They eye-rhino Monday, 12-Oct-26 11:42:26 CEST

Sunday, 18-Oct-26 21:39:37 CEST

Heavyweight Mikado

This week we played heavyweight Mikado in the forest.

Monday 12 October

We had a well-deserved slow morning after yesterday's journey to the cottage. At first, we had tea in bed. I blogged, and DW knitted. I had a backlog to catch up on. Eventually, we got out of bed, and I started preparing breakfast, our fruit smoothie, that I make every day. DW baked classic country-style bread this morning.

This morning's smoothie had apple, banana, pear, orange juice, and bilberries (Vaccinium myrtillus). I know what they are called in Swedish, but what are they called in English? Until today, I thought they were huckleberries, but huckleberries are something else. In Europe, we call these berries bilberries. They're similar to huckleberries, but bilberries have smaller, almost unnoticeable seeds, while huckleberries have larger ones. We have bilberries on our property at the cottages as well, and they are still edible. That means we have not had the first freezing. When that happens, the bilberries are over.

At 11:30, two Swedish JAS39 Gripen fighter planes were practicing low-altitude flying over the cottage. The noise was enormous! It was over in two seconds; we had no time to photograph the planes. The planes had probably launched from the military airport at Haghult, near Värnamo. In an instant, we became aware of the world's current security situation. If we had any illusion that everything was honky dory in the world, that illusion was now blown away in that split second.

Seeing the two fighter jets barely fly above the treetops made me think of a plan I had earlier this year: to buy a drone. I had been thinking of getting a drone to capture beautiful shots from above. In the Netherlands, where we live, the airspace is restricted; I need special permits and whatnot. I did not have the energy for that. Here at the cottage, there are no restrictions. I wonder how easy it is for a fighter jet to swallow a drone? What happens to the fighter jet?

After the fighter-plane flyover, we calmed down, had lunch, and ate the newly baked bread, and it was delicious!

DW and I walked on our cottage property. I was especially interested in the area near the small lake on the other side of the road called Åsvägen. Here we found around 18 trees that had fallen over. It was hard to tell exactly how many because it was a bit of a large-scale Mikado mess. So we decided to harvest them. We just had to go back to the cottage and get ready, but on the way back we came across two adorable cats. I am a bit cat-obsessed, so this was a great moment for me.

The neighbor who lives there got two young cats. One was a white cat named Knut, and the other was a striped cat named Manne.

Knut sat near the house and observed us from a distance. Manne came and greeted us and even started purring. It is a lively cat and a little too fast for good photographs. To photograph Knut, I need a DSLR with a proper telephoto lens.

We walked back to the cottage and loaded all the gear. We loaded the motor chainsaw, protective boots and trousers, helmet, 2-stroke petrol, etc.

The chain wasn't that sharp, but I didn't feel like sharpening it this afternoon. It had to work. I cut a wedge near the trunk. The rootball could fall two ways: either onto me, crushing me, or back the way it came. Standing next to a rootball as heavy as a small truck is terrifying, so I used a couple of strategies to avoid tragedy.

I often make a wedge on top of the trunk. I figured the wedge would lock the rootball before it was too late. This time, the rootball fell back into the hole it came from. For other larger rootballs, I will use another strategy. I leave a larger stump. On the one hand, the stump should be short enough that its weight is less than the rootball's. On the other hand, the stump should be long enough that, if the rootball falls in the wrong direction, the stump stops the rootball and protects me from being crushed.

In Sweden, Skogsstyrelsen is the authority on forest maintenance, and years ago I read about handling storm damage in forests on their website. If you are in a similar situation, find out what to do and how before you go out with the chainsaw and start working. They also have IRL courses, but I never attended them.

Theory is all fine, but trees lying like the Mikado tabletop game, with bends and forces, don't always follow theory. This work is extremely dangerous, and I am aware of it and take it methodically.

When we were ready for the day, the neighbor in the nearby house got home from work, and we chatted about his cats and how things are going. Our property surrounds his on almost all sides. The side that isn't ours faces a creek.

When we came back to the cottage, we started the robot lawn mower. We named it Signe Bergman, and it is a Honda Miimo 2500 Live. Some people name their robot lawn mowers, and we are that type. So Signe is a strong woman; she can take a lot of shit. I need to configure the apps for her, but the forest work is taking up my time right now.

Tuesday 13 October

This morning, after breakfast, I made a stick figure from two chestnuts DW had found below our chestnut tree.

We went out into the forest again. We filled the chainsaw with 2-stroke petrol twice before lunch and twice after lunch. It feels like a good measurement for work in the forest.

