November

It was already the beginning of November. It was unusual warm for the time o the year. The first day of my return we worked in the gardens to turn the soil with the hoe. It was so warm that I had to take off my sweater.

The next day we went to check a moose skin that were laying in the river. The Belgian girl wanted to scrape it and the weather was perfect for that. The skin had been in the river for two weeks but unfortunately it was not enough. I had never had a skin in the river for more than two weeks but I had also not had a skin in the river this late in the season. Since the water was cold it probably needed to be there for another week.

The unusual warm day was over, the cold return but still not so much snow. We did the last logs of the chicken house and put on the roof. Now it was almost finished, only the window and door was missing but that was for later. It is also good for the logs to dry a bit before doing more.

My plan was to build a sauna next year and I wanted to use big spruces on the farm that were too close to meadows and fields. Some of the spruces were very big over 40 cm in diameter. The spruces had also been growing fast that decrease the quality but I did not know what else to do with them. We started to take down the trees and debark them it was a time consuming work. I guessed I would need around 20 trees for the sauna and was not sure we would have time to do that this month.

A week had passed and we checked the moose skin again now it was ready since I could easily remove the hair with my hand. I left the Belgian girl at the hide tanning area to scrape the skin and returned to the farm. It should take about a day to scrape the skin. In the end of the day she had not returned and it started to get dark, it had also started to snow. I returned to the hide tanning area to help her get back since it was 3 km out in the forest. She was not there, I started to shout her name and searching for her. I did not find her so I decided to return to the farm to see if she where there. It was dark when I returned to the farm and she where not there. I told the Woman from Swabia and the two of us prepared to go back and search for her together, but then a car arrived and one neighbor brought the Belgian girl. She had walked in wrong direction but luckily found a road that lead back to the neighbors house. She was a bit chocked but happy to be back, she had prepared her self mentally for a night in the forest.

More snow fell and this time it would probably not melt away. Before that I had found quite many mushrooms called herald of the winter (Hygrophorus hypothejus). That mushroom is usually found very late in the season after the first night frost. We made tasty omelets from that mushroom.

We continued with the trees and every night we had aching arms from the work. We also brought up grass bumps from the wet meadows with a sledge. We crushed the grass bumps and used them in the outhouse.

We tried some ice fishing but got nothing, it was to early. In January I was going to try again.

We cleared the area around an old house foundation from small birches and goat willows. Someday I wanted to build a guest house there.

Some of the spruces I wanted to take down were not in such a condition that they could be used for building, but they were big and shading the meadows so I took them down either way and chopped them up into firewood.

It was now the beginning of December and I had to return to the south to work some more. The Belgian girl also wanted to leave the farm to explore more of Sweden so we went together to the south. The woman from Swabia stayed on the farm to take care of the animals. I did not want to leave the farm but I had promised to work three weeks in the south.

Harvest party

We had started to harvest from the farms for our daily meals, we also harvested some swedes and turnips and sliced them and put them in the sun to dry. I like drying as a method for conservation but up here in Lapland you have to start dry early. Later in the harvest season its usually to moist and to little sun to dry. If I have a sauna next year I can dry in there.

A boy from Austria arrived with a cab, he had tried to hitchhike but failed to get a ride. All three of us were now living in the log hut. The boy from Austria had a hard time eating fish, after we had treated him with fish-head soup he had enough. He said he needed meat and he thought we were eating meat everyday at this place. I suggested to him that he could eat ants if he did not like fish so we collected some ants but in the end he went to town with bicycle to buy some tin can meat.

I had invited to a harvest party and we were preparing for that. Eventually I finished the shelter, we had not used it except for a goat-house. We made the floor in the shelter, a big fireplace in front of it and benches around the fireplace. We also dig up roots and branches that were in front of the shelter. It looked good and I wondered why I had not done this before.  

I went to the neighbor village and bought a lamb for the party. The day before the party some people had already arrived and for dinner we ate the intestines and the testicles, witch were very tasty. We saved the brain for tanning. The next day we ate the sheep head for lunch, the meat loving Austrian man carved out the meat from the head and he said it was the most discussing work he had ever done.

