A Long Winter is Over

17th May was the last snowfall ( so far) this year and Spring is finally embracing the north with her warm presence. In the middle of April we had a week or two with +16 degree Celsius and what looked like a total collapse of the winter. I was so sure the digging season was just around the corner, until that one morning where the zero degrees and heavy snowing hit us hard. Still optimistic I thought it would pass after a day or two, but it kept going for a couple of weeks. It was like a nightmare.

Dont get me wrong, I like winter. I had lots of fun this season with skiing, trekking with snowshoes and Northern Lights gazing together with the Girlfriend. But May had come and it is not a month regulated for games and fun in the snow.

Still, here we are. Most of the snow is gone and spring is happening. Monday the 16th May was the first day I went out to the forest to check the conditions. There was a little frost left in the top soil, and most places it was frozen hard like concrete deeper than 15 cm.

I spent the week checking out a few places that has come up during research, to check them out if there could have been any wartime activity there, so I got a lot of walking done. Like a soft start to let the old knees know that they are in for another season in forests, marshes and mountains, and to re-familiarize myself with the detector after these months not using it.

Already on these few days out with the detector I have filled a box with relics. Mostly M24 stick grenade parts. The metal fittings from the stick, and the porcelain balls for the ignitor pull cord. I wonder where they threw all the heads. Digging the M24 dumpsite I also found some 2 cm Flak casings and a couple of Anz. 29 zunders.

Searching my way through some kilometers of forest I didn`t have a signal from the detector for ages, and when it finally picked up on something it was usually an old casing from a hunter, or the red plastic nato practise casings. One signal surprised me. A very good signal quite deep into the forest. No signs of human activity around, I dig it up and it is an old sewing machine. Too heavy to lug it out of the woods though so I left it there to amuse other forest roamers that might pass it.

I found two small sections of the forest that held some german metals. It was traces of a couple of barracks and some ditches even. And a good amount of signals. Most of them still under the frost and in water filled pits though, so I will visit there again later in june or july sometime. A few of the items I pulled out from the ground was vehicle parts, so interesting things can lay around there. Here I met a reindeer and a squirrel. I got very close to the squirrel but he made some light sabre like noises and ran off to the top of the tree and was gone.

Yesterday the Girlfriend joined me and after some strolling we found a patch of forest with some dumping pits. Of course most still under the ice , but it is something to look forward to. On this trip we saw six moose. Awesome animals.

Which brings us till today and our little expedition to our favorite forest with some really nice nature and a large german camp. Less than 100 meter from the car I found a small dumping pit with a few coins, gaming bits, signal flares, some K98 ammo, food tins and toothpaste tubes. Other than that my only good find between a bunch of food tins and scrap metal was a Finnish coin and a uniform button.

It is really nice to have the season started and I hope to spend as much time as possible searching, making expeditions to interesting places and museums with the Girlfriend and digging with friends, and sharing a bit of this with you guys.

​Enjoy the rest of spring and I ll be making a new trip report soon :)

Tea in winter sun with an amazing view.

We had some spectacular Northern Lights this winter.

First winter in some 20 years I had skis on my feet. Great fun.

Getting the backpack together for the season. I pensioned my old one and got a new one from the Norwegian company Milrab. It seems to be of a pretty decent quality and is spacious and practical.

Anz 29 ignitor.

Sprengkapsels. We discarded these on deep waters.

2cm casing.

M24 parts.

Still not found a complete wooden stick here, but Im sure there must be a few waiting to be found.

Pressed fiber ammo container overtaken by moss and lichen.

Sewing machine deep in the forest. One of my more surprising finds.

Vehicle part.

Vehicle (?) part.

Cant wait till this has dried up. Some very interesting and strong signals.

Mess kit. Engraved "E.W"

Mr.Squirrel.

A moose dropped it.

Blinder for Einheitslanterne.

From Nato trainings.

For a while I thought this massive chunck of metal was a grenade, but seems it was just a super heavy "fence-pole- hammer-into-the-grounder" or what ever it is called.

Gas mask tool.

Some scrap.

K98 ammo.

Tent pegs.

Shovelling.

The carrot is a time saver when it comes to pin pointing smaller items.

Finnish.