We have had quite a long spell of warm weather with temperatures above freezing during the day but unfortunately it is always windy and it doesn’t mater from which direction the wind blows, it is always cold!
Snow Buntings arrived in our garden on 29th March.
We have spent a lot of time ice fishing
But we haven’t caught any more fish.
Lsat weekend we made some traditional flat bread which we usually carry with us when we are out and about.
We have been making some sausages using minced Moose meat mixed with minced pork.
I also added salt herbs and spices for flavouring.
The intestines I used for the sausage skins came from Reindeer.
Some of the sausages we fry fresh and eat
Some sausages were made…
To smoke
And then hang up to dry.
Last weekend I took Kelly ice fishing. There were 12 people fishing on the lake, but she was the only one who caught a fish. A 1kg Arctic Char.
I have recently purchased a Luxe Hexpeak 2p trekking pole tent.
The company are German, but also have an outlet in the USA where you can order this tent with a stove jack fitted.
As you can see in the photo above, you use a trekking or ski pole as the centre pole in the tent.
The tent weighs 867 grams
I have also purchased a titanium folding stove made by Thous winds which weighs 1600 grams.
This includes the 2,3 metre flue.
The stove folds flat and the flue can be rolled small and everything fits into a laptop bag.
The stove uses surprisingly little wood and although the outside temperature was – 6 it was +23 in the tent.
The temperature today has been above freezing so I was out ice fishing.
There was water under the snow so I couldn’t set up the tent and when I drilled my first hole, a bolt broke and the lower part of my ice drill came off and dissappeared to the bottom of the lake.
I had lunch on the ice
And caught one Arctic Char.
Last Friday afternoon I finished work early and drove 5kms from my cabin and then traveld there on skis.
The last half a kilometre was the worst because the skis sank a half metre in the snow.
There was more snow on the cabin roof than I had anticipated.
My first job was to make a fire and then I cleared a path to the toilet.
All the food in the cabin was frozen
So I had to steam a tin of soup to melt a little to be able to get it out of the can and then cooked it with some dumblings I made.
There was a clear sky and full moon so I cleared part of the roof on Friday evening.
On Saturday morning I made fried oat cakes for breakfast.
Then I started clearing snow from the cabin roof which was 220cms deep.
When I had finally removed all the snow, it started snowing again!
Saturdays evening meal was re-hydrated potato hash browns with fried dried sausage.
I left on Sunday morning with the satisfaction of knowing the job was done.
Guess what I had to when I got home…
The temperature had risen to 6 degrees and the snow was melting.
The majority of my time at the moment is spent clearing snow.
The trampoline frame in our garden has just about disappeared so we have the same amount of snow now as last year.
It is forecast that the temperature will rise to above freezing later this week and the sun will be shining so I will be out and about!
The sun is getting higher in the sky now and the temperatures have been rising up to – 4 degrees.
I have been out with my snowmobile on a couple of tours.
My Firebox Stove is proving invaluable as I do not need to dig down to ground level in the snow to make fire, instead I can place the Firebox on pieces of wood on the snow.
Last Saturday I helped my neighbour gather in his Reindeer
And catch and mark them. Some were sent off for slaughter.
Those of you familiar with Zebra Billy cans will know that they come supplied with plastic clips to hold lid in place. The problem is that the first time you use the can over an open fire, the clips melt.
I have seen on the Internet that people make their own metal clips from wire but I found a much simpler method using bulldog clips.
As you can see in the picture above, the first step is to remover the black metal part of the clip.
There are already two holes in each side of the handle of the Billy can where you can insert the clips.
With the lid placed on the can, mark the point where you need to bend the clip and then remove it and place it in a vice to bend it. Once bent, replace the clips back in the can.
When you pull up the handle, it pushes in the clips and locks them in place and the lid is held tightly.
It is -34c as I write this and the temperature will continue to drop during the night.
Last weekend it snowed. On Saturday I went out on a ski tour, which would have previously been in the forest but unfortunately the forest has been clear felled.
I found a fallen tree to make lunch on.
I removed snow from the trunk and placed on it my Bushbox with a Trangia burner and made some soup.
I saw very little sign of wildlife; Hare tracks and a male Grey-head Woodpecker.
Today is the first day for over two months that we have seen blue sky. We can’t quite see the sun above the horizon yet.
Over the Christmas period it has snowed every day and I have had a lot of work to clear the snow away.
We have now completed alterations to one of our bedrooms and are very pleased with the end result.
During the spring I made some Greenland wax and I have been using it now to waterproof my cotton clothing.
The wax has to be heated so that it melts into the cotton.
I have a spoon and a spatula that I carry in my food kit and I have also been thinking about making a tong, but I saw a YouTube video where a guy used a titanium spoon and fork in a special adapter to make a tong so I thought I would try to make something similar.
I found a small piece of spring steel and purchased some heat shrink tube.
I drilled a recess in the handles of the spatula and spoon so that the sink tube would shrink in to them to help hold them in place.
I put the spring steel in the shrink tube and them inserted the spoon and spatula into to ends of the shrink tube and heated it.
And then the tong was completed. I can remove the spatula and spoon and insert them when I need the tong.
Generally the temperatures are still only just a few degrees below freezing. We have more snow now but nothing like the amount we would usually have. The trampoline frame you can see in the picture below is usually half or even completely submerged by now.
I hope that 20021 will be a much better year for everyone than 2020 has been!