So the shelter was ready and the fire was going and the party could begin. A friend from Dorotea chopped the lamb into pieces and we put it on the fire. We were about ten people now, and more people were o their way. The women from Swabia that had been here last winter returned. Except the lamb we ate a lot of good food from the gardens. The party lasted for several days. On the days we were working with the gardens, chopping down trees, tanning, picking berries and dug up root systems and in the evenings we ate meat and drank beer. Most people returned home when the meat and beer was gone. Some people stayed and for a month we were a group of about 5 people.   

We thought the meat party was over but then the hunters visited and gave us 6 moose heads and two moose skins. We put the skins into the river (it had to be there for at least two weeks) and started to skin the heads. We got a lot of meat from the heads and we boiled broth from the legs that we also got. Almost everyone tried to skin a head. 

We continued with the work, we constructed a new bigger woodshed and picked more bilberries and boiled jam from them. Now we had a lot of jam jars. I also got help to finish the storage house.

It was now late September and the weather were getting colder. We moved inside and started to cook there. An Irish man and a Belgian woman were still sleeping in their tentipi that they had brought.

More people left the farm and now it was only me , the woman from Swabia and a man from Götaland at the farm. We started to build a new chicken house from the spruces I had prepared and dragged from the road down at the wet meadow. The new chicken house was a little bit bigger than the old one and was situated farther away from the gardens.

We still got some eggs but less and less for every day. It was time for final harvest we harvested almost everything and put four fifths into the storage clamps, we stored the rest inside. We might have harvested about 200 kg of crops but it was just estimation since we did not have any scales.

The man from Götaland returned home and now we were only two people at the farm. I had to go to the south to work for a week. I went to Stockholm with the bicycle and returned two weeks later. With me I brought a girl from Belgium. It was sunny and warm when I returned but the woman from Swabia that had stayed at the farm said that it had been some snow and temperatures down to minus nine.

Building

The girl from England had arrived and she helped we with a lot of different tasks. We got more fish than we could use since we only were two people at the farm so we put the cages on land, and fished with rod instead. We were out fishing many evenings and one evening I got a big trout in the Perch lake, that was the first trout I had seen in that lake. We barbecued the trout over fire but, it did not taste as good as the trouts up in the mountain lakes, it tasted a bit muddy. We tried to make sashimi with the raw pike and perch, it tasted very good with soy and ginger.

We went to the neighbor village to begin demolishing an old barn it was the same barn that I last year had taken the roof metal from, but now I was interested in the wooden planks for the storage house. We used the planks for the storage house´s roof. After that we had ailed the planks we put some tarpaper on top, now the roof was water resistance. The storage house still needed walls but that had to wait for later, instead we started to dig the foundation for a log hut (timmerkåta).

My friend who owned the goats came to collect his animals that I had taken care of. The goats had been on the farm for three weeks now. It was a little bit sad, we were going to miss the goat milk. Sometime in the future I would to have goats myself, it seemed to be the perfect animal for this farm.

A young boy from Germany arrived. He was very fascinated about the farm and how we did things. Since I had two helpers I decided it was time to collect reed for the storage clamps. This year I wanted to build at least three therefore we needed a lot. We went to the Pike lake and went with canoe to the other side since the reed were taller there. I cut the reed with my scythe and the other collected it and put it in bundles. We put the bundles in the canoe and I transported the bundles back to the shore. The canoe was filled with reed so I had to stand up in the back and paddling. We carried the reed back to the farm, after several turns we had a big pile that we stored in the saw house.

There were some old trash piles at the farm that we started to remove, it was layer after layer with shattered glass, old shoes, rusty metal cans, plastic and a lot of other things. We filled a big trailer two times and went to the recycling station.

After three weeks the girl from England returned home. Now it was me and the German boy left at the farm. He was very interested to learn about many things and I tried to teach him about wild edible plants and some bushcraft. A women from Israel visited and baked us some good bread over the fire.

