This last week has seen some action happening. The new dog kennel has moved forward with most of the walls being put up and new we are just waiting for door panels to arrive and it will be complete. A large stack of fire wood has been moved to make room for a future cabin. We're also starting to see the first signs of fall and preparations for winter are creeping into our thoughts. Birch trees have begun turning to shades of gold and yellow. A familiar coldness accompanies the night time and the smell of wood smoke drifts though the valleys.

A boy scout group from the UK is arriving in a couple weeks, so we have been preparing the property in Morka to serve them as a base camp. This has included setting up a rather large tipi with 8 m long poles and a diameter of roughly 10.5 m. The canvas is almost too heavy for 2 people to lift and it took 6 of us to set everything up. There are a ton of metal clasps and whatnot, which led me to the realization that this was another instance of the white man taking a perfectly good idea, making it "bigger and better," but really only making it more difficult and cumbersome. Let's just say I'm not looking forward to taking the bloody thing down...

I've decided to take my experience with scooping dog poo and building dog houses, combine the two, upgrade the concept, and build a cozy outhouse complete with magazine rack and windows. The frame is up now and the rest of it will come together in the next few days. Photos to come as another Swedish masterpiece is created! In other news, the fishing at Morka has proven worthwhile. Dave and I each caught a grayling and we smoked them using the newly constructed campfire oven/grill/smoker. The set up was tested and approved with some tasty steaks and pork chops coming off the grill.

That's it for now, more to come as the story unfolds.