Trout sleeping in small stream

Last week was fall break for the local schools. So we were invited to a cabin in the mountains east of Gol, a small hour's walk from the nearest road. Our hosts bought the property about a year ago - two small lakes for trout fishing, a small stream connecting the two, and a primitive cabin between. Charming, candle lights could easily be the main source of light - definitely off-grid.

Before turning in the first night I went out to brush my teeth in the stream. Since it was dark I wore a headlamp, and lo and behold - a small trout was sleeping (do they sleep?). If not, then it thought it was safe since it had managed to hide its head!

Earlier, before it got dark, we had witnessed fish swimming back and forth, possibly because we scared them. Alternatively, it was part of the mating. Actually, the Norwegian Wikipedia's entry on ørret says that the name indicates that they swim quickly back and forth over the bed of streams in the mating season.

I produced my mobile and took the picture on the right. The tail of the fish starts near the middle of the picture, with the head under the stone on the top right. Back in the cabin I showed it to the others, and my hosts had never seen this before. So out they went to see for them selves. They even saw that trout have eyes that light up when illuminated by LED-light. It wouldn't be fair to pick them in their sleep. So instead my wife managed to catch two the next day - 470 and 360 grams. Enough for a taste for all of us. We had brought a small smoker as a gift to our hosts, and nothing tastes like smoked trout out in the great outdoors!

I have flowers, nuts next

Back in 2011 I bought two walnut trees. I planted one in my garden and one at my cabin in the forest. So every spring since I have been looking for flowers, hoping to get nuts. Earlier this spring I decided that I was disappointed once again - no flowers in sight.

But last Friday, I just accidentally passed by the tree in the garden. Hey - what is that?

As you can see I have flowers. And under each there is a small hairy ball, I think those are the nuts I have been waiting for.

Exciting, isn't it? I guess there are less than 10 in total. Will they all develop? Are there any competitors out there that understand what they are?

And what about the tree at the cabin? I haven't been there for a while. I had to move the tree last year because it didn't like its neighborhood. It is smaller than the garden variety. Does it have flowers as well? Stay tuned and learn more about Captain Cowberry's Walnut plantations!

Haukenestårnet in Rømskog

Haukenestårnet is an old fire lookout tower in the forest east of Oslo. After having been taken out of use it has been reborn as a cabin in the Norwegian Trekking Association's system of cabins. So three dads and five boys went on tour during Pentecost, from Saturday to Sunday.

Visiting such cabins during Pentecost has almost become a tradition. The boys' spare time is heavily influenced by digital media, and these trips are small attempts to show them the joys of nature.
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While previous trips (check the DNT label) may have been strenuous, this was much lighter since we could almost drive to the door. There is a forest road leaving just 5-10 minutes walk to get to the cabin. But we needed an expedition, so we walked through the woods to the nearby hotel. There we rented canoes that we used on lake Vortungen. We tried fishing as well, but without success. Instead we treated ourselves to ice cream back at the hotel before we returned to the tower for a wonderful summer evening and a very good sleep.

The picture shows the group (minus me) as we are about to get back to the cars. We didn't go directly home afterwards, but instead visited a small farm belonging to the ones with orange covers on their sleeping bags. There fishing was more successful!

I have been robbed!

Last Sunday I was reminded that it was time to harvest nuts from my Hazel shrubs - a pair of spotted nutcrackers were robbing me.

I seem to remember that the thieves of previous years have been eurasian jays. Last year they took everything. But this time I joined the harvesting and managed to secure more nuts than I have ever had before. And still there were more on the shrubs that I let the birds handle.

I don't think I have seen spotted nutcrackers before. They were beautiful birds, and I hope they stay in my area. They are welcome to more nuts, and maybe they will contribute to spreading hazels in the neighborhood.

Conquerer of cowberries

My stores of cowberry in my freezer have been running low. So last Saturday I made a trip into the woods to pick some more. I brought my berry collector (red thing in my right hand), and I set off to harvest.

I remember when I did this last - I ended up overdoing it. It resulted in many jars of jam that still have not been consumed in addition to frozen ones. This time I was not going to make the same mistake again, I thought. On the picture I am carrying a framed backpack I found as a kid. It has been my faithful companion on berry picking excursions ever since. Usually I am satisfied if I fill the backpack, but there were so much cowberry that I simply had to fill a shopping bag as well. The berry collector of course made the picking easy, but there is the need to sort through the harvest afterwards.

My yellow sweater was an attempt to avoid the interest of the annoying deer fly. This leather-like insect may appear in large numbers and they settle on anything that may resemble an elk. Experience shows that that may include me! But maybe the sweater worked since the deer flies didn't bother me this time.

But when I came home I could not find my berry sift, so I ended up hand sorting into the night. The result was 16 liters of cowberry, and again I can make cowberry chocolate cake and other delicacies

Biological warfare on the home front

This spring carpenter ants have yet again tried to take posession of my cabin. As before I have employed chemicals to convince them to move elsewhere, but this year I made a small experiment as well - I applied a sauce of chili peppers and chili oil to the foundation.

