A relaxing weekend at the cabin

I have started working full-time now and am finding it much easier to get around and do things.  At the moment I am building a new website for Nattavaara Hembygdsförening and this have given me ideas for a new look to this site, which I will be developing.

Last weekend we were at our cabin.  Teres’ cousin and here family were staying in a camper-van there also.  Friday was my first day free of medication for three months and so I enjoyed a couple of beers.

During the night and early morning I heard strange noises in the chimney.  I thought at first it was a mouse, but then realised it was a bird flapping on the chimney damper.  I made a net to catch the bird with out of a net curtain and then opened the damper and two House Martins (Delichon urbicum) dropped out and flew around.

I caught them both and released them to join a large number of House Martin’s flying around over the cabin.

On Saturday evening myself and Teres drove to a large stream to do some fishing.  Even with mosquito repellent, the mosquitoes were horrendous!  It is the worst year for mosquitoes here for several years  and after only a few minutes, the effect of the repellent stops working and clouds of them descend upon you.

We fished at various locations along the stream for a couple of hours.  I caught a Pike and Teres caught a Grayling.  The Grayling we took back to the cabin, where I made an improvised smoker, with Juniper added for flavour

I made a fire inside the stove I made last year and placed the tin onto the stove.

We will be back to the cabin next weekend.

A brief visit to my cabin

Last year I failed to reach my cabin during the winter because the snow was so deep and powdery, but this year I had no problem……..because my friend Erik (who has a cabin near to mine) was there to plough the track to our cabins with his Swedish Military Valp.  He has built an hydraulic plough attachment that fits on the front and is very effective at clearing the snow.

Vodpod videos no longer available.

Erik ploughed to about 1km from our cabins and Erik’s family and I drove behind the plough

The final kilometre was not ploughed (making it impossible for others to drive there), we all climbed into the valp and drove through the snow to the cabins

There was 80cms of snow on the roof

and it was dark by the time I had finished removing snow.  I was working following morning so unfortunately could not stay at the cabin.