Life in 38 litres

Moving to Tumblr

noreply@blogger.com (Juuso) — Wed, 11 Feb 2015 14:14:00 +0000

Too lazy to keep writing proper blog posts, so I've decided to make a change towards Tumblr.

Mobile quality pics from outdoor related stuff can be found from http://lifein38litres.tumblr.com/

A year in review

noreply@blogger.com (Juuso) — Sat, 26 Apr 2014 09:00:00 +0000

It has been quite a while since I've been posting, but nevertheless it's better late than never, right. At the very moment when I heard this blog was listed in ulkoilublogit.blogspot.fi, where some of Finland's outdoor-related blogs are listed, I decided that maybe I should be more active in updating the blog. In a year, it has been happened quite a few things, but here's few of them in a review.

The greatest project in scouting has most probably been the vast process of harvesting, splitting and stacking firewood, because we're aiming towards changing our oil-based heating system with a wood-based one. We figured out that there's no point carrying heating oil, as there's lots of firewood potential nearby our scout hut. And even better, we got this old stove called Porin Matti for free from a girl scout group, whose hut is located really close-by. Well it didn't cost us any money and even better we had chance to do some friendly recycling, but nevertheless it was pain in the ass to haul that few-hundred-kilo stove by manpower.

What comes to the other bits of outdoor life, I've been hanging around in Lapland few weeks during the past winter. In Lapland, I've been skiing cross-country on prepared tracks and in the backcountry as well, when I gave a go for OAC's backcountry skis. They have solid skins on the traction zone so it's easy ski uphill with them, but it decreases the gliding function. But in the end, they're designed to fill the gap between traditional backcountry skis and snowshoes. I gave a go for both the wider (OAC KAR 147) and the narrower (OAC XCD 160) version and here's few pros and cons on both models from my perspective.

OAC KAR 147
+
really good uphill traction due to larger skin area
better flotation in deep and soft snow
-
heavier to ski
even with a higher hiking boot it caused minor pain in my ankles, when skiing on spring-time hard-pack snow

OAC XCD 160
+
easier to ski and felt more like a traditional backcountry ski
more ankle-friendly on hard-pack snow
-
less flotation
less traction in steep uphill-skiing, but one can always do more zig-zag to find more traction utilizing lower climbing angle

[Yours truly on OAC XCD 160 skis.]

Besides chopping firewood and enjoying Lappish nature, I've got some time to do few microadventure type of outdoor spurts. In early January, we got our-selves to Nuuksion national park for a small ponds microadventure, as I spotted few nice small ponds from the map and created a route around them. It wasn't really yet winter back then, but it was quite wet and dark, so after hiking we enjoyed rain and night-time in our lean-to shelter by sleeping around 15 hours or so. This was a two-day trip and about 20 kms.

About a week ago, we cycled a route around Nuuksio national park called Reitti 2000 (Route 2000) that starts from the central park of Helsinki and finds its way to Luukki, from where the route makes a loop around Nuuksio national park and returns the same way back to Helsinki. The route was quite cyclable the whole way as it's mostly based on roads and gravel paths, but there are few sections where it's better to have both a mountain bike and some good trail-riding skills. The section from close to Rinnekoti to Kämmenlampi is quite tricky terrain, but it's still partially cyclable even with a cyclocross bike. Even with a hardtail mountain bike, it wasn't totally cyclable at least on our skill level. Another difficult section is from Högbacka to Haukkalampi, where there are lots of rocks and roots on the way, but we actually skipped this section by using a road, because we new it would be just pain in the ass to walk through that with a bike.

The Route 2000 is around 110 kms long and the loop around Nuuksio is marked at least on the newest map of Nuuksio national park. Well, the route is marked with blue-white-blue-striped bands, but I would still recommend a map just in case. There are good possibilities to refill one's water bottles at a few places, but we decided do a refill at Salmi recreational area that is located around the halfway of the route.

There are probably even more stuff I've been doing during the last year, but they're holding a minor importance so I probably forgot to write about them. Well yes, I bought a second-hand closed-cell sleeping mattress, Therm-A-Rest Z-lite Sol, but it was pretty much unused, so I'd consider it as a new one for me at least : ).