The foundation is made up of stones and concrete, and the near horizontal "stripe" starting on the left hand side is the chili sauce. This picture was taken after a couple of weeks, and by then there were no carpenter ants to be seen. However, when I applied the stuff there was a single one that found its way blocked by my product. It (she?) tried to cross in multiple places, but each time turned back to try somewhere else. The ant also performed a series of "washing" operations, as if the chili had got stuck to it and it tried to clean it off.

I think maybe that I next year shall apply a similar mixture early in the spring. Maybe it will discourage the carpenters so that they find a home somewhere else.

Camping at Kobberhaughytta

At Kobberhaughytta in the forrests surrounding Oslo there are two Leantos that can be rented. This place is part of the Norwegian Trekking Association's chain of cabins that allow people to enjoy the great out-doors.

During Pentecost we were four dads and 5 boys renting the leantos for two nights. The weather was warm and the water temperature was so high that even adults enjoyed swimming.

At the same time we were there so early in the spring that the mosquitos were not active. Combined with the bog volleyball field, the superb dinner served by the cabin's personel on Sunday, and the wonderful view from the nearby Kobberhaugen the trip was almost perfect. Something to make the plank floors in the leantos softer to sleep on would have been nice, though!

Spring before schedule

This year's month of March was particularly warm. As a consequence the snow melted too early, in the eyes of anybody eager to go sking. Yesterday we took a trip to the cabin, and here is what we found.

This picture shows the stump of a birch tree that I felled in the beginning of March. That was probably before the sap started to rise but the temperature was already higher than normal. Later, as the temperature increased the root system started to prepare for a new season by pumping sap into the trunk - but the trunk wasn't there any more. So the sap drained to the ground. However, then the temperature fell again, the sap froze, and the picture shows the resulting frozen sap. I can't remember seeing this before, but I take it as an indication that the tree that I felled was relative dry and probably will be usable as firewood the coming season.

This next picute shows the flower blåveis as it is called in Norwegian. There is even a leaf of wild strawberries there. The "blåveis" and its sister the "hvitveis" normally appear in early May. But with the warm March they have been tricked to appear much earlier, maybe so early that the ants and other insects needed for pollination and distribution of seeds have not appeared yet. The "blåveis" is actually rare in Norway, and having it in large numbers on our property is very nice.

Even smaller

Did you read about the juvenile lizard? Well, during this year's autumn break we found an even smaller one, see picture.

We were four dads and six boys in the mountains west of Eggedal. We rented a nice cabin with all modern facilities, including a sauna. During the days we went walking in the mountains and the nearby Trillemarka nature reserve. On one of our tripe we found the small lizard in the photo. I have not seen such a small specimen before. Although we had nice weather, it was cold. I would have thought such a creature should have entered hibernation much earlier. But no, some of the boys used their young eyes and discovered it. How lucky we were!

A small friend

A couple of days ago I moved this young leaf warbler out of the way. It sat on the ground and our cat was in the immediate vicinity! I think he knew about the target, but he stayed at some distance to keep us humans from discovering what was going on.
Well, I moved this little friend over to my neighbours berberis bushes, where it happily jumped into safety.

Those bushes are the stronghold of the birds in the area - there is always activity and a lot of sound. So again the cat was deprived of having fun.

Bøvelstad

Den norske turistforening opened a new cabin not far from where I live last Sunday. So three dads and six boys went on tour from Thursday to Friday.

The terrain turned out to be tougher than we expected. But we should have known, because that part of the forest is known for its hills and unevenness.

But we made it to Bøvelstad where we had a wonderful evening and a very good sleep, before we headed back home.

This picture shows the group (minus me) as we are about to get back to the cars. We were worn out, but everybody agreed it had been a nice excursion.

I am the walnuts, goo goo g'joob

I have bought two walnut trees. I didn't think they were available in cold Norway, but I stumbled across an enthusiast that had some to spare. So I planted one at home and one in the forest at my cabin.

The one in this picture is the one in my garden. There I already have hazelnuts, so if the trees start producing walnuts I can dream of supplying the household with varieties of nuts.

Last winter we had long periods as low as -20 celsius. The producer of these trees claim that his trees can stand this type of temperature, and colder. He lives not far from where my cabin is, and the climate there is colder than at my house. So I hope that the one in the forest will thrive. I planted it near a small pond that will keep it with water.

I will have to wait some years before they start carrying fruit, but to be on the safe side I will contribute to global warming in the meantime to help the trees' survival!

Vipukirves, the magic axe

For my birthday I got a Vipukirves axe, which is specially designed for chopping firewood. In my role as gentleman farmer I try to keep my household with firewood. Sometimes chopping is required, and an axe is an obvious tool.

However, the Vipukirves changes the process of chopping wood entirely, especially for wide segments of logs.

