The weather continues to be just above or below freezing.
Saturday was cloudy and dull but the forecast for Sunday was clear.
Unfortunately there was thick clouds and it was dull, but I went out on a snowmobile tour anyway.
I also completed another neck-knife on Sunday.
I have made two knives already this year, both neck knives. The handles are made of Sallow root bur.
Last weekend I spent some time out tracking.
This is the tracks of an Artic Hare walking
And these are the tracks of a Hare are running.
I also found fox tracks which might explain why the Hare was running!
And there were also tracks from a Stoat.
Here are the tracks of at least three Reindeer
And here a Reindeer has been eating lichens from a tree.
This is one of the Reindeer.
I also found tracks of voles in the forest.
It is nice to see that the sun has now started appearing above the horizon again.
Hope everyone had a good Christmas. As usual father and mother Christmas came to visit us on Christmas day.
We have had some very usual weather over Christmas with few cold days and nights
But many warm ones, with temperatures up to plus 6 degrees. This meant that all the snow has fallen from the roof.
Mother of pearl cloud formations are very unusual, caused by sunlight refracting through ice crystals at high altitude, but during the last two weeks we have seen many.
On new years eve myself and Kelly went out on a evening ski tour
And then we made a fire and grilled hamburgers.
On new years day were out with the snowmobile.
My mother in law surprised us the other day by inviting us to come and eat homemade Reindeer blood dumplings which think are delicious.
I have not been able to source a supplier of good quality down here in Sweden for my hammock pillow.
However I have a down vest that I carry with me and wondered if I could use this in some way.
The vest is the right length and so I tried folding it length ways in three.
And then I tried fitting it into the pillow cover.
It fits perfectly.
And can be rolled up small when not needed.
This is the perfect solution!
I wanted a down filled pillow for my hammock which is not too thick and is long to also give support to the sides of the face, but after extensive searching on the Internet I have not been able to find one available here in Europe.
So I thought I would design and make my own.
I cut a piece of ripstop nylon 75cm x 75cm and melted the edges to prevent them fraying.
I cut the ripstop into three pieces that were each 25cm x 75cm and then cut one piece so that it was 30cm long. I sealed all the cut edges again. In the picture below there is a small pillow that I have previously used.
I then folded in half the piece of ripstop that was 30cm long and placed it between the other two pieces of ripstop, at on end (this would become a pocket for my telephone). To hold all the edges together I used paper glue.
I also placed a loop of webbing in the centre and then sewed together 3 edges. I then turned the pillow inside out. Below you can see the pocket with a telephone inside and the loop enables me to attach the pillow to my Ridgeline via a cord to prevent it falling out of the hammock or moving around too much.
I could not find anywhere to buy loose weight down here in Sweden, so I purchased a down pillow instead which was supposed to have 70 percent down inside.
I was very disappointed however when I cut it open, to find that there was very little down, instead it was filled small feathers
These were like a pin cushion through the ripstop material, so I was forced to empty out the feathures and I will somehow have to source a good quality down.
Last Thursday evening we had a power cut for 8 hours, but it wasn’t a problem for us we had heat from the fire and light from our battery operated lights.
On Saturday I worked on a couple of new knives I am making
And on Sunday I went out for a hike in the forest.
The sun sun was just high enough over the horizon to light up the tree tops.
I was back home just before it got dark.
