Nurhan's take:
Winter paid a visit. Temperature down below freezing, frost on the ground, puddles frozen over, lakes above 100 m (over sea level) with a layer of thin ice, some of the ski centers were looking at starting the snow machines (they did on the other side of the country and three of the centers are opening this weekend). Today the temperature went up by seven degrees centigrade, the wind kicked in and the rain returned. As most of our electricity in this area is generated by hydro-electric power, it means that the electricity should be cheap when there is a lot of rain, sadly this isn't the case as Norway is part of a European energy agreement which means that they sell the electricity abroad, and then when the lakes are low (mid winter) they then buy back electricity at a high price that is then passed onto the consumers, added to that they increased the 'base rate' for having electricity dramatically.
Thus:
Wood for the winter (next winter, needs one year to dry and has to be cut before Easter, to be used that winter). This and the wood piled alongside the garage is what one ten meter high ash tree looks like when split the traditional way (with an axe). And did my forearms, and shoulders realise something was different! But there is something very satisfying about splitting wood the old fashioned way.
Now ideally Kin should have been sitting out of the way:
But being a Newfie, he likes to be helpful:
And he had his own special way of 'assisting' with the wood stacking:
I think his theory is that if he spreads the wood over the largest area possible then surely it will dry quicker!
All this shifting wood makes him tired, especially when returning to the house, so he likes to have lie down, and it's quite difficult getting a 65 kg pup moving again. Here you get to see his reflexive jacket, and one of the two bicycle lights (red to port, & green to starboard). He managed to go swimming with them on last night and they still worked afterwards! They were completely immersed in water and have suffered no ill effects... Just to put this in perspective these lights cost 79 NOK for two, my Petzl head torch cost 890 NOK and it would not have survived that treatment!
This is the high point reached on the stairs; Kin's got quite good at getting to this point. He then performs a 37 point turn on the narrowest part of the stairs.
before heading back down the stairs (incidentally if you look at the stairs, the brown strip is sealant, after varnishing the stairs, I made a groove in them, put masking tape either side of the grove, put sealant in the grove, scraped the sealant flat, and then removed the masking tape, this gives a resistance strip so you don't slip on the varnished stairs and was originally done so Karma (my last Newfie) would have purchase when going down the stairs).
Today Kin got further:
And with a treat on the upstairs landing:
He then spent the next fifteen minutes in this position (as obviously turning around on the landing is scary, where as doing a 37 point turn on the stairs is easy...).
Finally he came all the way up. I have clothes drying in one room, a paragliding drying in another, so these doors were closed, so he only had the bathroom and my bedroom to inspect... oh how I've missed muddy face prints on my white sheets! Apparently my bed smells of me!
I tried to show him how to come down the stairs by 'walking' down on hands and knees. Try this, in this orientation the stairs really do seem steep, and blimey is it sore on the knees! I waited 30 minutes before he attempted the arduous journey down... but he did eventually come down! We were on the way out on a walk before this all happened, but I had to go upstairs again before leaving; not only did he follow me up, but he followed me down as well, with hardly any hesitation. Progress :-)
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