2025-02 First Ski Use

I spent all this month with an overuse injury on my legs related to skipping. Being unable to continue skipping was frustrating and I’m not good at resting. I likely need to wait another month because I got too eager and tried to exercise again too soon. I was able to do other activities, that didn’t pull on the tendons, without problems.

In the Forest with Skis

I had no idea how to ski but I had some wooden skis with bindings for normal boots, and some time off work, so I strapped the skis to the side of my rucksack and walked to the forest trails with them. I wanted to try and put a new flag up at one of the communal stuggas (a wooden cabin). It was also an excuse to have a mini adventure in the snow and sun.

The stugga was about another 160m above sea levels so most of the trip was uphill. As the trail got steeper I unpacked and put on skins over the skis, which were a material that allowed the skis to be used to walk uphill. They made the skis stick on all slopes except the very final approach.

My mission at the stugga was unsuccessful as I couldn’t get the old flag down. I could untangle the ropes from the nearby tree but the remains for the old flag were stuck in the pulleys somehow. I wasn’t brave enough to attempt to climb up the pole and I’m not sure the pole would survive that. I reported the problem to some local people who might be able to organise something.

The journey back down consisted of me walking the steepest parts, and crashing a lot on the milder parts. In hindsight, I think narrow paths with compacted icy snow were not a good idea for starting skiing on but it was a learning experience.

Workshop

The workshop machinery needed mounting. I built a wooden stand from rough-wood stock that I had stored. To buy a stand would have been the equivalent of about £60 and I wanted a more compact stand because space in the workshop is limited. I might make another when time allows. If I’m going to make lots of similar ones I could make a jig to speed things up.

I don’t have a jointer so I had some problems with the wood being twisted which I could work around but it is tempting to buy ready-planed wood in.

Finances

This months finances was allocated the annual car test and repairs, more filling of the food cellar, opticians, dentist, and a second hand guitar.

I’ve watched the US news with growing unease. I currently invest a portion of my wage into an “ISK” savings fund when you can control over the investments – roughly the Swedish equivalent of a UK stocks and shares ISA. Because of what the US political scene is likely to be for the next few years I changed my monthly savings from investing in Global/US related companies to EU related companies.

Food Cellar

We’re getting well practised at food rotation in the food cellar and working out what works well for us and what doesn’t. We try to only store what we regularly eat, and eat the oldest item first from any food type (first in first out as opposed to a “backup only” store). There is no bulk food supplier nearby, this far up north, so I fill it a little more each month as opposed to buying large bulk foods.

Opticians

The optician is in a town to the north and I’ve been going back and forth to get some modern contact lenses and for the optician to troubleshoot the fitting. It also gives an excuse for my wife and I to have a day out together.

Sadly my wife likely picked up influenza somewhere during this trip and was poorly for the next week.

Car Repairs

The equivalent of a UK MOT test was due. I wasn’t too surprised when the car failed on a collection of minor items.

Guitar

I haven’t had a guitar in about 7-8 years when I had an acoustic briefly, before giving it to someone who was struggling financially and had theirs damaged after an arson attack on their home. Before that I had an electric guitar during my later school years and at uni, but swapped it for a car during some difficult financial times.

I had been a lazy player but that’s ok, I just wanted to have the option for a hobby in winter that I could reach for as motivation took me. I could afford a second hand guitar that would be fine for learning on and good enough for anything else that might follow. An acoustic wouldn’t need an amplifier but the house gets dry during winter and acoustics can suffer in changes of humidity. An electric would be great but I didn’t see any second-hand for sale in the range I was interested in.

On blocket.se , the Swedish equivalent of ebay, I spotted a second-hand semi-acoustic with a hard-case that the seller was willing to ship. It was cheap because somewhere in the ownership chain, someone had re-badged the guitar to pretend it was a more expensive Gibson guitar, or they just liked the other manufacturer. The seller was honest and gave the correct details however and I double checked from the details of the guitar against photos of the model online. I was willing to take the risk on it because it was an Ibanez Artcore which I normally wouldn’t be able to justify the cost of.

The Ibanez logo on the head looks to have been sanded off and then hand painted over, with a Gibson decal applied on top. They also changed the tuning nuts for a different style. Sadly they also removed the manufacturers paper stamp that traditionally lives inside the sound box. Tragically, this later change can’t be reversed as it was had the guitars serial number on it. Repainting the head might be possible.

For this month, I just gave it a good clean, and put new strings on it. I immediately realised I was missing 101 little things, like a guitar stand or a strap. The first acoustic version of a recent song that I wanted to learn needed a capo which is not expensive but takes time to arrive via post this far up north. There’s lots of other songs but it’s just an example of the extra hidden hosts.

Next year I might hunt for a good beginner-intermediate second-hand electric guitar, like an Ibanez RG421, to compliment the semi acoustic, but right now I have everything I need in order to practise when I want to.

Weather

It’s been an abnormally warm January and February so there has been a lot of melting going on when the snow would normally be staying around. This causes problems with sheet ice and there has also been more rodents around.