DW dragged the cut-off branches aside to make it easier to walk. Here is a video of me cutting off the trunk near the rootball. Here, in this situation, I made a wedge that is then placed back where it was cut out; it locks the trunk from moving back, squeezing the chainsaw blade.

When everything ended successfully, I gave the camera a thumbs-up.

There was also a pinching incident. Pinching is the worst that can happen. The chainsaw is stuck inside a trunk as heavy as a family car. I cleared the trunk of branches and cut it into five-pace-long pieces. It sounds unscientific to measure each piece by five paces, but it works. If each pace is about one meter, then all will be fine. The trunk had fallen over another rootball. I cut the trunk right over the other rootball.

Then I had to release the trunk from its own rootball. I noticed the trunk wanted to fall back into its hole, so I cut it off from the top down, which should work according to theory. To my great surprise, the chainsaw blade got pinched at the bottom of the cut. I don't have a second chainsaw lying around for a situation like this.

The local hardware store was still open. I figured they might have a new 14-inch chainsaw guide bar and a new chain. I could unscrew the bar from the chainsaw and buy a new one. When the body of the chainsaw was unscrewed, the trunk was hanging in the air, a bit dangling.

I inspected the cut and noticed that the first cut I made on the other side of the trunk didn't meet the first cut. There was an overlap. If I had met the cuts, I wouldn't have gotten pinching. Now that the chainsaw body wasn't below the trunk, I did not risk anything. It wouldn't feel good to have the trunk fall onto the chainsaw body, but now it was gone. Only a tiny connection point remained in the wood, holding the trunk to the rootball. I started rocking the trunk, and sure enough, it broke off from the rootball. The ball returned to its hole, the guidebar got loose, and the trunk lay down nicely. Fantastic!

Every time we leave the forest, the white cat Knut comes to watch us leave the driveway. Otherwise, he is very shy. I drive a bit slower, and sure enough, there he is, waiting for us.

We went to DM and DF this evening. They had made dinner. We small-talked and caught up on all the little stories of what has been going on. DM had made a cabbage pudding and served it with cooked potatoes. We brought a butternut squash, and DM will extract the seeds and try to grow them in their garden next season. The pudding was delicious.

Wednesday 14 October

This was the third day cutting fallen trees from their rootballs, and I felt a little broken. The weather was fantastic though. Yesterday DW suggested I make lever poles from branches; you never know when they'll come in handy. In the morning I made two lever poles.

We had lunch, then continued. It was still sunny. Soon after entering the forest, the chainsaw got pinched again. This time, I was making a simple cut on a trunk lying on the ground. I had estimated it was lying flat, but it was not. The cut started pinching, so I widened it, then went deeper into the trunk, and it got stuck. We then used the lever poles, and it worked; we freed the chainsaw.

At the end of this trunk, the rootball was a little stubborn. It wouldn't fall back. We pushed as hard as we could, and I may have strained my back a little. All other rootballs are made safe by falling over on their own, but this one remains. When we get the tractor with the winch crane, I can probably attach a winch cable and force the rootball back down.

Before leaving today, we met Manne. He is such a sweet cat. He quickly checked out both me and DW. When we left, Knut stood where he usually does to watch us leave.

We went back to the cottage to check on the tractor. The tractor's battery was unhappy; it complained about being neglected for too long. I put it on a charger. That will make it happy again.

Instead of working on the tractor, we collected fallen leaves. This will make Signe Bergman's work easier.

The chestnut tree lost most of its leaves. We have a beech tree beside the cottage, and it hasn't gained much autumn color.

Thursday 15 October

It was a little misty in the morning. The plan was to load the winch crane and wagon onto the tractor and head into the forest to pick up logs. I have never documented how I do this, and every time a little mishap happens, I feel like I could have avoided it if I had. I am also sure you won't find information on the Internet about how to do this. So here we go. Here is a photo-story of the steps I take to get the crane and the wagon onto the tractor.

