Sailing with a Viking Boat

Yesterday I was out on my second sailing with the small viking boat called "femkjeipingen" because of it has room for 5 rowers. This is a very quick boat, even for one person to row, so I imagine it would be excellent with five. Sailing is however of course more desirable. The wind this time was almost absent and changed direction all the time, but at the end of the trip we had very good wind. With it's large single sail this boat is very quick, but two people is really too little as you need more people to redistribute the weight in the boat as needed.

I sat on the rodder, while Flurin, a travelling blacksmith from Switzerland sat in the front. Note that this photo was taken when the wind conditions were less than optimal.














This is a boat I WANT! But I guess I have to make myself a large currach to sail instead.

Here is a photo of the chieftain's hall taken from distance.

Willow and Alder

I was out on a little daytrip today. Took home piece of a broken alder tree, it will probably give me plenty of heartboards for the bowdrill. Since I am also entering the berry picker contest on bcuk I broke off some willow branches for the rim of my picker. I really need only one branch, but in case I screw up royally I cut four.

Checking the Traps Again.

Due to a lot of work at school, my traps have been down for quite a while. I have now changed trapping location as I have found a place teeming with squirrels. A few days ago I set two deadfalls, both of them had signs of disturbance today. One had collapsed, but still rested on the upright stick, because of improper setting. A true newbie mistake... Below: See what I mean?














Here the trap is ready for action again.


















The other one was obviously not sensitive enough, and the squirrels had eaten off the bait without releasing the trap. Below: Tracks from one of the squirrels who have had a feast on my almonds.


















I am starting to become a little annoyed by the lack of sensitivity of the figure four trigger. Because of that I set a new trap, this time with the paiute trigger. It seems likely that I will more or less start using this trigger type on the nible squirrels. The stability of the figure four will however still be useful when trapping fox and other large animals. Below: A deadfall set with the paiute trigger.














In addition to this, the prototype trap was set to carry out the field tests.

Ice Fishing for Pike

Me and a chap named Øyvind was out ice fishing this morning for pike. I wanted to test my primitive ice fishing gear, but brought some modern stuff too. But even the modern stuff was very basic.

The ice was firm, but layered. Using the antler axe for chopping through was practically impossible. That is the main advantage of using a ice pick instead of an axe; you don't have to worry about the ice not being solid all the way through.


















We got one non primitive hook out first. While I was making a new hole, he was making motions with the stick to try to make the pike to take. Suddenly the pike took the bait and I rushed to help. The hole was too small however and before we managed to enlarge it, the pike was gone with the hook and all. I think that, if we had planned a little better, we should have made a little gaff of a split branch, hooked it through the gills and used it for pinning the pike's head to the ice. That would have left us with more time to enlarge the hole.

After that we set one primitive set and one more modern. On the modern one, the pike left with the hook and bait, which was by the way herring. No contact yet on the primitive set, but they have all been left until tomorrow. Hopefully there will be something there then. I will also set another set of primitive hook and line to increase the chances of finally proving that these hooks are effective, even on hard mouthed fish like the pike.

Traps and Willow

Today I have been catching up on a few things I really should have done over the last days. First, my daughter and I was just up the road here to cut some willow, coppiced by the people maintaining the road, for baskets. There is quite a lot of them there, but my daughter got impatient, so I only got to collect a little before we had to go.


















I used the no tools technique for gathering them.














A few points on willow for baskets:

• The red ones seems better than the ones that have gone green.
• Cut them in winter, when the sap is down.
• Don't scrape off the bark, that is where the strenght lies.
• Dry them before using them, otherwise your baskets will become loose.
  

This knot shows how well willow can take bending.














After having left my daughter at home, I went into the woods. I fished out the elm bark from the stream it has been laying for several days. It is now drying inside.

I also checked my trap, the one on the ground I haven't bothered to set again, so it's the one in the tree I am talking about. The trap had collapsed, there was obvious signs that something had been chewing or pecking on the almond which was the bait. I didn't want to touch the bait with my hand to avoid contamination of my scent. So I left it as it was, since the trigger needed repair. What had released the trap I don't know, but there were lots of tracks from birds and squirrels around in the new snow. I obviously need to make the trigger even more nimble.

It is no coincidence that the first snow gives "results" right away. The snow covers the ground, making food scarce and taking risks to aquire easy food becomes more attractive.