The foundation of the log hut was ready so we started to build it. I had already prepares the logs and it did not take long to get the logs up since it was only four layers of logs. The roof was more difficult but eventually we managed to get it right. I covered also this roof with tarpaper. When the floor was ready we moved into the hut that had a nice fireplace in the middle. It was a bit smoky and we tried several solutions and it got less smoky.

Goatmilking and Haymaking

My brother and a friend of him visited me, the extra hands would be useful during haymaking. But before that I needed to go to Kittilä (Northern Finland) to get a canoe. I needed two since we were fishing in two lakes now, it was a bit difficult to swim out with the fish cage in Perch lake. My brother stayed at the farm and took care of the animals and helped me with covering the rest of the gardens. I had to be away for three days. I got a request from a friend when I was in Finland, he wanted me to take care of his goats during two weeks I accepted. When I returned to the farm the goats were already there, my friend had set up an electric fence that covering a large area around the shelter. We could milk one of the goats and got about 7 deciliter of milk each day. It was a bit difficult to milk the goat since she could not stand still and also because she attracted a swarm of mosquitos.

Now it was time for haymaking, the upper meadows had already been cut and the grass had been used as coverage for the gardens so now I wanted to to cut the grass at the lower meadows. We used the drying racks from last year and even built some new ones. There was a nice feeling to cut the grass at the lower meadows since they were so plain after all the work with taking away grass bumps an bushes. I cut grass with the scythe and my brother and his friend raked it and hanged it up on the drying racks. It was a rainy summer so this year we could not dry any hay at the ground.

Most crops in the gardens were still small, but we could now start to harvest winter kale and salads. The crops did not grow much in this rainy weather.

The old road were still covered with spruce branches from all the trees I had taken down in February. We cleared the road and burned the branches. The wet meadows looked so much better without all the shading spruces. Still it was more spruces that needed to be taken down and a lot of birches but not for this year.

Usually cloudberries and bilberries is ripe this time a year, but they were still not ready to pick, and it did not seem that it would be a good year for berries.

My brother and his friend returned home, but the next day a girl from England arrived.

Around Midsummer

I made another fish cage so now I had two. One was situated in the Pike lake and the other one I put into the closest lake from the farm where we had fished last year. Since that lake had so many perches we called it the Perch lake. I only had one canoe and it was at the Pike lake so I had to swim out with the cage. I could not get so far out so I did not get as many perches as last year but still more than enough.

Some days before midsummer a women from Meänmaa arrived to the farm. She wanted to learn about self-sufficiency and especially fishing. We fished, collected a lot of wild food and worked a lot in the gardens. I cut grass with the scythe and she collected it and covered the gardens. We needed a lot of grass for the gardens my plan was to cover around the crops with 10 cm of grass twice a year. The insects had awaken and made the work painful. 

Midsummer we ate a tasty dinner with, smoked some trouts that we had caught up in the mountains, perch skin chips with curry, roots of willowherb, pesto of nettles, eggs and a fresh wild leaves salad to that we drank fermented crawberry juice. Later in the evening we went down to the lake to see if there would be a party like last year and yes there was the party.

A couple of days after midsummer two danish girls arrived. The work with the gardens was far from done so I was happy to get some extra hands. The sun was up almost all night so we could work until late in the evenings. 

So much time had been used to work in the gardens so I had not had time to continue building. The storage house were still standing without roof, walls and floor. But soon after the haymaking I was going to continue.

The woman from Meänmaa stayed three weeks before she continued her travels to the south. The danish girls stayed for two weeks. Now I was again alone at the farm but I knew more people were coming to help me with the haymaking.

Spring and early summer

The wood barn filled with eight cubicmeters of wood.

The farm has a hillside that slopes towards the south where the snow disappears first. I had already made some strawberries fields there, but I wanted to use the slope more. In the future I wanted to plant some fruit trees and berry bushes there, but for now I started with a small terrace garden with three terraces. I build it with stones and branches, the soil had heated up enough for digging, only some parts were still frozen. At the top terrace I planted artichoke, the lower terraces I was going to plant herbs and salad, but later when the soil got warmer.