	This is the power take-off shaft. I greased it and placed it between the tractor and the winch.
	I parked the rear of the tractor near the winch, which I have standing in the barn door opening.
	I put the shaft on the tractor splines and the winch splines. After compression, it can be stubborn to loosen again, but I use a crowbar. A spring holds the tractor arms together. That spring is both a curse and a blessing. The spring is below the shaft.
	Here both arms are connected to the winch. The power take-out is connected, and the third point is connected to the winch via a red bar. It is now possible to lift the crane with the arms. A chain on the power take-out shaft shell needs to be hooked up to the arm so the shell doesn't rotate with the shaft.
	Behind another barn door, I got the wagon. I put the crane on the ground because the hook can only be lowered when the arms are in the bottom position. Here I made a mistake. I didn't extend the crane legs far enough. We will come back to that in a moment. I connected the winch to the wagon so I could pull it out. I have a block of wood that the front of the wagon can roll onto.
	It went smoothly. I lifted the wagon and placed the wooden trunk farther so that I could roll the wagon again.
	Here, the wagon reached the place where the hook will be when I lower the arms. But first, I need to take the arms off the crane. This is a tricky moment.
	The arms are down, and the hook plate is lying on the ground. Now I need to put the wagon ring on the hook.
	Sometimes the hook is stuck, but that went fine this time.
	I now raise the arms and connect them back to the crane. My mistake was setting the crane too low, so when the wagon is lifted and the hook is raised, the crane suddenly rides on the wagon's front beam, which isn't stable.
	I marked a pole to indicate the lowest point the crane can be while standing on the ground. I will need to remember that for the next time.
	Putting everything back happens in reverse. But that is for another time. I filled up the tires to the required air pressure. I filled them to 1.5 bar.

 

Now we could go out in the forest and winch in logs. We were busy for a couple of hours, and all went fine. DW operated the crane, and I guided the logs onto the wagon.

Loading logs is a two-person job, especially with a winch crane. The crane is very simple. It has a mode when it retracts the winch, pulling, for example, a log. Then it is possible to stop dragging. In that mode, the winch cable is locked. Then you can unlock the cable, and that is the tricky part because you need to be careful. If there is, for example, a three-thousand-kilo log hanging in the winch, you often want to lower it in a controlled way, and then it is not just about releasing the lock. You can do that, but often that is not that handy. I taught DW the various modes, and she picked it up quickly. When we got tired, it was harder to be careful when releasing the lock.

You need to be inventive to get the logs on. We got planks to let the logs glide onto the wagon instead of under it. We got an arm with a hook that you can use to roll the logs. I love that it is not only manual labor, but you need to figure out new solutions for every new situation to get the logs onto the wagon, but I do realize that if we had a modern hydraulic lift arm with claws, I could have done this work myself and DW could be sitting in the cottage knitting.

Then we left the forest. The neighbor arrived then, and we chatted with him. He got three tractors himself. While we talked, Manne and Knut climbed around on the load of logs. They liked this wagon.

I wasn't careful and left the light on, draining the battery while we talked. When we finished talking, I tried boosting the battery by connecting our car to the tractor, but it didn't help. We could borrow a battery from our neighbor, so that was a relief!

When we finally got home with the tractor, the dusk had already set in. It was too late to finish unloading the logs.

Friday 16 October

It was drizzly this morning. DW baked bread.

I had an appointment at DM and DF to meet with an energy consultant. Many ideas floated, from off-grid to spot-price trading and EV car charging. DM and DF got solar panels; how can they use them best?

The consultant ruled out charging the car from the solar panels in an off-grid solution because it would be too expensive. We continued talking about other solutions possible with on-grid systems. In Sweden, you can get electricity contracts with highly variable prices, and some home energy systems use these price fluctuations. You can install a home battery, buy electricity when it is low-priced, and sell it back when it's high-priced.

From my research, I found that overdimensioning the home battery is pointless. The best solution is to size the battery for summer energy use, from sunset until you go to bed. I tested this theory with the consultant, and he agreed. This company is well established in this area and has a good reputation; they aren't trying to mislead customers, but a larger-than-necessary battery is obviously much cooler to sell. He promised to make an offer for an 8-kilowatt battery and a 16-kilowatt system.

A quick Google search while the consultant was present suggested that the electric car (battery EV) that DM and DF already got can be programmed with a charging schedule. This feature had to be figured out. It is much cheaper to use the things already in place. Later, after the consultant left, we found out their car doesn't have that feature. To fix that, they need to replace the EV charger.

The solar panel inverter also needs to be replaced to make smart decisions on the spot market. It sounds like there are a lot of things to replace. The question is how long it will take to get a return on investment. Perhaps a little provocative even for me, being their son, I asked DM and DF how old they plan to be and how that relates to the equipment's lifetime.

After the consultant left, I went home and unloaded the wagon from the tree trunks. That went well. I even managed to do a beautiful rolling maneuver with the winch that I filmed, so I have the evidence!

For this maneuver, I rolled the winch around the trunk, and when I pulled the winch cable, the trunk started rolling over the flat steel pipes normally used for the wagon's siding. I like being able to use my creativity on these solutions, but I do understand it would have been easier with a hydraulic arm with a claw at the end, but I don't have that.

Saturday 17 October

Today the weather was fantastic for going out in the forest and loading more logs onto the wagon, but did we do that? No, we went to the city to go shopping at thrift stores. If you follow this blog, you probably already know we like going to thrift stores. Until recently, I called them second-hand shops, but apparently, for the past two years, it's been more trendy to call them thrift stores. Is it about time to be trendy now, Jens?

