Safety first Safety second

After our little adventure in the forest last week, we've had a pretty easy week so far studying plants around the college. Finally got my 50 species cracked. Out of our list of over 350 species we have to learn as part of the nature portion of the course, we had to collect or photo 50 of them, ID and label them with certain info. I started old school by collecting, drying and sticking the plants on paper, but soon realised that it was far easier to just snap a few pic's and hand the thing on a memory stick. As for the remaining 300 or so species, we will have nature knowledge tests throughout the year, the first one in about 8 weeks time.

Herb paris

Fireweed

Red stemmed feather moss

Labrador tea

I've got the 50 plants ID'd plus a few extra cos i'm sure I've got a few wrong, loads of them look the bloody same. I just need to transfer them to a computer with power point so I can create the file to hand in and add the extra info about the locations.

Ludo

Silja

Some of the guy's hard at work. Maybe I'll get in a picture one day

Fari and Irina

Andy and Emily

Yesterday we were put to work clearing a meadow to earn a little money for our upcoming trips. We were also there to find and preserve a few rare species of orchid that grow in the area, a few were found and a few were probably hacked down. But we earned something like 600€ for our troubles.

This week we've also been going through trip preperations and safety and risk assesments, not too exiting but all necessary as part of the business plan we have to write up also as part of the course. I have some idea's but nothing concrete yet so lots of work still to do.

Tongs

Tent peg

Feather stick

Feather sticks

Another part of the course is whittling, here are my first attempt's when I was sat at home. The tent peg is a little short and stumpy but it's just practice, I didnt get to tie up and try out the tongs cos the dog chewed it up before I had finished. He was obviously not impressed with my effort. Then there are the feather sticks, probably not the best but I think they would work just fine. Hopefully we start in the workshop soon. I found a few old axe heads at a flea market the other week that I bought for 1€ a piece, they'll clean up pretty good and I'll get to make handles for them and hopefully get one ready for our trip to Russia.

I'm off to prepare for our orienteering execrise tomorrow and get my stuff ready to head back to Turku for the weekend. Back to the big city where they have people and shops and everything.

Laters.

A week in the forest

Got back from our trip to the forest today, it was really good but I'm tired! First thing on my list of new equipment is a quality sleeping bag, I had a few sleepless nights because i was too cold. The days were warm but the temperature dropped at night.
I have to try and write this quick cos the school is gonna close for the weekend soon and that means no more Internet till Monday cos im staying here this weekend, so if I miss anything out I'll fill in the gaps later.

Van loaded and ready to go

We spent an hour or two on Monday morning loading the van and trailer with all of the tarps, big tents, cooking equipment etc, then off it went to our camping ground. We however were hiking there, a 10km trek taking about 2hrs. We met up with the van and carried all the equipment through the forest to our home for the week.

We were put straight to work, and put up the big tents, The green one (I forgot the name) has a stove inside and the white tent is a traditional Canadian tent. We were shown an example of how to build an open shelter and told different construction techniques, then we set about building our own.

The pics above were my camp set up, the second pic was on the second night after a cold sleepless first night. I had to make a few adjustments, adding first the sleeping bag bivvy, then a bed of spruce branches and ofcourse a little fire.

Fire making practice

 

Orienteering lecture

 

 

We did three Orienteering exercises during the week, they all went pretty well, not too difficult. The best was the last one when I was paired up with Aras, we had a mini adventure climbing up small cliffs and doing pull-ups on half fallen trees on our way round, whilst battling with the moose flies (I hate those things). In a few weeks we'll be doing night orienteering so we'll see how easy it is then.

 

 

 

 



Whittling

Everyone did a little fishing, well I didnt. I was in the cooking group for that day and by the time I had helped a few people set up they're fishing equipment I had to start preparing our lunch. Student Mikko was the only one to catch anything, a small pike. But they were only fishing for about half an hour so its ok. Our teacher Mikko, showed us how to prepare the fish for cooking and eplained a few things along the way. He also gave a talk before hand explaining fish behaviour and habitats. I learnt alot.

 Plant identification with Henkka, he knows his stuff

This was us today when we got back, everyone a little tired but we'd had a good week and we all get on really well so happy campers. Ive missed a few things out and havent told much of what we did during the week but this computer is playing up, and im getting kicked out of the computer room now so I'll continue next week.

Laters

Better late than never

So, it seems posting something everyday was a little optimistic, at the moment atleast. The wi-fi at the school won't be up and running until next month, so I only have use of the school's IT room, and by the time I've finished my evening tasks or taking part in whatever evening activities we have planned, I don't have enough time to get online before the school is locked up by Big Mikko.