It was now May and more and more snow melted away for every day. It rained a lot this month almost every day. Before the snow had melted away I transported the canoe to another lake three kilometers away. I wanted to try to fish there since I heard that there where pikes (Esox luciuc) in that lake. I called it the Pike lake, but I had to wait before going out with the canoe there were still ice on the lake.

The logs for the storage house I was planning to build was ready for use. I had already made the foundation last year. It was a bit tricky to get up the three top beams since they were five meters long, but I succeeded by building a hoist with three thick poles. The beams of the storage house were at place and I was going to continue with the rest later on, for now I covered the construction with a tarp.

The rain continued and I was down at the wet meadow taking away big grass bumps, small trees and bushes. Last year we had taken some hay from here, this year I wanted to take more and it would be a lot easier to use the scythe without all the bumps. I used a hoe to get rid of the bumps, it was a boring heavy work and the constant rain did not make it better.

There were no ice on the lakes anymore so I went out with the canoe and put down the cage, next day I had gotten two pikes and I got pikes almost every day. I ate some off them but most pikes I dried for my dog, she really liked them.

It was time to prepare the gardens. I turned the soil with the hoe and sowed swedes, turnips, carrots, parsnips, red beats, salad, parsley and I also put the potatoes in the soil. The potatoes had been inside for three weeks to start germinating. In the house I had already sown leeks, pumpkins, zucchinis, winter squash, winter kale, cabbage and some herbs, but it was to early to plant them outside.

The rain did not seem to stop and now it was already June. The potatoes had already started to grow and the swedes and turnips had also started to come up. I did not believe it were going to be any more freezing nights so I planted out the leeks, pumpkins, zucchinis, winter squash, winter kale, cabbage and the herbs. A week later the temperature unfortunately dropped below zero for some nights, the potatoes took heavy damage a lot of black leaves but they survived. All the pumpkins and winter squash died, only two zucchinis survived. The swedes and turnips survived as well as the carrots and parsnip that had started to grow.

Melting snow

Still it were a thick layer of snow but the days were getting warmer. The strong sun melted the snow during the days and in night it froze again and created a nice crust on top of the snow. This winter had not given us many days of strong walk able crust but still good for skiing. 

I dragged up all of the debarked logs from the old road besides the wet meadows up to the house. I did not really have a plan for them, but I guessed that most would come to use since I had planned many building projects for this year.

I started to run out of hay so I had to give the rabbits branches from spruces and aspen. They seemed to enjoy the branches and I realized that I probably had given them to much hay, next year I was going to mix the hay with many branches from the beginning of the winter.

The women from the Black forest wanted to go to the south, she was tired of winter and wanted to pick fresh greens. Now I was alone at the farm.

I was down the lake ice fishing a lot for me and for my chickens. I had not seen anyone else down the lake the whole winter except for Easter then it was quit many people down the lake out fishing with snow scooters. I was apparently the only one using skis.

I started to build a wood barn of some of the logs that I had dragged up. The construction of the woodshed was very simple. I put the logs overlapping each other with some cutting in the corners so that they would sink down a bit, but still leave a lot of space in between so that wind could blow through and dry the wood. I found old stone plates at he farm that I used as roof for the barn. I imagined that this wood barn could store about eight cubic meters of wood Its not enough for at winter so I would need to build another one later on.

I cut and chopped all of the wood that I had prepared in December. I could just get all the wood in the new woodshed.

I went with bicycle into town to buy some provisions and met there a man from Helsinki (Finland), who was on his way by bicycle to Trondheim (Norway).I invited him to the farm and he accepted gladly since the weather was bad for bicycling it was raining a mixture of snow and rain. He stayed for a couple of days and helped me with bringing up wood that I had chopped down at the wet meadow, we stored it in one of the old woodsheds since the new one was full.

It were still a lot of snow around but you could see spots of the ground here and there. I even found some small nettles that tasted really good. In town it was more green plants especially close to the warm walls of the big houses. Every time I went into town I picked a bag with greens for the rabbits.