The first adventure: Pälkäne off-road!

First of all, sorry for the really, really, unacceptalbly long break in the blog!

We'll be catching up now, because I conveniently caught a cold yesterday and I finally have some time on my hands.

Speaking of yesterday... we went offroading for the first time with the truck. It was really good to test the truck in some forest conditions, now we know what we can handle and what not :)

We left for Pälkäne near Tampere, 150 km from here, early in the morning. We caught up with four other trucks at a gas station and after some coke and coffee, drove with them to Pälkäne.

The place was pretty amazing (also from a historians perspective :)) and it was pretty cool of them to welcome us there. The host's help was also very valuable!

 

The king of the event, in our opinion :) Finnish army SISU

We almost got stuck in the first curve, and after that a few times in the most unexpected places, that didn't look so bad. Summa summarum, we desperately need new tires!

 

Here we go!

I guess our son was right in saying, that when you brake something, it's a sign of a good offroading :) We got in a bad jam nearing the end of the day in the middle of some birches. The condensation valve in the air tank got loose and the air pressure escaped. But, with the help of the host and some guy we hadn't even met, we got a spare part and the help to fix it. And everything was great again!

 We didn't get to see much of the birch forest...

As with all outdoor hobbies, you should never forget your snacks. We had some breakfast and lunch sandwiches packed, with smoothies and coke. We also barbecued sausages, as is custom in Finland in almost all outdoor activities. There was a wonderful "kota", or barbecue hut in use on the grounds. There was a bigger off-road event for smaller cars on the grounds as well, so we had lots of company in the hut. Leo also found a playmate from one of the trucks, a girl only 9 moths older than him.

The crowd is gathering to cheer a truck and an ATV across a puddle and up a hill

After some final difficulties on the last drive, we got out of the forest just in time before dark (at 3.30 PM).

Almost there!

In the episodes to follow: what have we been doing after last spring? Stay tuned...

Through my window...

... I can see there's more than you and more than me. Through my window I can see our wildest dreams could be so real.
- Bunkface

 

See? Maybe a mountain on this side, to make it right? While I reach for the spices, the moon rises...

 

Or over here a rising sun, while having breakfast with our son. And a beach, right in our reach...

- Yours truly :)

You've gotta use your imagination for a while still to see through, but not for long. We just ordered three windows (Seitz S4) from Germany and they should be arriving soon! In addition to the kitchen and dining area windows, we ordered a small one for the toilet, to give the illusion of space in that 1m2 booth.

Can't wait for Riku to install them! :) We would have actually enjoyed the sun already while working had we had the dining area window, since that side is facing south.

Here's an example of our window:

 www.woelcke.de

The windows have integrated curtains and mosquito nets. We are also considering the fridge and stove in the picture.

Have a great week!

/ Tiina

Planning planning

Last weekend we finally got round to marking all the spots of the structures and furniture inside the container. We have a nice layout made for us by the local carpenters and we decided to test it in real size. The weather has been great for the past week and the morning sun warmed up the top of the container wonderfully when we were inside at 9 AM :) The light was good even without any windows or lamps, the spring in Finland can be pretty awesome (or maybe it's just that it comes after the dark winter...).

Checking the measurements on the iPad

Morning light

Making sure the bed is big enough

Here comes the kitchen

Inspite the pics, I actually helped :) Next phase: measuring out the perfect sized windows, and then getting some to Finland!

/ Tiina

Truck at the shop

There has finally been some progress in the project after a slowish winter. We took the truck to a guy we know from the Volvo circles.

There it goes!

And there it is, at the shop

The container followed on a trailer. Our guy designed and built the subframe and we are really happy with the result! The subframe sits on a three-point mounting with the pivot at the back.

 

Of course the colors could possibly match even better...

The truck itself got some taking care of as well. The front middle seat was installed (it was lacking, but it'll be nice to be able to travel with everyone in front, if we want to). Also the back supports of the other front seat and the back seat were missing and got installed as well.

Our guy took the combo to the vehicle inspection, which is mandatory in Finland. Suprise suprise, it didn't pass!

So now we are waiting for some magic to happen :) Hopefully at the next inspection everything will be OK.

We will start working on the container when we get the truck back on our yard and the weather warms up a bit. We had a warm winter and now a slow spring. We bought 3D-plans for the interior design from our local carpenters, so we have great guidelines and measurements to start working with. The next purchase is probably going to be the windows.

Hopefully there will be some developments soon!

Have a great spring!

/ Tiina

Finally: it's clean!

The cleaning of the container wasn't as quick, easy or nice as we'd hoped. Naturally. I wanted to do it all myself, but after scrubbing the walls and the tracks (which really killed my fingers), the roof proved to be a bit much for my strength. I cleaned it though, but the result wasn't satisfactory, so Riku had to come in after me and scrub it again...

The walls I managed with one washing agent, one cloth and a screw-driver, but the floor wasn't co-operating as much. After a few hours of testing two different agents and a sponge (on one square meter of floor) we decided to wait over the weekend and go buy some real nasty stuff and a better sponge. Happily we know someone who used to work as a cleaner, so we got a good tip.

Well. As you probably guessed, the floor doesn't quite look as new. It will be nicer to walk on the floor from now on though. The water was pretty black...
But I finally got rid of that project. After being satisfied with the result of the final cleaning agent, it only took me two hours to clean the floor. On all fours of course. (I could definitely relate to Cinderella, after reading it as a bedtime story for a few nights...)

Before (the part next to the floor is already cleaned):

After:

  

Yep. Definitely worth the effort :)