Pyynikki observation tower in Tampere

We visited Tampere during the week, we had a little tour and checked out a few of the outdoor shops in town. I snapped a couple of pic's with my phone but they're pretty bad quality, I'll have my camera on the go next week.  

A view from the tower

The Pyynikki observation tower is located on top of the world's largest esker over 500 feet above sea level, offering a wonderful view spanning over two lakes and the entire city of Tampere. Unfortunately the sun was shining through the clouds in the opposite direction so I couldn't get a shot of the city with my phone. If you don't already know, a little task for you is to find out what an esker is? (Luke and John especially).
P.S. the cafe in the tower sell lush doughnuts!

When we got back from Tampere we found out that one of our teachers, Mikko, had been heating the smoke sauna all day. It would've been rude not to go, so we went for a sauna and swim, and grilled some sausages at the fire.

Friday we went to Seitseminen national park about 10km from school. The heart of the National Park is the old-growth forest of Multiharju, and is one of the oldest forest areas in southern Finland, some of the trees are over 400 years old.

Timo 'Henkka' Järvenpää telling us how to extract resin and tar from pine trees

Next week we will be in the forest! Obviously no computers, so my next post will be up hopefully on Friday. Looking forward to next week. It's gonna be the first proper week: setting up camp, which is a 3 sided shelter, is going to be my outdoor accommodation for the whole year (yes including winter!); orienteering exercises day and night; fire making; different fishing techniques; plant identification: edible and poisonous. And even though we're gonna be in the middle of a forest, this is Finland, so there is never a sauna far away. Im going to have loads of pictures from next week and they are all going to be here.

Laters

First two days

I arrived at the school on Monday morning after a three and a half hour drive from Mikkeli, and got to meet the rest of the students and our main teachers for the course. We introduced ourselves and had an small introduction to the course.

Where we're living for the next ten months

There are seven dudes in our flat, and everyone else in in the flat next door. I'm sharing a room with Robin from Scotland, lucky for him he already had a pair of earplugs cos he's gonna need em! Everyone else is pretty sound so we should get on alright.




Sauna

We got shown around the school, all the important places like the sauna's both regular sauna and smoke sauna. Also the forge where we're going to be forging our own knives in a few weeks.




Fire place and smoke hut

When we have done our basic kayak saftey course at the end of the month the kayaks and canoes are free to use in our own time on the lake. We also have fishing equipment and a boat. So it's not too bad here.

Today we headed out in the minibuses to check out a few of the schools area's in the forest's, where we're going to be staying next week for our first camping exercise. We'll learn how to set up camp correctly, test our basic skills, fire lighting and woodcraft. The trips start easy and get progressivly harder as the course go's on.

This week is all introduction to the course. We went through the year's program today and although it's ten months and sounds like a long time there is a massive amount to do and learn. It's all hands on, so there will be no sitting around in a classroom for hours on end struggling to stay awake.

Right I'm off to the forest, these plants aint gonna learn themselves and ther're gonna be gone soon so I've gotta get it while the getting's good.

Laters.

A little intro

Having not written much more than my signature when paying for things since leaving school, and having not barely even read a blog before, I don't really know what I'm doing. So bare with me. I'm writing this blog so friends and family can keep track of what I'm up to.

Ok, so tomorrow is the big day, the start of a hardcore ten month wilderness guide program. I had my last day at work on Friday. I gladly said goodbye to that although I will miss a payday every two weeks!
 

Me and Heli munching on Lingonberries

I'm in Mikkeli for the weekend relaxing with my fiance before I head to Kuru early Monday morning. I'm a little nervous, but excited about starting the program and what is going to come out of it.

There are 16 students on the program, I think about half of them are from Finland and the rest are from all over the world. I'm looking forward to meeting them tomorrow.

There's alot to learn! So far I've been given a list of 350 trees, flowers, plants, mammals, fish, mushrooms, insects and bird species to learn, which we get tested on throughout the program.

This coming first week we will be getting familiar with the gear and skills that a guide needs aswell as go through the whole program and timetable. I already have alot of kit thanks to my brother Matt. I will be posting pictures and info on what I have as I use it.

Unless we're doing overnighters in the forest I will try and post something here every day. I have left my camera charger at home in Turku and the camera battery is dead, so I will be using my phone to take pictures with this week.

Feel free to comment below, Laters.