And by the way, I have also taken in my bow-blank to make it dry properly before final tillering. Hopefully this wasn't to soon.

Checking the Traps

I haven't written anything about it yet, but I have been checking my traps every day since I set them. Until now there has been no disturbance. I believe the lack of snow may spoil the squirrels foodwise, making my almonds uninteresting. Below: The collapsed trap.














What I found today however, was that the stone deadfall had fallen down and the baitstick with the bait gone. There was no sign of any squirrels, but it seems like strangely enough, that a roe deer has taken my bait. This trap is lying straight by a well used roe deer path and there were some fresh, but weak tracks. Below: The path.


















I also prepared some elm bark and cut a beaver felled elm to a shaft for a stone axe. Both of these processes will be decribed in posts coming up quite soon (within weeks).

Gum

In addition to set traps I found a type of gum on a spruce tree we call: Ikøntappe. It's amber in colour and is the best chewing kind of spruce pitch. It doesn't stick as badly to the teeth and has a milder taste.














After chewing it for a while it becomes pink/purple in colour and progressively harder. In case it can be used for something else I saved it for later. Maybe it will be good for hafting arrowheads?














I also found an alder with a very special appearance on the outside. It will more than likely have a very wawy and nice looking grain. So if anyone is interested in some interesting looking wood for knives or something, maybe we can work out a deal...

Some Lessons in Dressing Birds

It took all day, two of my brothers and I cleaned and ate nine birds today. One female black grouse, three ptarmigans, four teals and one hazel grouse. All shot by my brother Laje.

A few observations on preparing birds:

• Don't use flames for singing off the remaining feathers, use coals. The flames will put a foul taste on the skin.
• Do empty the stommach right in front by the neck or it too will taint the taste of the flesh.
• To make sure the skin becomes all crisp and down free, warm up the skin until it becomes hard and brown. Scrape off the remaining charred down and feathers with a knife.

Below Laje is plucking the black grouse.

Squirrel Hunt

Was out hunting red squirrels with two of my brothers today. Will not say anything about what weapons we were planning on using. ;) We saw no squirrels this time and no other game either. We did however find some more of the common polypody (Polypodium vulgare). It commonly grows in the moss on rocks.














We also found a few patches of hedgehog mushroom (Hydnum repandum), but as we had neither anything to carry them in, nor the time to make any containers so they are still available to anyone who decides to pick them. They grow in spruce forests and are exceptionally good eating. Strange seeing them in this time of year, when we should have had lots of snow.














Although we didn't see any game, we found the den of a probably hibernating badger and it's poo hole. Forgot to take any photos, but I will do it another time. We did however see a dog, seemingly not with it's owner present, the race is called "Finsk Spets".

A Break From Christmas

When I was out getting the elm for my bow yesterday there was a few other discoveries worth mentioning. I forgot my camera, so the only photo is staged.

I saw two ospreys (Pandion haliaetus). They frequent that area, scouring the river for salmon and trout. Quite majestetic birds.

For the first time I found great burdock (Arctium lappa). The seeds were destroyed, but now I know where to go to find them for replanting at home, where they are not found. Another plant (fern) I found is the Common Polypody (Polypodium vulgare). It's root is very sweet in taste and can be eaten raw like candy. In addition to it's sweetness it has a slight licorice taste. Photo below.

Testing The Snowshoes

Tested my snowshoes yesterday. They worked fine, but as I had anticipated, they had a tendency for falling off. That can probably be easily remedied by strapping a piece of string through the loops. I have seen that way of attaching the shoes on some snowshoes I have at home.














Also had a go at a red squirrel, missed by a few inches regretfully, but traps will be up within a few days. The trushes and waxwings are out feeding on the rowans now. Would have been an excellent opportunity for setting some snares...

Out and about

Was out for a little while today. Not exactly a pristine area, but about as good as you get this close to a city. Made a fire, sat down and worked on my ice fishing stick. Also pitched a few hooks and guess what... I had batteries for my camera today as well.

A day in the woods

Was out in the woods for awhile today. My camera turned out to have empty batteries... So no pictures, but it was quite a nice trip. I checked the condition of my coracle, hanging in a tree up there. It is all dried up now and looks good. This is a picture from the maiden voyage of this vessel.















I also located what I will turn into the shaft of the ice pick and pitched two of my fishing hooks.