Living Primitively

Today I’ve been gathering birch bark to thatch the earth lodge that is half finished. This quantity sure helps, but I will probably need more.

Skinning standing trees is very convenient and according to a local source, the bark that is regenerated will be of even higher quality than the previous ones. It might be an idea to go skinning some of the very old ones I have seen about, skinned nearly a century ago.

Until now I have relied on plastic bottles to carry and store water. Bjoern bought some gourds on e-bay and gave some to me. This bottle holds water very well and was far easier to make than I thought. With several litres capacity this is hardly a trail bottle, but I never use that anyway. For use in camp I think this one will work great.

I am happy with having a bottle of natural materials in my possession, but I need to find some way to make one out of the available materials in the area.

After going barefeet for a couple of weeks I eventually worked up the motivation to make another pair of moccasins. Same pattern as the last one and also this one of moose hide. This evening I might resole the other ones so I’ll have two pairs to switch between.

Also smoking two reindeer hides at the moment. I don’t like this method of smoking skins (might not be doing a very good hanging and sewing job). Reindeer skins are, although very thin, very dense, so they don’t smoke easily I find. I will try another setup next time.

A little about the coming summer. If I remember correctly there is a saying here that says (roughly translated): Ash before oak gives warmth. Oak before ash gives rain. This year the few oaks I have been observing are already in more or less full leaf. The ash is still quite far from being so.

With some of the thick birch bark I harvested a while ago I have made a box. Well, technically it’s not a box, since it has no lid yet, but that will be made soon. Durable containers has been something I have neglected for a long time and I am growing tired of plastic bags. So I’ll make more of these sturdy bark boxes.

I wish you all well.

Young linden leaves makes for an excellent base for a salad. Here we have mixed it with some violet and wood sorrel flowers and leaves as well as some immature elm seeds.

With some more stronger tasting herbs mixed in this salad would have been a gourmet meal. In order to boost the flavour we ate it with some hazel nuts and smoked fish. A very filling and nutritious meal!