Sea fishing in Norway

Last Friday I boarded a coach at 7am headed for Grovfjord in Norway to spend a long weekend sea fishing with colleagues from work.

We arrived just after midday at a wet and windy Grovfjord. We were shown how to use the boats we had hired and then the cabins we would stay in.

We went out fishing for a couple of ours but the weather was so bad that I couldn’t take any pictures. We did not catch any fish either, but back at the cabin we made a hot meal and the beer and whisky started to flow.

We awoke to a warm and sunny morning on Saturday.

And we were out fishing early.

The fishing was incredibly poor and most people caught no fish all, but I caught 11 smallish Haddock

And a 3.5kg Cod.

After another evening of beer and whisky we headed back to Sweden on Sunday morning.

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A quiet week.

I do not have a lot to write about this week I’m afraid.

I built a work bench for Kelly which has wheels under the front legs so that it can be easily moved around. She used when painting her nest boxes.

On Saturday night I slept out in the forest in my Easy Hammock and had a Reindeer skin between the two layers as insulation.

It could be my last night sleeping in this hammock as I am waiting for a Warbonnet elderado hammock with underquilt and winter top cover to arrive.

Dundret and Muddus.

Last Thursday I was on Dundret, the mountain just outside Gällivare.

There is some beautiful scenery up there

And I saw Golden Plovers, Lapland Bunting and Rough-legged Buzzards.

On Saturday I was part of a group that visited Muddus National Park for guided tour.

I have actually worked as a guide in Muddus previously but it was nice to be guided on this occasion.

We visited the site of a stone age grave and saw the remains of a series of pits excuvated around the same time to catch animals.

We even took a sample of a trre trunk to find out how old many of the trees are and in this particular area they were about 150 years old.

We even found signs of where Sami people had removed bark from Pine trees.

This process could only be done around mid Summer as it is only at this time that the bark is good to eat.

We have a lot of Devil’s Butter fungus in our garden at the moment.

It is over 25 years since I last saw this fungus.

Homemade alcohol stove

Here is how I made the latest version of my alcohol stove, which boils water very quickly, uses very little alcohol and the flame can be snuffed out.

These are the two cat food tins that I used.

The tin on the left sits inside the tin on the right.

I drilled two holes around the top of the inside tin to prevent pressure build up and two around the bottom edge to allow the alcohol to flow through.

Then I put a lamp wick around the inner tin (the lamp wick being 1cm wider than the tin and 1cm will fold under the inner tin).

With the lamp wick on the two tins fit tightly together and the inner tin sitting on the wick gives the right spacing between the height of the two tins.

Use a small screwdriver to push the wick down if necessary.

Now it is completed.

Here are a couple of photos of it in action.

A weekend in the mountains

Last Friday I finished work early and drove 2 hours to the mountains for a weekend alone.

I put up my lavuu and put my Outbacker woodburning stove inside.

It was a lovely, warm evening on Friday

but there were a lot of biting insects so I put my bed inside my hammock.

On Saturday morning I tested another design of alcohol stove that I have made, to make coffee. I was really impressed with it.

Later I made fire in the wood burner and fried sausages for my breakfast.

Later I went for a long walk

And then made a fire to cook my lunch

The scenery was just stunning

When I got back to camp, the wind was blowing strongly and it started to rain. I made a fire in the stove and laid in my bed and relaxed.

After the storm passed I spent the evening fishing but caught nothing.

I went for a walk on Sunday morning, but them heavy rain set in so after lunch I headed home.

Alcohol stove

I continued working on the cabin last weekend

and completed another wall.

Kelly helped me by painting some of the boards.

I probably will not get anymore done this year as the night time temperature is now dropping below freezing and it is therefore too cold to paint.

Today at work I have designed and built a rustic bench, together with the teenagers I have working with me.

At home I have been experimenting with making a ‘fancy feast’ type alcohol stove.

I bought a tin of mushroom paste, an aluminium water bottle and the fibreglass material from a fire blanket to use as a wick

I had seen the fire blanket used by someone in a YouTube video but I was disappointed with it as its wicking properties were very poor, so instead I have used lamp wick.

The aluminium flask was too big so I used a sweet corn tin instead.

I am pleased with the end result, but the burner is a little too large so I will try to make a smaller version.

Helping my father-in-law

The temperature last week was around 30 degrees and I spent several nights sleeping in my hammock. On Saturday it reached 34 degrees and was still 23 degrees. When I got in my hammock to go to bed. However, by 2am the temperature had dropped to only 12 and by 6am it was only 8.

Since then nighttime temperature have been just above freezing and during the day it is about 17 degrees.

I spent last weekend helping my father-in-law to put new boards on the outside of his house.

And this week I have been working with more teenagers repairing and renovating a children’s play area.