Another i-am-alive post.

This just one of the meaningless posts ive been making for who knows how long.

Ive been doing nothing that i could link to any idea of this blog o´mine,  and if ive been out, ive been only pickin up mushrooms and berries. Mostly ive been spending my time handling chainsaw and brush cutter just about every day.

During next weekend however i am heading for overnighter in the woods. One night in the forest, one in the cabin, while hunting grouse´s.

Maybe then i come up with something worth something.

But, heres some shots taken after last post.

Kånken has proven to be nice minimalistic daypack without any nonsense funtions. Yet it has space for :

-knife, on the side "pocket"
-small hatchet ( A.S.W) on the other
-US army poncho blanket
-Savotta space blanket
-ViHe rain poncho
-Small first aid kit
-MSR 0.85 titanium kettle
-Wild stoves MK II woodgas stove
-2 army dehudrated meals
-0.7 liter canteen and its aluminium cup
-Petzl E-Lite headlamp
-Compass, a real one instead of button type
-Telescopic fishing pole+line,spares, fake bait etc
-tent pegs, a few, msr
-10 meters of paracord
-Spoon & Fork combo thingy, Guyot Designs.
-Firesteel
-some sugar/tea/instant coffee satchels
-whistle
-spare socks, mittens and a Buff scarf.
-And on the handles, theres a bit over meter long, 7mm thick cheap mattress piece, just enough from head to hip bones.

I think ill switch the stuff, for hunting purposes for the next weekend though,but really, Kånken has capability for more than adequate overnighter in the bush.I did one kota-nighter with the stuff mentioned up above but i havent done the required overnighter yet, but thats what i am doing in a week.

At one day, while i was clearing the overgrowth of willows surrounding an abandoned old farm, i was eating a sandwhich , sitting next to the quite big log-made barn. The wind brought scent of old tar and smoke to my nostrils and i had to yank the old door open. I was looking inside an old sauna, an smoke house of the old type, with out any chimney. They used to smoke seeds and meat here as well as bathe. The roof has mostly collapsed so i could not get any better angle to take a snapshot as the roof  might collapse all the way down. You dont see these anymore so much even here on the countryside. All those pitch black log walls could tell a story or a few if they could speak or if we knew how to listen em...

 Ive been hauling fatwood, quite lot of it to home...maybe 100 liters or so.

 A day at the work. One of my offices.

 Found an old scale.

 ..and aquired some birch burls for making stuff out of it, i hope ill get a decent for making a Kuksa.

 One of my buddies made a familiar looking knife :)

You can get a free firewood easily often, if you fell snow damaged trees and take care of its "disposal".

In this piee of occasional sad traditon of forest dumpster, youll also notice an old "kiuas". The wood heated stove used to warm the bathing place we call sauna, you might call it a sweat lodge or something. This is the type youll mostlikely warm up once instead of adding wood while bathing. Theres a lid that you open when you the sauna is in proper temp and you throw water through the opening, so the heated rocks in it, cast the hot misty air inside the sweat lodge. Nowadays usually youll find "kiuas" that does Not have this closed structure surrounding the rocks, instead, the rocks are visible. The old ones with closed system and that "door" are good as they usually didnt need wood to be thrown in the furnace, and usually the heat, after days bathing, remained behind closed door of , in the rocks and you could bathe also at morning, as well as they usually saved wood, and allowed longer time of bathing that was often needed as there was bigger  families in the houses back then.

Typical, old log based sauna. These stood along the fields everywhere back in the days.

 Bagfull of fresh mushrooms...

 Butter and deer meat....

 Slices of bacon...

 Some cream...let it fry,stir it and wait.

 Thats how you make dogfood.

 This, we call "kinnerpuu"....you use it by hanging the game animal, from its back legs muscle joints, through the spikes of this raw wooden tool, while you skin and gut the game.

Found and old knife, made in WW2, forged from bayonet and the handle is made from crashed airplane aluminium and some fiber pieces. Who knows how many ruskies met this long shank.

Checking the sights for upcomimg bird hunts.

Using nets and canoe, is worth the time it takes. Fresh fish, every day if i want.

Another place of work. I would not change my job, for deskjob for any price. Yep, my wage is poor as i am, but id rather work outside, every day, possibly in different place, than grow spiderweb behind a screen with huge income. No stress, no tension, just as i prefer it to be.

I could show you chainsaw and 4x4 pics too but i think you arent interested in em. Ive been fixing one old  4x4 car, lifting it a few inches, adding a winch etc, and fixing chainsaws, but thats not worth writing.