No more pots - new-school sacks instead

noreply@blogger.com (Juuso) — Sat, 11 May 2013 11:03:00 +0000

As I've been trying to grow some tomatoes and garlic of my own, I decided to give a go for HomeGrow Sacks by GreenHouseEffect. These sacks are a totally new way to grow house plants at your home. The plants won't need to stand on the floor anymore, as the sacks can be hung anywhere. Be creative. What comes to the aspect of lightweight living, they're pretty handy as you'll need less storage space for them compared to smallish pots. They can be re-used as well by washing them at 40 C. I ordered ten sacks that came in a 30x22x3 centimeter cardboard box, so I'll bet one's ten two-liter pots will take a whole lot more space on one's shelf in winter.

The sacks are perfect for smallish house plants like herbs, tomato etc. At the moment, I happen to have a basil in one, but I'll plant few tomatoes in them once they've grown bit bigger.

Finally, I'll probably have to admit that two founders of the company are my course mates from university and I'm pretty proud of them and their concept.

Microadventure @ Sipoonkorpi national park

noreply@blogger.com (Juuso) — Wed, 01 May 2013 16:20:00 +0000

Since I decided to spend this May Day in a different way, the plan was to head out to Sipoonkorpi national park by foot from Viikki suburb. As microadventures seem to be in fashion at the moment, we decided to give a go for one in the name of scouting. Microadventure is a bit branded name for a quick outdoor spurt away from everyday life, but I would still claim it's a pretty good concept for getting more and more people to give a go for outdoor escapes.

What comes to the planning of the route, I somewhat used the point-and-shoot method encouraged by Alastair Humphreys. I spotted a pothole on the map of Sipoonkorpi national park that was the way to go. In the evening of the 30th, we hiked from Viikki suburb to the first lake area that is located in the southern part of the national park. The first half of our route followed some smaller streets and recreational paths until we arrived south of the first lake area. On May Day, we hiked into the national park's larger area, at where we had our lunch nearby the pothole located in the middle of the area. Next, we decided to head towards the main road that is located at the eastern border of the national park. By following the road southwards few kilometers, it is possible to utilize the bus no. 93, which leaves from Landbo suburb, to get back.

[ A rough overview of our route (length approx. 25 km) ]

What comes to the weather conditions, it couldn't have been better as sun was shining at all times. The night was though bit chilly as the temperature was around two celsius degrees. During this microadventure, I managed to test my new UL sleeping pad that didn't perform so well. The aluminium foil was ripped at some parts of the pad that I was actually bit worried about beforehand. The foil should have been thicker to resist abrasion and better glue should have been used for that kind of purpose. Otherwise, a 120-centimeter pad works fine, especially as I happen to have a built-in ~50x50cm foam pad in my Osprey Mutant backpack.

Finally, I'll have to admit that the pothole might not be worth visiting, if you've seen them before. The pothole is about 60 cm in diameter and about 80 cm deep. The national park itself is pretty nice as it is located really close to Helsinki, even-though it has the "thousand path" dilemma of the southernmost national parks. There are quite many paths and intersections that are not marked on the map, so we managed to hike some elsewhere that we should few times. Still, we managed to find the destinations, where we were about to go. If you're really into pinpoint accurate orienteering, buy a map. We used free prints from the web service of National Land Survey of Finland. We would have had a map of the Sipoonkorpi area at the meeting place of our scout group, and all the paths we missed were marked.

Signs of Spring

noreply@blogger.com (Juuso) — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 20:30:00 +0000

As I got a tomato (plant) as a present in last summer, I decided to spare some seeds from the tomatoes for this spring. It took few weeks for the seeds to germinate, and I was pretty surprised that the germination rate was so high as the seeds haven't been treated in anyway. I didn't count the rate, but I'd say it's way higher than 80%. Hopefully, they'll do fine and give some more tomatoes for the coming summer as well.

[After]

[Before]

Another spring project took place today, when I decided to do some ultralight modifications on my old foam sleeping pad, also known as "the Spartan model". Earlier in this winter, I had cut the pad into 120 cms. The latest modification was done by gluing aluminium foil on it. To be honest, I'm a bit skeptical about the foil, but we'll have to wait and see whether it works or not.

