Last weekend we were at the cabin for four days.
We spent most of the time fishing
and enjoying the sun
There was also a lot of coffee cooked and sausage grilled over the fire
I also used the Swedish Fire Torch to cook coffee
I caught 8 large Perch
Sebastian and myself also spent time driving snowmobiles with his grandfather and our neighbours
Today myself, Teres and Emma have been to the cabin.
There was a lot of heavy snow on the cabin roof (105cms in depth) which had to be removed!
While we were on the roof clearing snow, Emma was busy making things out of wood
We had a break for lunch and sat outside enjoying the sunshine.
It took us about 4 hours to remove all the snow from the cabin roof. Here’s how it looked when I first arrived…
and here it is after we had finished.
I had planned to take the family ice-fishing today, and because we have had a lot of snow recently I decided to drive the snowmobile to the lake yesterday afternoon to create a path to drive on. Emma wanted to come with me so we headed out at about 3pm.
It was 10kms to the lake and it wasn’t so difficult driving conditions as I had anticipated. When we arrived at the lake, I left Emma at the side of the lake and decided to drive around the lake to press down the snow. As I drove out onto the lake it became obvious that there was quite a bit of water laying between the snow and ice. As I tried to turn the snowmobile around it broke through the ice!!
The skis at the front of the machine were still on snow and ice, but the track that drives the machine was in a half metre of water. I do not have any winter waterproof boots, only insulated leather boots, so when I climbed from the snowmobile into a half metre of water, my feet got very wet.
Fortunately there was double ice on the lake and the snowmobile had only broken through the top layer, but when I tried to drive the machine out, it would no move!
I walked through freezing water and up to where I had left Emma in the forest (it was now starting to get dark). I explained what had happened and was sure she would start to cry (she is 6 years old), but instead she said “Ok, I will dig a hole in the snow and collect wood so we can make fire”. I was so amazed and pleased with her response.
I walked back to the snowmobile and called a friend to ask advice on how to get the machine out. He said that I would need to collect a lot of branches to put under the front of the snowmobile to drive on and then lift the back of the snowmobile up onto the ice (this I could not do). I then called another friend and asked if he could come out and collect Emma because I was worried that she would be scared.
I returned to the forest to collect branches and help Emma make fire. She had dug down into the snow with her hands and prepared the fire sight. It did not take long to get a fire going.
I told Emma that someone was coming to collect her, but she said she was not scared or worried, because she felt safe with me in the forest and was sure I would get the snowmobile out of the lake.
I left Emma to keep the fire going and returned to the lake with the branches. I started the snowmobile and found that I could drive it backwards a little. Then I laid down the branches and standing at the side of the snowmobile I tried to drive it forward. The machine moved about a metre and then stopped because of snow collecting at the front of the machine. I put on my snowshoes and pressed down a path in the snow where I could drive the snowmobile. I removed the snowshoes (by now my feet were freezing cold) reversed the snowmobile again and then drove it forwards. It started to move and the back rose up out of the water and as I walked at the side of the machine it continued to move. Just as my friend arrived I jumped onto the snowmobile and drove it onto the edge of the lake (I was so embarrassed that he had driven so far for nothing!!).
I picked up Emma and we drove home. It was 6pm when we arrived home.
Due to the conditions on the lake, my family did not want to fish today, so I went there with my neighbour again.
We also made fire and cooked reindeer meat and coffee.
I caught one Arctic Char and Folke caught three. We left the snowmobiles at the edge of the lake!!
Yesterday at about 15:00 it started to snow
Emma was pleased and was quickly outside to make her first snowman of the winter
Someone slid off of the road and into the ditch outside our house and I’m sure there were many others who had the same problem.
Fortunately, this morning most of the snow had disappeared but I’m sure it will not be long before more returns!
Two people at Solberget wanted to sleep in a quinzee, so we built one.
We began by clearing snow from an area and then piled snow on to the cleared area.
We made a pile of snow that was two metres high and three metres in diameter. We compressed the snow using skis and snowshoes and then inserted 20cm long sticks over the whole quinzee.
When hollowing out the snow, the sticks are used as a guide to provide a even wall thickness.
I always make a raised sleeping platform so that the cold air sinks below the level where you lay.
Here is the completed quinzee with a reindeer skin door
This morning when I went outside I saw a lot of fresh tracks near the door and on the garden. On close inspection I could see that they were Roe Deer (Capreolus capreolus) tracks.
There were at least two individuals and they had walked all over the garden
They had also dug down in the snow to find food
They had even been to inspect the new garage I have built for my car using three poles and a parachute.
As you can see from the pictures, it has been snowing quite a bit now and the temperature outside as I write this is -20 so I need some protection for my car.
I keep my parachutes wrapped up individually in dry-bags and after randomly selecting a parachute to use, I was pleased to find my Fiskars hatchet (which I thought I had lost) at the bottom of the bag! The last time I had used the parachute was when teaching a group of children firelighting skills here in Nattavaara and some of the children had helped me pack my kit away. At some point one of the children must have put my hatchet in the bag before the parachute was put in.
As the weather continues to be above freezing during the day (but still -30 at night) there is an increasing chance of an avalanche of snow descending from a roof if a door is closed to hard or from movement inside the house.
So now is the time to remove the thick layer of snow (up to 1 metre thick) from the roofs. A friend showed me a very useful tool he had made for this purpose and which can be used from the ground instead of having to climb onto the roof. His was very professional looking but due to lack of funds, I needed to make mine from whatever I could find laying around.
I decided to use an old scraper used for cleaning windows and floors. It consists of a metal from with two rubber blades. The first thing I did was to remove the blade section and turn around so that the rubber blades were facing back
Between the blades I inserted a long piece of plastic, held in place by four screws through the rubber blades
I secured a long piece of Pine as a handle
and it was ready to use.
The metal head is pushed up under the snow and as the snow releases, it slides down the roof on the length of plastic
Here is a picture of some of the snow cleared from the roof
A set of drain rods would be ideal as a handle as you could extend or shorten to suit your needs but unfortunately they do not use drain rods here and so it is impossible to buy them.
The Siberian Nutcracker (Nucifraga caryocatactes ssp macrorhynchos) is still alive and visiting our bird table most days
I have seen it eating Sun Flower seeds, fat and bread.
I decided to add a bedroom to the snow shelter I built with Emma. Firstly I removed all the fresh snow from the back of the shelter and then piled new snow on the back and allowed it to freeze. Once frozen, I cut a hole in the back of the shelter from the inside
And hollowed out the new snow to make a second room large enough to sleep in.
The bed is raised so that cold air sinks below the level of the bed and the small distance between the bed and shelter roof help to trap warm air.
I have been teaching Emma how to make a snow shelter
I am not going to write about how to build one here because I have done it before here.
Here is Emma in the completed shelter or igloo as she calls it
I added a window by putting 4 cms of water in a bucket and leaving it to freeze overnight
I cut a hole at the top of the shelter with my knife and put the window over the hole
Here are Teres and Emma in the shelter at night
Here is the window by candle-light
and here is the shelter by candle-light
On Thursday morning it was snowing very heavily and had been snowing most of the night.
15cms of snow fell before the snow finally stopped. Not sure what this is called in English but it’s what I and many people here use to clear the snow
Emma was also helping me, using a shovel
We push the snow up around the house to help insulate it.
With so much snow, I have had to remove the summer wheels on the cars and replace them with winter wheels.
They are forecasting at least another 20cms of snow tonight.
While I was in England I was interviewed by a local newspaper and you can read the article here.
