Monday morning (bright and early), Ronnie, Kaia and I headed out to Pudasjarvi to see Mom's grandma's old farm. It was a four hour drive to Anneli's (our tour guide for the day) and another hour to the actual farm. We stopped before we got to her house and grabbed some snacks. I got this Icelandic yogurt-very good- and had to get a photo of the very handy spoon it comes with! It turned out when we got to Anneli's that she had lunch for us so we ate again and headed out.
We had to use the bathroom before we got all the way to the farm so Anneli had us pull into Maija's son's house to use the facilities. I had to grab a photo of every child's own towel. Everywhere in Finland, there's at least two towels for drying your hands.
While we were there, we got to see Maija's part of the house. Mom and the rest had stayed here when they came on their trip years ago.
"The Stairs." These made quite a big impression on Mom and she told us all about how steep they were. Kaia and I both pointed them out first thing and got photos for Mom. :)
Great Grandma Elsa Fredrika's childhood home. I was expecting a little log cabin type house so couldn't get over how big this was!
In the entry- looking straight ahead was where the kitchen was. To the left were two bedrooms. To the right was the big main room where we sat and listened to them visit. I've never wanted to know Finnish more than on this trip!
Came in to the main room and they had coffee, tea and cookies ready for us.
Most of the stuff was original- the stove, however, was not. The board extended above the stove was for drying clothes. It was a bit chilly so I spent most of my time by this. :)
These two rods were for hanging bread/hardtack to dry. They had to have eaten a lot of it for them to have needed two rods!
A bunch of tools they used. Planers on the left- they used these on the log walls when they got too dark from smoke from the stove. The rectangles with pointed ends were shoe patterns. All the way to the right is a bear trap. The nails had hooks on the end so when the bear stepped on it, it couldn't get free.
Some cute hobnailed boots.
This cradle was over a 100 years old and was used as well.
Photos with the cousins. Anneli and Ali are our third cousins, as far as we could figure. I could see some resemblance in Anneli (maybe the aunties?). They both agreed Kaia and I (me especially) looked like relatives they knew.
The right side of this threshing barn is 150-200 years old.
I love the look of the old log buildings. The one on the left was about 100 years old.
An old fashioned sleigh.
Old hay barn and a view of the farm.
Our next stop was down the road at Maija's daughter's home. Again, frustrating to not be able to communicate- especially when they were my age- but so neat to meet all these cousins from across the world! I looked them up on Instagram and keep in touch that way.
Little woven items inside their house. They also fed us supper and showed us around their neat little farm!
Some nice furs.
Cute little chicken shed- they also had guineas, sheep and some dogs.
We also stopped by Anneli's grandma's old house. They took this house (5-8 total) from one huge house and moved it to this property.
Inside- This huge stove was built onto the wooden floor. It was so heavy that the whole floor had started to slope down to it. Also notice the rods for bread being used.
My favorite rocker.
Another cousin's house we stopped by. He is currently renovating it. I thought all the different stoves were so neat.
This house was very large and this room was about half of it. They said it was 861 sq. feet. The curtain on this stove hides a bed where you can sleep to keep warm.
The river by the house. We got home that night about 1130 pm. Long day but it was very interesting!
Tuesday afternoon- Kaia, Jeff and I (with Mitzi) went for a walk on the trail that goes by her house.
After our walk, we headed into town for some last minute stops. We ate at McDonald's for supper and I decided to try a salmiakki McFlurry. It wasn't bad and almost liked the little bit of salt going down. The aftertaste, however, was horrendous.
Kaia and Ronnie dropped us off at the Bennas train station Wednesday morning at 8 am. We had Johannes and Amanda with kids on the whole trip home. As they were moving more of their stuff back, we helped them get everything transferred over on the trains and through the airport to check it. That morning, Icelandair had cancelled our flight but I didn't see that email until after the one rescheduling us for 45 mins earlier. Thankfully, we still had plenty of time to get to the airport. We made it to PDX at 615 pm. There was way more smoke to greet us on our way back.
I have videos from my trip that I will be posting to my YouTube channel. Click the link below to check them out.
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