Green corridors - a city's link to the surrounding nature

noreply@blogger.com (Juuso) — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 17:15:00 +0000

As the current trend of urbanization leads into a situation where the moving flow concentrates on bigger cities, the pressure of building on new sites becomes inevitable. Some cities were originally designed so that natural corridors were left for splitting the city into different sections by leaving e.g. long forested corridors in between. These so called "green corridors" are offering a possibility to be used for recreational purposes by the citizens. One example of these cities is the capital of Finland, Helsinki, where a few green corridors have existed, but they've been diminished due to construction of new buildings in the latest decades. These green corridors are formed by natural-like forests even-though there are some small man-made roads for recreational purposes like jogging, cross-country skiing etc. Nowadays, there are only two larger and uniform corridors left, or at least what I concern significant. Well, there is a third one as well (the easternmost) that doesn't really form a corridor but it's still a major area, even-though it was recently influenced by the new harbour area of Vuosaari. (highlighted on the following map)

[The map was created by using publicly available data produced by National Land Survey of Finland.]

For a winter sports person, the green corridors offer great possibilities for cross-country skiing and snowshoeing. The Central Park forms a long link of cross-country skiing tracks through out up to it's northernmost part, where the most popular skiing facilities are located. Snowshoeing can be done almost everywhere, or at least when there's enough snow for relevant use of snowshoes.

On a nice sunny day, it's awesome to utilize the opportunity to head outside into a green corridor from your doorstep. I did a short cruise using snowshoes, as I've been cross-country skiing in Lapland for six days during last week. The use of a HR-belt indicated that snowshoeing is a pretty good way for doing a recovery exercise, if you don't perform any significant spurts. At the same time, I was further testing my new Devold Multisport baselayer merino shirt that I found from a bargain basket at a Lappish sport shop. I'll have to admit that it's pretty awesome what comes to its performance compared to synthetic materials. Previously, I've sometimes used another merino shirt, which is more like a base/midlayer shirt, and it has been so awesome that I really wanted to give a go for another one for baselayer usage.

Finally, it's important to remember that Helsinki is a small capital compared to the big cities around the world. All in all, I would still claim that it would be important to implement this kind of infrastructural design to keep people in contact with nature, as urbanization is leading people away from it that scares me the most. There are built parks in many cities but natural-like habitats could be considered more important.

Modern wisdom: Living light - getting started

noreply@blogger.com (Juuso) — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 10:00:00 +0000

Nowadays, the society seems to be lively due to the fact that well-being is highly based on consumption. Vast consumption has lead into a situation, where the production of goods is highly optimized for efficiency, and thereby it often discards social and ecological effects. Even-though there are nowadays many responsible companies manufacturing e.g. outdoor clothing and equipment, it's mostly one's own responsibility to take actions to decrease consumption.

What comes to the modern outdoor clothing and equipment, the materials are mostly plastic-based e.g. different types of Nylon fabrics. Luckily, these modern fabrics exist in many different forms at the moment like fishing nets. The smartest recycling pioneers of the outdoor gear industry have realized the potential of grinding and reforming fibres into new fabrics. But the final frontier would still be the relevance of one's decision making before purchasing, I would say. Questions like "Do I need this for improving my performance?", "Do I already have a similar product?", "Would the new one perform somehow better than the old one?" etc. could be considered important.

There are many good articles about living lighter and optimizing your possessions not only in outdoor-wise but in general as well. Living lighter doesn't only make your move easier, but it'll also give an opportunity to stay organized. The following blog post about ultralight living at home somewhat opened my eyes for getting organized, as I've realized how much I possess e.g. clothing that I probably won't need. So I can't really brag about my skills, as I'm hopefully on the way towards living lighter.

Create your own necessity list to ease your life in modern world!

Here's my necessity list that I could figure out quickly for now. At least for me, the making of the list will probably be a continuously evolving process, as the relevance of each piece should be considered thoroughly. Mine probably lacks the everyday household necessities as well as sport equipment like bedding, tableware, skis etc., but I can admit that I possess only two sets of bedding that is enough for a normal and humble person. I guess it's time to start a raid against my closet.