We went to EFI in Värnamo. It is an organization that uses income from the thrift store to help children in less fortunate countries. I found a PA system in this shop. It had two speaker boxes with sturdy handles. It also had a box with cables and an amplifier inside a suitcase. Here, a person with the text "I am a happy helper" on his back writes a receipt for the equipment. All helpers wore bright red vests, so it was easy to spot them.

The two happy helpers brought the PA system to the back of the shop where I could pick it up later. I found trousers and a winter coat; it was an excellent shopping tour, but for me the PA system was the cherry on top of the cake.

Next up we went to Erikshjälpen. We also found things to buy there.

When we got home, DF and DM stopped by to help with the technical stuff. DF let me check out his cable treasure. He had a 3.5 mm-to-RCA cable we needed to bring sound from a laptop to the amplifier. I only got sound in one channel from the 3.5 mm-to-RCA cable I borrowed from him. Oddly, the amplifier played this mono signal through both speakers. The sound quality is sufficient for the cottage. I haven't decided what to do with the speakers; should I bring them to the Netherlands, or should I leave them?

Just as I was about to go to DF to borrow the 3.5-to-RCA cable, I came across a man who stopped his car at our cottage. It was Peter Johansson, the farmer who has cows at our cottage. He didn't come in his blue overalls and tractor, but in normal clothes and a family car, so I didn't recognize him! He told me he brought the cows home today for the winter. Now he just came to disconnect the electric fencing for the cows. This is great news because it means we can walk freely in the fields without being surrounded by curious cows.

Sunday 18 October

This morning it was calm and sunny. I planned to make a cup of tea for DW and me, but while I was in the kitchen, I noticed three roe deer (Capreolus capreolus).

The tea had to wait. I grabbed my DSLR with the 55-300 lens and started photographing the three roe deer.

	Here is a photo of a roe deer looking into the camera with a leaf in her mouth, while another roe deer grazes with its head down, showing its rump patch. The bucks (males) have an oval patch.
	In this photo, the rump patch is clearly oval. If the shape is like an upside-down heart, then it is a female (does).
	In this photo, you can see the silhouette of a roe deer standing near the large oak tree. In the background, autumn-colored leaves are lit by the morning sun.

 

I first noticed them in front of the workshop house. Then they walked across the lawn in front of the cottage and up the hill beside the house with the large oak tree. I think it was a mother with her two male fawns (kids). I think I noticed one of them had an upside-down, heart-shaped rump patch.

In Swedish, there is a word for jumping funnily: "Att slå en kapriol". Apparently, it has to do with the fact that goats can do that too. When they gave the roe deer its Latin name, they thought it was a little smaller and goat-like, so they called it "Capriolus"; besides, the roe deer can also jump in funny ways, so it comes full circle.

It was a magnificent day, perfect for going to the forest to get another load of logs. It had been freezing overnight, so the bilberries were done with. Before breakfast, I turned on the tractor's motor heater so the oil would flow more easily by the time we finished breakfast.

After breakfast, the tractor started really easily. I suspect an electrical issue with the tractor's lamps, and if you don't turn them on, the issue goes away. Let's say, that is my hypothesis. If it turns out to be right, then that is so. Up until now, I have always turned on the light even when it wasn't needed.

We arrived at the fallen trees and readied the tractor to haul the logs. I figured out that as long as the tree is connected to the root system, it is called a trunk, and once I cut it off, it becomes a log.

The first five logs went fine. Then it was time for the next layer, and I made a special solution for that. I cut a notch in two logs so that we could let the log glide along two sturdy planks, and we expected everything to go perfectly. That was not what happened. The log was too heavy, and the platform and the two logs it leaned on tipped, and now the heavy log was lying below the wagon. We left it there and went home for lunch. We took the logs we had already fetched with us and unloaded them next to our wood house.

After lunch, we continued. The weather was magnificent. This time, we didn't do any special solutions; we just loaded the logs. DW handled the crane well; we had a good flow. One hour before sunset, we drove to the cottages with the logs. I figured we would need an hour to get the logs off the wagon, and I was right. DW counted the rings of the large log in the middle, and it has about 70 to 75 rings.

We drove home, and at the spot where Knut normally is sitting waiting for our departure, there was no cat. I do wonder where he was.

The leaves are turning yellow, red, and orange, and they go really well with the sunset.

It was almost dark when we were finished unloading the logs. The last sparkling sunlight vanished behind the horizon.

Here ends this magnificent day, and this week's blog. I have been writing 4217 words. Next week we will continue loading logs and discover new things. Welcome back!