We currently have a heat wave her in Lapland and today the temperature reached 29,5 degrees.
Last weekend we were out fishing and grilling sausage of cause.
Today I have been working in Killinge, which is a very beautiful area along the Kaitum river.
Where the Salmon are in full migration, jumping up the waterfalls and rapids.
I have now built the stairs up to the second level in the tree house/ playhouse, so we now need to get some furniture to put in there.
Last weekend I went to the cabin
I was concerned that there might be a large amount of snow on the roof and when I arrived, I was that I was right.
After getting a fire going in the stove, I cleared a path to the wood store
and then to the toilet.
I decided to make some lunch before beginning work. I had with me some sausage, bread, butter, whisky, cheese in a tube and a packet of hot chocolate + some chocolate raisins. I also found a tin of frozen Baked Beans in the cabin, so for lunch I had sausage and beans.
After that, It was time to get up on the roof and start removing the snow. Fortunately my father-in-law was nearby and called in to say hello and helped with the snow removal.
It took about three hours to remove the snow
To give you an idea of the snow depth, the next-box in this picture cannot be reached during the summer without a ladder!
After my father-in-law had had a coffee, he headed home. It was starting to get dark, so I kit the oil lamps and started making a leather pouch for my 8×24 Opticron binoculars. My evening meal to accompany me while working, was chocolate raisins and some whisky.
By the end of the evening I was a little drunk, but very pleased with my pouch.
The next morning I made Chaga tea and fried sausage and made sausage sandwiches for breakfast.
After breakfast I made a pouch to hold my First Aid kit.
For the closer on the pouch I made two holes in the lid and two holes in the front of the pouch and then threaded a match through the holes.
After lunch, I headed home again.
Kelly has had a cold for the last week, so we haven’t been able to get out and about.
Our neighbour was blowing away the snow from the track to our house, and as the light looked nice, I thought I would take a couple of pictures.
The temperature has been around -20 for the last week, but yesterday the temperature started to rise, and cause a mist. Dundret; our mountain in Gällivare looked really,
but by the time I had found a good place to park and take some better pictures, the mountain had unfortunately disappeared!
At the end of the week, it will be Jokkmokk’s marknad and I will be there on Thursday, so I will write about that next week.
I did not write anything last week because we had a bad storm for several days and I did not go out.
We did have a nice sunset one evening last week however.
Last Saturday i ran a knife sharpening workshop for two members of staff from Solberget Wilderness Camp.
Today myself and Kelly were out and about, made fire, grilled sausage and made hot chocolate (it was -17 degrees).
And here is a picture of us travelling 4kms to collect our post.
This evening we also had a nice sunset with some fantastic colours, which changed very rapidly.
I begin the year unemployed again, as a new company has taken over Gällivare Tourist Centre.
At home, I began the new year clearing snow from the roofs of our buildings (the snow was 110cms thick).
We have been out walking and the girls have been practising skiing
I have also been teaching the girls to make a quinzee.
The sun is appearing above the horizon and where we live, it has started shining on the tree tops.
Last night there was a clear sky and with an almost full moon, it was very bright outside
And here is a picture of the moon from early this morning to end with.
Every day it snows at the moment and meteorologists have said that we already have as much snow on the ground as we would usually have in February! After it had rained almost every day during the summer, I thought that we would not get so much snow this winter.
The railway tracks in Gällivare, outside the tourist centre where I wok are kept clear using a snow-blowing attachment, mounted on a digger arm. The digger has train wheels on it, so that it can drive along the tracks.
I have a new camera which I am keen to test, but as it is so cloudy and only light for a short time, I’m not able to test it. The camera I have purchased is a Panasonic Lumix FZ1000. The three pictures above are the only ones I have taken with it. I had no tripod and I must say that I am very pleased with the results.
This is as close as we get to seeing the sun at the moment.
The weather has been very strange for the past week, as it has been above freezing and temperatures have even been as high as 9 degrees C, with some rain.
I was working up on the house roof over the weekend, designing and building a platform for the chimney sweeper to be able to inspect the flue we have put up.
I was incredibly lucky because on Monday all the snow came down from the roof and if I had still been working on the roof at the time, I would have gone with it!
The stove installation is now complete and we used the stove for the first time yesterday.
I made cheese and pickle toasties for everyone, in the oven (tonight it will be pizza’s).
I have constructed a wooden box, which I have mounted on to a plastic sled, to use for fetching wood from the shed.
On Tuesday the missing poles for my Thermarest cot finally arrived. I thought I would at least receive an apology for the inconvenience, but the only thing in the packet was the items and a business card.
For the first time, I have tried using a sewing machine to make a leather bag and I was pleased with the end result (hand sewing is much more relaxing though)
Finally, I would just like to wish all my friends and readers….
I haven’t written for a couple of weeks because I have been to visit my mum and dad as my mum is very ill now (it’s not so easy living hear and having no brothers or sisters to help to care of my parents back in England).
The first snow fell here while I was in England (but has since melted), and temperatures are below freezing at night and not much above freezing during the day, so there is now ice on the lakes.
Yesterday I had a lorry load of……..forgotten the English word for it, but it is called filling if I translate from Swedish. It is crushed stone (a by-product from the local gold mine)
which I have to now shovel in to the new outbuilding and once I have compressed it down, it will be like concrete.
There have also been some fantastic displays of northern lights recently. Here are a couple of pictures I took this evening just after it got dark.
Managed to get a weekend at the cabin last weekend. I spent some time fishing but didn’t get a single bite, and I did some work on the boat.
As you can see in this picture, the left side of the boat house has sunk down; probably due to the weight of snow that lays on it during the winter.
Using a bottle jack, I have lifted up the roof now and placed a 4″ x 4″ post under a rafter to support the roof. This is only a short term remedy as I never have to time these days to do a proper repair, but I am confident it will be good enough for another winter.
The leaves on the trees have changed colour and are dropping and the temperature is dropping below freezing at night. Some people have seen some fantastic displays of northern Lights during the last couple of weeks, but unfortunately I have missed them!
Yesterday reindeer were gathered up into a corral to mark the calves.
Each calf has a unique series of cuts made into it’s ears to show who owns the calf
Some of the reindeer are already growing a nice set of horns ready for the breeding season in the autumn.
Some of the reindeer were tame enough to feed.
As usual we made fires and grilled sausage and cooked coffee.
Laplander's Natural Lore Blog 