My list:

Down jacket
Softshell jacket
Waterproofs (jacket and pants)
Beanies*
Cap
Fleeces*
Merino shirts*
Long johns*
Gloves/mittens*
Walking shoes
Hiking boots
Pants*
Belts*
Socks*
Briefs*
Tee shirts*
Button down shirts*
Sunglasses
Personal hygiene kit
Day pack
Water bottle
Water bag
Mug ("Kuksa")
Camera with memory cards and battery
Laptop computer
USB thumbdrive
Printer and paper
Wristwatch
Headlamp
Cellular phone and charger
Pens, pencils
Writing pads
Scissors
Stapler
Sheath knife
Hiking kit (one backpack and contents)

sleeping bag
sleeping pad
waterproof stuff sack
first aid kit

Toolbox with tools

(* items are multiples)

P.S. It's time to say good bye to the old blog name Multipurpose outdoors that served well for three years. At first, I thought about starting a new blog but I didn't want to start from scratch, so I'll just change the name and hopefully the content as well.

Picking cranberries

noreply@blogger.com (Juuso) — Thu, 11 Oct 2012 18:00:00 +0000

A secret cranberry spot has now been checked nearby our scout hut, and there were lots of them as I had noticed before-hand. During a two-hour time window, we managed to pick about five liters of them, as cranberry is bit less picker-friendly than e.g. lingonberry or blueberry, cause the berry doesn't grow in a bunch.

Now, I'll just have to wait until Christmas for eating them with Russian candy (bit like liquid fudge), or maybe I'll just have to taste them way before Christmas : ).

DIY backpacking towel

noreply@blogger.com (Juuso) — Thu, 04 Oct 2012 18:00:00 +0000

By this far, I've been using a 70's terrycloth linen towel, as it's quite small, light and dries quickly compared to terrycloth cotton. This 'old school' towel has worked just fine, and it's actually lot better than the ones usually sold in outdoor stores. I've heard quite a few reviews about these modern microfiber towels, which are light and dry quickly, but in real life microfiber won't absorb water that well, so it doesn't really perform that well for a towel.

Although my old towel works just fine, I decided to give a go for another type of linen fabric. Linen, that I'll use for the new towels, has a square waffle kind of texture, so it's sort of a compromise between normal and terrycloth linen. It's relatively light, but it should still absorb water quite well. And as my cousin has pointed out on an interrail trip, waffle linen also dries pretty quickly on the road.

At the moment, I've got one new waffle linen towel, which was completed today. The towel is approx. 120x50cm and weighs ca. 200 g.

Some Funnel Chanterelles

noreply@blogger.com (Juuso) — Sun, 16 Sep 2012 12:00:00 +0000

Today, I went to the first mushroom picking trip of this autumn. We didn't have any goal to reach, but still managed to find few liters. Most of them were still quite small, but some bigger ones were also found. The smaller ones are pretty good for making mushroom pickle, which I've tried once last year and it was damn good. The bigger one's were split into half and left to dry.

A day hike in Pallas-Yllästunturi national park

noreply@blogger.com (Juuso) — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 17:00:00 +0000

Since we had few days to spend after our trip to Norway, we decided to go for a day trip towards the nearby fell area, Pallastunturit. We hiked a path, which took us to the top of the national park's highest fell, Taivaskero (809 m.a.s.l). On our way, we also hiked up to the second highest fell, Laukukero (785 m.a.s.l). To summit Laukukero, it's only a one-kilometer hike off the Taivaskero route, so it's quite easy to summit them both at once. The length of the route is approx. 9 kms, and it starts from the parking lot of Hotel Pallas.

The Olympic Flame was lighted at the top of Taivaskero for the summer olympics in Helsinki in 1952.

Road trip to Kilpisjärvi and Norway

noreply@blogger.com (Juuso) — Sun, 29 Jul 2012 18:00:00 +0000

On Thursday the 26th, we headed further north towards Kilpisjärvi, where we had planned to spend few days. During the same day, after we had arrived to Kilpisjärvi, we decided to check out the second highest fell of Finland, which is called Saana. The top of Saana is located at the altitude of 1029 m.a.s.l. It's a four-kilometer journey (one way) to the top from the village.

There was also a four-legged 'person' coming down the path.

On Friday the 27th, we headed towards the 'Three-Country Cairn', which is a place, where the borders of Norway, Sweden and Finland meet each other. We took the 10-o'clock ferry over the lake of Kilpisjärvi to Sweden, where it's about a three-kilometer hike to the cairn. The wilderness hut of Kuohkimajärvi is located just a few hundred meters towards Finland from the cairn. We fried few sausages on a campfire by the wilderness hut before heading towards Kilpisjärvi along Arctic Trail. The scenery from the path is probably one of the best in Finland. The route back to Kilpisjärvi is about 16 kilometers long, if you begin from the dock in Sweden, but I decided to hike to the summit of a nearby fell called Pikku-Malla. So, the total length of my route was about 20 kms.

