10 days at the cabin

I recently spent 10 days at the cabin, and I am in fact back at the cabin now as I write this.

The first part of my journey was with the car, pulling the tailer with the atv on it. The road to the cabin was still to wet to drive with the car so I drove the atv with the trailer behind.

The the last part of the journey, I left the atv and used my pulk sled.

Fortunately it was still cold enough that I could walk on the snow to the cabin.

I wanted to get the toilet moved, ready for building the new outbuilding. I started by building a frame using timber from the wood store I had demolished.

As you can see in the above picture, the toilet was too close to a tree to be able to move it sideways, so I had to first move the toilet backwards. To do the I used a winch.

Here is the toilet before it was moved

And here it is after.

My first evening meal was sausage with roasted vegetables and potatoes.

Next morning I lifted up the toilet with a bottle jack, placed the wooden frame underneath and let the toilet down on the frame.

Then using two leavers, I gradually moved the toilet a centimetre at a time.

Until I had sufficient space between the toilet and outbuilding foundation to be able to work.

I have left the toilet on the frame so that it can be moved again if needed.

While I was at the cabin, I had the daily tasks of cooking

washing clothes.

And melting snow and filtering the water.

I spent time practicing fire making with the bowdrill.

I made a small leather pouch and a new spatula.

Kelly joined me for the last three days.

We baked some chocolate hobnobs which turned out very well.

Many migratory birds started arriving back, including the pair of Whooper swans.

Unfortunately there is still too much snow to be able to building materials to the cabin and begin construction of the outbuilding.

A pleasant weekend at the cabin.

The track to the cabin has been ploughed recently, hasn’t yet dried up so that I can drive my car on it. So I left my car and walked the 4 kilometres to the cabin.

The walk took about 1 hour.

There is still a lot of snow at the cabin.

Too much snow to be able to do any building work. So instead I decided to demolish the wood store.

This took only a couple of hours to do.

I took with me sausages, bacon, eggs, butter and bread to eat.

On Saturday morning I had a fried breakfast. The baked beans were already in the cabin.

On Sunday I had potatoes, sausage and beans.

I also made bannock and grilled over an open fire Saturday afternoon.

I’m hoping I will be back at the cabin next weekend.

It’s been a while

Hadn’t realised it was so long ago that I wrote my last post.

We had a period of heavy snow and strong winds after I wrote last time.

Easter was warm and we were out ice fishing

And skiing

Kelly had here first night out sleeping in a hammock, which went very well.

My beloved Dutch oven which I took with me here when I moved from the UK, had become rusty, so have cleaned it and treated with oil and started using it again.

Last weekend I was away on an ice fishing weekend with a couple of friends. We were trying to catch Zander, but only caught, pike and perch.

Hopefully it will not be as long before I write again.

Hard packet snow

Last Friday I drove to my cabin with my snowmobile.

After a long period of unreasonably warm weather (it is now minus degrees during both the day and night again), I was sure that all the snow would have fallen from the roof.

What a disappointment when I got there

And saw one and half metres of snow sitting on the roof!

The first job as always was to get a fire going in the cabin and then clear a runway to the toilet

Once I had a good fire going in the stove I started gathering snow and melting so that I had water.

I decided to leave the clearing of the roof until the following morning, but cleared around fire place so that I could sit out and enjoy the evening.

I also baked some oat biscuits.

It gets dark at about 9pm, but I had taken my Luci lights with to provide light in the cabin.

I kept the fire in the cabin going all night to hold some heat in there (it was minus 19 outside.).

After a breakfast of a bacon sandwich and fried sausages

I started clearing the roof of snow.

There was a lot of ice and the snow was very compact. I had to use a steel spade to break it up.

Usually it takes about one and a half hours to clear the roof, but this time it took over four hours.

I stayed at the cabin on Saturday night and after a bacon sandwich for breakfast on Sunday morning, I headed home.

Ice fishing but no fish

We had another fantastic display of Northern lights recently.

I made a fire place in the snow where we could sit out around a fire. This was an ideal chance to test my new Luci lights. These are charged with two inbuilt solar panels.

Last weekend we were ice fishing. The weather is unusually warm at the moment and it was nice to sit on the ice with +9 degrees. Unfortunately we didn’t catch any fish.

The alcohol stove that I made a while back

https://naturallore.wordpress.com/2019/08/21/homemade-alcohol-stove/

Works incredibly well for boiling water when ice fishing. .

Pulk sled

I bought a plastic pulk sled which I have made some alterations to so that I can use when out skiing.

I started by drilling holes all the way around the top and threading parachute cord through as tie off points for securing loads.

I made a frame out of pocket pipe to fit on the underside of the top lip. I used garden hose which I heated with boiling water and pushed over the pvc pipe to join the pieces together.

I then drilled and bolted the pvc pipe in place.

I pulled a starter cord rope through the pipe and attached metal eyelets at each end.

I used two more lengths of pvc pipe with rope threaded through to attach between the pulk and my harness.

Yesterday I went out on a ski tour to test my pulk.

I stopped for lunch and made paste in tomato sauce on my G2 firebox stove.

Today it is plus 5 degrees and allthe snow has fallen from the roof.

So we have had to spend the day cleaning snow.

Covid 19

I have recently had covid 19. As have the rest of my family. Even having had all three vaccinations, I was still very ill for 10 days. This has meant that I have not been out and about.

Yesterday evening however, we did get a nice display of Northern lights over our house.

Ice fishing

Last Sunday I spent a few hours ice fishing but didn’t get a single bite. It was nice to be out though with a temperature of +2 degrees.

I love my Original G2 Firebox stove which allows me to boil water for coffee and cook food while on the ice.

Full moon

On Sunday afternoon I went out on a ski tour. It was windy, but the temperature was just a couple of degrees below freezing.

On Monday night it was a full moon, so myself and Kelly took walk so that I could take some pictures.

The temperatures for the next 10 days are supposed to be at or above freezing, so I am hoping to do some ice-fishing this weekend.

A new year

I had one weekend semester last week and had planned to go ice fishing with Kelly, but unfortunately temperatures have been below -30 and it is not so pleasant fishing when it is so cold.

At least the sun has started appearing above the horizon again.

I had an interesting snow formation on my window. Can you see a dog or fox laying on the snow?

Typically now I have returned to work, the temperature has risen to above freezing.

The day after Christmas I was up on the roof clearing snow. This is the least amount of snow I can remember having on the roof at this time of year.