Consider the first picture - it shows the unique profile of this axe, and a promising firewod candidate. Also shown is a "belt" around the candidate. I used the inner tube from a bicycle tire, but I suspect that a car tire would have been better. At least, that is what is often used in instructional films on Youtube.
Anyway, the purpose of the "belt" is to keep pieces from escaping and keep the workpiece on the base during chopping. Even with a regular axe, the chopping process has a tendency to eject the log pieces in different directions so that they fall off the base. With the Vipukirves the smaller piece can be thrown away quite violently. Therefore the belt, so that the workpiece remains on the base and you do not have to traverse the entire yard to gather the chopped firewood.

So what about the result? Well, this next picture shows the same log segment after being chopped. As you can see the pieces are more rectangular than the usual circle segments an ordinary axe would produce. The belt has kept the pieces in place so that they can easily be moved to a stack for drying.

This was my first experience with the Vipukirves, and I am not fully trained yet. I still had to use my hydraulic splitter for log segments with many branches. But the new axe is definitely a useful tool. I must be on the lookout for a used car tire though. The "belt" I used did not work as well as a wider tire would.

Firewood secured!

Last winter was cold, and our consumption of firewood was greater than usual. So we made repeated trips to our forest to get more firewood. Collecting firewood is a kind of slave work for a office worker like myself. It is nice for a change, but I am happy I don't have to do it all year round. On the other hand, if I did it on a more reguar basis I probably wouldn't be so totally exhausted afterwards.


Anyway, last Saturday I was off again to convert logs to suitable sized firewood. To contain the firewood while it dries I made a cylinder from a mesh for concrete reinforcement - "armeringsnett" as it is called in Norwegian. I fear that this is not enough to keep us through the next winter. Luckily, we haven't exhausted our older supplies yet, and we have large resources of live trees.

To split the wood I wanted to get me a new block ("huggestabbe" as it is called in Norwegian), and a big pine that was felled just before Christmas had already been split into suitable pieces.

So when I went down to get it I found this timberman. The antennas were at least 7cm long! Being where a pine was lying on the ground it probably was busy seeking out the females!

To add to my hard labour I had to move the hoggestabbe back to our cabin. The wheelbarrow proved to be too unstable with me at the handles. So I had to roll the thing around 100 meters uphill. For the first time I have a hoggestabbe that matches my height - lucky me!

Lunch in the land of additives

This was my lunch yesterday.

Yet again I was consulting in Ludwigshafen. With its main industry there I guess it may be referred to as the land of additives, although the range of chemicals produced covers much more than just additives to food and feed.

Looking at the food on my tray I have the feeling that additives were not playing a big role. In fact, I think I should be able to copy the dishes myself from natural sources and spices. The meal was very tasty, and it refuelled us so that we could continue our work efficiently.

Hoe - hoe - hoe

Christmas is comming close! But this hoe is something different. In Norwegian it is called "krafse" and the tray under it is a "krafsebrett", i.e. a hoetray. Both of them are invaluable to a garden owner. The picture is from the other day when I was spreading a truckload of gravel in my driveway and other places around the house.

Too bad I agreed to share the gravel with one of my neighbours, since I discovered that I could have spent it all myself.

How fresh is the fish? - revisited

I gave a talk called How fresh is the fish? once. It didn't actually answer the question.

However, things have moved forward. Of course, an experienced fish buyer can judge the freshness of a fish by looking at it, feeling it and so on. But there are other sources of relevant information. For example, the Matis research institute in Iceland has made findings of "undesirable substances" available online. Another, similar resource is Mareano, run by the Norwegian Institute of Marine Research.

Of course, fish moves around in the oceans, but if the fish we buy carried information about where it was caught, we consumers could look up what to expect in terms of harmful chemicals etc. But that wouldn't keep industry from polluting, would it?

The rain in Croatia stays mainly in Dalmatia

Have you ever seen? After a week of sailing in Croatia we had a night in the city of Trogir late in September. A heavy rainstorm happened to be visiting at the same time. From what I heard from the locals they weren't used to such intense rain.

I got thoroughly soaked in the narrow streets. The city was from long before cars etc. so the streets could just about let two people pass each other. When the water came flooding off the roofs, the streets turned into rivers, and there I was.

It all ended with a case of Bronchitis after comming home.

Nordens ark

Nordens Ark near Gothenburg in Sweden is worth a visit. It is a non-profit organization aiming at improving the situation for endagerede animals through breeding and reintroduction programmes.

I went there with kids and wife and we had a fantastic day. Imagine the satisfaction of being rewarded for patience with the view of animals like this snow leopard.

Lets hope the next time is in the wild, and that it doesn't see me!

Juvenile lizard

Isn't this cute? It is a juvenile lizard that fell into a ditch I was digging. I had to help it out, and it either found my hand pleasantly warm or was perfectly terrified. So it stayed in my hand for some time. Maybe I even got a new friend.

I tried to get some android footage, as in this post, but I wasn't any good at operating my mobile with one hand.

This happened at my cabin. They are all over the place when the weather is nice. I have handled adult lizards in the past, as have my kids and their friends, but this small one was a new experience.