Recap 2025
June 2025 part 2

Photo 1 to 4:
The nature here went from brown and bare to lush green and full of flowers. Its incredible what impact 24h daylight has.

Photo 5:
Our food storage situation. Since the next shopping possibility is 75km away we tried to have food stored for 2 weeks.

Photo 6:
The 'sääski's' aka mosquito's where insane in June. We where happy to have these hats with a net and had to wear long clothings anyway because of the cool temperatures... i try to see always some pro-points 😉 : they are super big, and therefore quite easy to smash... yea, I know! its a tiny 'pro' 😅

Photo 7 & 8:
Already from mid may the nights are not getting dark anymore and from in june the sun does not disappear at all. This is an experience I really really love.
On Midsummer we went to a little hill with some friends, brought some snacks and tea and just enjoyed the amazing view, watched the several hours long sunset & sunrise, and to be in this absolute silence nature.

Photo 9 & 10:
Simply to be sometimes away from the farm and all the thousend 'we still have to do's', we cycled to the close by beach, to feel the slightly warm sand between the toes and sometimes even having a short dip in the cold lake Iso Vietonen.

Photo 11:
Reindeer encounter 😍

Photo 12:
We installed a very old and totally rusty stove in the garden to cook on...

And this is the perfect transition to the main problem/ issue/ trublemaker/ driving us nuts and pain in the a.. - thing; the kitchen witch inside.
Photos 13 to 20 shows the iteration from
drilling the new hole for the smoke excaust pipe, to
how we attached the wood stove very neat and nice, to
how the smoke came out everywhere, but not through the designated pipe, to
how we detached the stove again to figure out where the problem, to
finally knowing the chimney causes the problem, to
using another hole to attach the stove with a now way longer pipe to the chimney, to
finally happy end 😇
#finland #woodstove

Recap 2025
June 2025 part 1

In June we still had no electricity no hot water and no kitchen in the house, cooked on our camping stove, like during the last couple of years. When we got the wood fire cooking stove, the kitchen-witch, we first had to wait for the chimney sweaper to clean th chimneys and to explain the chimney system to us. He told us where we can try to make a new hole for the stove smoke-tube. What sounded very easy and quickly done took us in the end loooots of time and even more nerves. But (in today's post we are not there yet...)
Befor all of this we removed the old cracked and moldy looking plaster from the chimney. The idea was to remove the old and put up new plaster, but when we saw the nice red brickwall underneath, we changed plan to fully remove the plaster and reveil the bricks. This was a hell lot of insane dusty work. But it was worth the hours stuck in the white suits, under the fat masks and behind the plastic 'dustwall'.
The month of June was also full with garden work. We prepared the weedgrass covered patches in front of the house to grow some veggies. Also we built a little greenhouse with old windows we found in the barn and a neighbour came with the tractor to plow the big batch for our potatoes, karrots and onions.
Picture 6 shows our power suply by then 🤩 a small solar panel to charge all the tools.

By then we went to our neighbours home or to the public washing saloon in town to make laundry.
To have a propper shower sometimes we went to the public sauna in the swimming hall in town, until (by mid june) we had the sauna fixed and ready to use. We used the so called 'summer sauna', a woodfire heated sauna in the barn-building. Next to the sauna stove we have a ~80liter metal pot over another fire place to heat water. and thats how we showered (sauna with bucketshower).

11 pictures in this post 🤩

#finland #lapland #polarcircle #movingabroad #auswandern #slowliving #farmlife #renovating #offgid #growingfood

Recap 2025
Mai 2025 part 3

Sorry for the long pause between the posts! It is a hell lot to do, and yea, you probably know how fast time is passing...

The second half of the month of may we could start with some 'renovations'. First we removed the super ugly kitchen. That move helped us to reach the water pipes easier. When we figured out that the water clock was broke too we sent a video message to the municipality to ask what to do... A day later they came to install a new clock. When they had to grab the pipe throug the glasswool insulation we offered some gloves, but got as answer "we don't need gloves". I don't want to immagine how their skin scratched afterwards!
Beside the kitchen we removed the wallpaper in our future sleepingroom and reveiled the wooden walls and ceiling.

If it was not too windy we removed the metal sheets from the old staple to put it on the damaged roof of the barn where the wood is stored. That staple building looks very bad. The loggwalls are almost rotten, so no chance to renovate and keep it. When time comes we have to deconstruckt it. But the barn is still in a shape absolutely worth keeping it. Only, and thats very bad, the roof is leaking everywhere.

Towards the end of may we had a little plant nursery in the house and under a window box infront of the house. The weather was quite nice, but still too cold, especially at night, to put the plants outside.

Photo 10, 11 and 12 shows the amazing, undescribable amazing lanscape we are looking at, when going back to our little apartment.
Photo 13: To make a break we went to the cultural house in Rovaniemi and where impressed of the art of Reidar Särestöniemi, a painter from Lapland.

Finally on the 30th of may we were ready to move into the house. Hm, I should better say: to set up camp in our house. Yea! water was fixed, means: we got running water in the bathroom, means: the toilet was flushable and the shower had running (freezing cold) water.

#Finland #simpleliving

🗨️🇬🇧
🦢 Mute swan 🇫🇮
ℹ️ The mute swan (Cygnus olor) grows up to 1.6 meters long and can have a wingspan of up to 2.4 meters. They feed mainly on aquatic plants and small animals, such as mussels.

🗨️🇩🇪
🦢 Höckerschwan 🇫🇮
ℹ️ Der Höckerschwan (Cygnus olor) wird bis zu 1,60 Meter lang und erreicht dabei eine Spannweite von bis zu 2,40 Meter. Er ernährt sich vor allem von Pflanzen, die im Wasser leben, und kleinen Tieren, wie Muscheln. Markant ist der Höcker über dem Schnabel, woher der Schwan seinen Namen hat.

📷
Cam: #lumixgx8
lens: #leica100400 bei 400 mm (800 mm ff)

⚙️
f/7.1
1/2.500 s
ISO 1.250

#höckerschwan #schwan #Cygnusolor #swan #muteswan #naturfotografie #nature #natur #naturephotography #wildlife #wildlifephotography #vogel #vogelfotografie #bird #birdphotography #wellfotos #lumix #finnland #finland #suomi