On Saturday the 28th, we headed to Norway, as we drove to Skibotn, from where we continued towards Alta. The road followed the shorelines of the fjords along the way to Alta. In general, the scenery was pretty awesome. During the next day, we visited the rock carvings nearby Alta. The place is a part of the UNESCO's world heritage sites.

Summertime in Lapland

noreply@blogger.com (Juuso) — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 18:00:00 +0000

It has been a while since I wrote my previous post, but it seems that this blog is on its way to turn into a blog for worshiping Lapland, I guess :). At the moment, we've been spending a few days at the village of Äkäslompolo. A minor setback has happened by so far, as the battery of my camera decided not to work and it takes a week or two to get a new one. So, I'll have to get along with my 2 Mpix camera on my mobile phone, and to use iPhone for achieving bit better quality.

Today, I decided to check out a famous gorge, which climbs up to a nearby fell called Kesänki. The gorge is called Pirunkuru ('Devil's gorge'). This gorge goes by the secondary peak of the fell, which is located at the altitude of 519 m.a.s.l. I decided to take a look, as it was almost along the path.

The lower part of the path is quite easy-going, but the path becomes steeper and quite rocky at higher altitude.

The view from the secondary peak towards the highest peak of Kesänki, and the fell of Lainiotunturi is located further away, and its peak was covered by a shadow of clouds.

There is a quite wide and flat gorge in between of Kesänki's two peaks, and it's called Tahkokuru. A nice wooden lean-to is located in Tahkokuru, where we fried some sausages on a campfire and had few cups of coffee. The total length of the route was ca. 11 kms from our hut, as we took a bit longer route back from the wooden lean-to, cause we hiked a path, which is located behind a smaller fell called Nilivaara. All in all, I would really recommend a hike over Kesänki via Pirunkuru, as a pretty nice Lappish scenery can be seen by spending few hours with not that much effort.

For next, we are planning to head further north towards Kilpisjärvi tomorrow, and then head up to Northern Norway.

Some more cross-country skiing and snowshoeing in Lapland

noreply@blogger.com (Juuso) — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 15:00:00 +0000

On Tuesday, it was bit cloudy, but otherwise the weather was pretty good for cross-country skiing. I used a different kind of kick wax, which performed better, and skiing went quite well. I skied some 12-15 kilometers, which included a nice break at a wooden lean-to shelter.

On Wednesday, the weather was bit too warm for skiing, so we decided to check another snowshoeing route, which is located on the other side of the main fell, Ylläs. This route goes up to a smaller 'pre-summit' called Pikkulaki. The length of this route is 6,6 km, but as we started from a nearby car park, the total length was ca. 7-8 km. As the temperature was rising during the day, it went finally up to +6C. So snowshoeing wasn't that easy choice either, as snow got quite wet and heavy.

On Thursday, I decided to head for a bit more uphill oriented skiing trip, as I skied a route, which goes up to a nearby fell called Kukastunturi (474m). The total length of the route was about 12 kilometers, of which the first half was more or less bit steeper uphill.

On Friday, I did a bit more easy-going route, which was a bit over 15 kilometers long. And tomorrow, it's time to head back south and get oriented for spring.

Kuertunturi snowshoeing route

noreply@blogger.com (Juuso) — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 14:05:00 +0000

As the weather was not that good for cross-country skiing today, we decided to go and have a look, what the surroundings have to offer for some snowshoeing. It has been snowing for the whole day, so the visibility wouldn't be that good, but we still decided to head up to a nearby fell, Kuertunturi.

There's actually an official snowshoeing route up to Kuertunturi, but we started heading towards the major flow of snowshoe marks and we ended up taking a different route to the top of the fell. To be honest, it was a pretty good choice to take another route, cause the official route happened to be a 2-meter wide compacted path, even-though the map of snowshoeing and skiing tracks indicated that snowshoes are a must for this route. The official route is 3,0 kilometers in one way, so 6,0 kilometers in total, but I'd guess that the length of our route was about the same.

