Finnish Forging

Finns are good with their hands. Many people here have some sort of handicraft that they do on the side. My cousin's husband Jani is the perfect example. He is a K-9 police officer by day and a blacksmith by night. In addition to beautiful hand crafted knives, Jani can whip up just about anything he wants. We had the opportunity to visit his working space which a few generations ago housed the local blacksmith. There were plenty of original tools hanging around from years past. So I had to ask...

"Can you make a bracelet?"

And so, Jani forged a personal bracelet before my eyes. Amazing.

Finnish Trifecta

We are in Finland right now (2 weeks in + 2 weeks to go), finally with some good internet, so take a look at what our first full day in Finland looked like (after we slept off our overnight bus from Helsinki to Äänekoski).

My uncle Risto is a true mountain man. He can make anything with his hands and he could survive in the woods with just his knife. With that being said, he also built the trifecta of Finnish heaven in the middle of a birch forest.

Sauna + Kota + Bath

A Kota is a typical Finnish teepee type house used for grilling, warmth, and it always makes for a nice gathering.

Below you can see the Kota as well as the bath (filled with water from the nearby stream). Talk about nature being restorative. Typically you would migrate between the sauna, bath, stream, etc, until you worked up your appetite for a bite in the Kota.

Tervetuloa Suomeen! (Welcome to Finland)