Leather shoes

Last night we had a light fall of snow, although more snow is not forecast for the next few days, temperatures will remain below freezing.

I have not been doing so much this week, but Teres has made Kelly a nice pair of reindeer leather shoes.

She cut out several shapes from the leather, including two reindeer

and sewed the parts together

to form some really comfortable shoes for Kelly

My mum passed away last weekend  and so I will shortly be heading off to England for a couple of weeks, and will be unlikely to be posting here for a while.

Preparing for winter

Over the past few weeks both at home at at work in Solberget Vildmarksbyn, I have been preparing wood for the winter.

Birch that is already cut and split

must be taken under cover and stacked both for ease of storage and to help it dry.

Of course at Solberget the reindeer are always close by to see that the job is done properly.

Leather crafts in Solberget

Last week I worked in Solberget, helping to teach 35 guests how to make a variety of items from reindeer leather.

The guests were family groups of varying ages and all made some really nice items, from bracelets to coffee bags.

Reindeer calf marking

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.

Jokkmokks Marknad 2015

Last week was Jokkmokks annual winter market.

The market was smaller this year the traditional craft stools continue to dwindle in number as the number of stools selling sweets incearses.

I spent some time out on a frozen lake watching the reindeer racing.

During one of the races, the reindeer ran into the perimeier fence and then took the fence with it around the whole course

It did not take long to repair the fence, so that races could continue.

Made a couple of things

Starting to feel better now and so I have made some items.

A Birch bark container, an new armband for me and a taditional reindeer leather salt pouch.

A reindeer stuck in a tree!!

A German woman telephoned me today from Wildnisdorf Solberget. She could not speak Swedish and her English was not so good, but I understood her to say “there has been an accident and a reindeer is stuck in a tree!”

She was living there alone so I agreed to come straight away and help her. These pictures show what I found when I got there.

The reindeer had been laying there all night.

With help from a local reindeer herder, we felled one of the birches and then lifted the reindeer up and released its leg. Once it had got the feeling back in its leg, we were pleased to see that it started to walk around and soon after started feeding.

A working weekend

Had to work over the weekend so there was no visit to the cabin.

I did manage to get some time on Saturday and Sunday to do a bit of fishing

Apart from Perch I did not catch anything.  It’s now over three weeks since I last caught a trout and I do not understand why.  I caught many last year at this time but I am using the same equipment and baits but they are not biting.  I am beginning to wonder if someone has used a fishing net in the lake to remove the fish?

Many birds have fledged their young now and have left the area, so it is very quiet in the forest.  At the lake where I fish a pair of Wryneck (a member of the woodpecker family)

http://woodpeckersoftheworld.blogspot.se/2010/10/genus-jynx.html

have bred in a nest box.  The books show that they do not occur this far north.

We also have a pair of Honey Buzzards in Nattavaara, but I have not located the nest site.

We have a friendly Reindeer around also.

Reindeer horn ice fishing rod

This will be my last post for a week or so as I am heading off to England for a few days (weather in England permitting).

I had the idea to make an ice fishing rod out of Reindeer horn, and after searching through my pile of horn, I found the ideal piece.  Having cut off the two ends of the horn, this is what I was left with

After a couple of hours work, this is how it looks now

I have started doing some basic engraving on the handle

I will be testing it when I return from England!

Renskiljning in Nattavaara today

About 10kms outside Nattavaara today we had  the annual Renskiljning.

The Reindeer are herded into a handling facility and each Sami family removes their own animals from the herd to feed and care for during the winter.

Here are a few pictures from today;

renskiljning nattavaara