Off to Lapland

noreply@blogger.com (Juuso) — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 15:00:00 +0000

It has been pretty quiet, what comes to blogging, as I haven't been doing that much outdoorsy stuff lately, cause I managed to twist my knee in January. Luckily, it didn't need any surgery, but it'll take long time to heel, as the doctor said.

Today was the first day of skiing during this winter, and the weather couldn't have been more perfect. As the doctor allowed me to do some easy cross-country skiing, I managed to ski ca. 15 kilometers, although the kick wax didn't work quite as well as I would have liked it to work. But I still have a week or so to do also other outdoorsy stuff, like snowshoeing as I took them with me, and there are even some new snowshoeing routes around the village of Äkäslompolo.

On our way here, we visited Haglöfs outlet, which is located in Haparanda, Sweden, as there's only a bridge to be crossed across a river from Tornio. I managed to find a new day/city backpack for myself, as I bought Haglöfs Raw for ca. 20€, cause daylight has started to come through the bottom part of my old, around 10-year-old Haglöfs Tight. I also bought a mid layer fleece for ca. 30€.

Hammering at our scout hut

noreply@blogger.com (Juuso) — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 07:00:00 +0000

We spent yesterday by doing some finishing touches for the new porch of our scout hut. Finally, the exterior is now pretty much finished, and the interior is well on its way to be finished as we mounted the indoor wood panels up to the eye level or maybe even bit higher.

I also tried the camera of my new Samsung. Well as it has only a 2 Mpix camera, the quality of the photos is not that good, but at least objects can be recognized from the photos. (My old Nokia had only a 1.3 Mpix one)

My new outdoor mobile phone

noreply@blogger.com (Juuso) — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 14:00:00 +0000

As my old Nokia got wet in my pocket and the keypad didn't work until the following morning during our hike in Nuuksio national park in August 2011, I started to look for a new one, which should be bit more outdoor proof.

Before Christmas, I decided to wish a new phone as a present, and fortunately Santa noticed my wish. I got a Samsung Xcover 271, which has the IP67 certification, so it's dust proof and waterproof (at 1 m depth for 30 minutes). Unfortunately, it's my first non-Nokia phone, as I'm Finnish, but the cruel fact is that the specs of the Samsung one are simply much more relevant for me.

Apparently, the phone is designed for quite tough use as you can see from the following video. Germans do know how to test products :)

The model is actually not brand new, as Samsung released it in October 2010, but it's enough new for a humble person like me.

Free online maps of Finland

noreply@blogger.com (Juuso) — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 12:00:00 +0000

It hasn't been happening that much during the last month or so, but I decided to add few recommendations regarding to maps of Finland for foreigners and why not for others too, who might be in a need of checking a trail or even print some free maps for their trip.

Excursionmap.fi is maintained by Metsähallitus. From this page, it is possible to print topographic maps in sizes A4 or A3, and there's a possibility to add different kinds of layers to the map e.g. national parks, national routes, wilderness huts, state-owned hunting and fishing areas, and much more. This service is definitely a good choice for any type of outdoor enthusiast, but note that all the newest and smallest paths may not be found, as this is a free service and won't be updated so often.

Kansalaisen.karttapaikka.fi is maintained by National Land Survey of Finland. This site has a quite often updated topographic map and aerial image window, which is though quite small, so it's not that usable for printing maps. Still, it's a good service for checking some small details.

Paikkatietoikkuna.fi is a more complex page, where it's possible to look for several different kinds of thematic maps of Finland not only the topographic or the road one. There are a huge variety of themes/layers available e.g. reverse color infrared aerial images, property borders, soil types etc. There is a free registration system and once you've got that it's possible to create map files up to the size of 1000x1000 pixels.

Scout hut renovation III

noreply@blogger.com (Juuso) — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 20:00:00 +0000

On this weekend, we proceeded in building our new porch at our scout hut. We didn't quite finish it yet, but we still managed to do quite a few things. What comes to the new porch; the exterior is now somewhat done (only some finishing touch is still needed), the door and the windows are still to be mounted, the interior is still in a need of wall and ceiling panels and some insulation material for the ceiling.

For the insulation, we used a Finnish wood fiber based insulation material called Ekovilla, which is made out of wood fiber separated from recycled newspaper. We chose it mainly because of two reasons;

A) we didn't want to deal with the glass dust coming out of the most commonly used glass insulation material
B) we wanted to be eco-friendly

Our work party also finished doing the new roof for our storage and some finishing touch for the chimney of our sauna.

