northern Lights though, so we had some spectacular nights with the Green Dancer.

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Research has been done and a couple of new sites will be visited, and trips to some Atlantikwall fortifications is being planned. Hopefully we`ll be stopping by some museums as well this season.

But yes, it is early May and the shovel has tasted sand already. Nine days earlier than last year. On 8th May, the 80 year celebration for the VE-Day both me and the GirlfriendWife had the day off work, and the weather was perfect so we decided to make a trip to the woods to see if the ground had thawed.

It was patches of snow here and there, some places quite deep, but in more open sites where the sun could get a good grip it was green and summery and the forest floor almost felt warm to the touch. Before turing on the detector I was putting on gloves, and once more I had managed to bring two Left hand gloves..The beeps from the detector was a very welcome sound, and only a few steps into the old gebirgsjäger camp I drove the shovel into the ground and was nearly overwhelmed by the lovely smell of fresh soil.

Two centimeter below the surface the shovel hit a horseshoe. It was made for the Wehrmacht and had ice cleat bolts screwed on. Traditionally finding a horseshoe means luck, so maybe this is the summer I`ll find the gold train hidden away in one of the sidevalleys..

The next signal for sure gave me hopes of treasure. A strong aluminum signal. Circa ten centimeter of the top soil was frozen, but the rest was soft and good to dig. I dug ca 40-50 cm down without meeting ice, and on the first dig last year one couldn`t dig deeper than ten cm before it was like hitting concrete.

I found the first piece of metal here ca five cm down, and it was the basket from a ski pole. For half an hour I dug up these aluminum circles, and the iron spikes from the poles as well. In the end I had parts for six pairs of ski poles.

Before we ended the search a bit later, with lunch in a sunny hillside, I dug up some more horseshoes and hooks and clasps from a harness, food tins and a possible luggage tag. It needs to be cleaned up properly before any letters can be visible.

Possibly a luggage tag.

Since it was 8th May we decided to drive a little farther and stop by one of the memorials over Soviet POWs who lost their lives in camps in the area.

This year it was a celebration with dark clouds looming, as we once again see a european war splitting friends, families and communities and bringing destruction, suffering and hate. Truly sad.