Our paddling story on the local scouting magazine

noreply@blogger.com (Juuso) — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 10:00:00 +0000

As we had planned, we wrote a short diary kinda description of our paddling trip for publishing it on the official magazine of our scout district, which is called Heppu (freely translated as "Dude").

To be honest, the editorial staff of the magazine somewhat didn't quite succeed in the way we would have wanted it. They took away few best parts of the story and failed in putting only my name as the author of the story and pictures, which is bit sad, but hey you can't always win... In the end, the outfit is though quite nice.

Scout hut renovation II

noreply@blogger.com (Juuso) — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 19:00:00 +0000

Since we had nothing else to do on Saturday, we decided to continue the porch project at our scout hut. We just worked couple of hours in the afternoon, but we still managed to finish the front wall and we finished preparing the roof for the coming slats and metal roofing, as we covered the roof section with boards.

In a few weeks time, we'll most probably get it and a bunch of other things done as we're going to have another more official work party weekend in the end of October.

Scout hut renovation I

noreply@blogger.com (Juuso) — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 18:00:00 +0000

We spent this weekend at our scout hut doing some renovation work. As I mentioned earlier in spring, we're going to build a whole new porch. We drove there on Friday, but the actual work begun on Saturday by fixing the foundations of our firewood shelter and carrying all the lumber to the hut, as a guy drove there with his fully packed trailer of lumber and wooden fibreboards for windproofing.

On Saturday, a few other leaders/parents got the metal roofing done for our sauna in a blink of an eye, while we were building the frame of the porch. We kept on working with the porch until Sunday afternoon, although most of us left on Saturday. Luckily, we still have another weekend to finish our porch project in the end of October.

Signs of Autumn

noreply@blogger.com (Juuso) — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 18:00:00 +0000

I've been picking mushrooms during the last and this weekend, and it most definitely seems like autumn is beginning. Although, temperatures are still quite high, but it has been more rainy, and that's when mushrooms will begin to flourish. And some golden chanterelles can still be found, although the best season for those has already pretty much gone.

A week ago, we got few liters of funnel chanterelles and about a liter of golden chanterelles from a forest in Sipoo.

Today, we got almost 10 liters of funnel chanterelles, a liter of black chaterelles, few golden ones and an orange birch bolete nearby Nuuksio national park. So, there will be more than enough mushrooms for the next winter.

Oh and finally, I made some more black crowberry juice and it's damn tasty, again...

Another trip to Lapland

noreply@blogger.com (Juuso) — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 08:04:00 +0000

On Monday (22nd August), I suddenly found myself riding an overnight train towards the city of Rovaniemi. Actually, I had known that I would go there for quite a long time, cause I was about to head towards Lapland due to our Northern Finland course, which is all about the special characteristics of forestry in Lapland.

During the next day, we visited a sawmill, which is located in Kuusamo. Afterwards, we headed to a campsite nearby Oulanka national park, where we were going to spend few overnights in simple campsite lodges. We spent the 24th studying mires, but we also had a chance to visit one of the most famous rapids in Finland called Kiutaköngäs. The rapid itself looked pretty nice, although the water level was quite low, and we even spotted a brown trout jumping in the rapid.

On 25th, we started heading further north towards a field station of our university's forest department, which is located in Eastern Lapland nearby the village of Savukoski (well actually still 100 kms away). There's still an 8-kilometer hike on a path from an old border patrol station before you'll find the field station, so it is located pretty much away from everything. We spent the 26th doing group works about old grown natural forests, fell habitats and birdlife. On 26th, we had some spare time, so we decided to take a look on the border zone, which is only few kilometers east from the field station. The border zone is marked with yellow tapes, which are attached to a line of trees.

On 27th, I decided to hike up the highest of the nearby fells with a student friend of mine. The fell is called Sauoiva and it is located 615 meters above the sea level, which is nothing compared to the Alps, but somewhat high on the Finnish scale. The total length of our route was approx. 20 kms.

A rough overview of our route

From 28th onwards, our bus took us further north, where we spent the last days learning about the rights of Sámi people, and forest regeneration in Northern Lapland. And it happened to be rainy pretty much for the rest of our excursion, so we didn't plan to do anything special in outdoor-wise.