Eric Hanson

John,

Yes, I have family in the Fargo-Moorhead area.  And Lefse is very common there, but that is also among the most Scandinavian place on Earth outside of Scandinavia.



Eric

Nicole,

I am so glad that you can actually recollect Lefse!  It’s not too often that I find people that do.  As I said, we have a Lefse griddle—which is basically just a big, flat, circular electric griddle that has no raised edges—that makes it easier to get those thin slices off.  My family always ate it with sugar, but one day I just thought that cinnamon would go well.  That’s my favorite way.

So funny thing about my wife and I.  I obviously got my father’s height (6’3”) exactly, easily attributable to Scandinavian ancestry.  But my wife must have gotten at the very back of the line when the height genes were being passed out.  She stands at 5’1”.  Swedish or not, I kinda tower over her.  By 14 inches.

And ah, a longboat!  Yeah, that’s one of those “if we only had time” projects.  I run into these issues all the time at school.  I always get hit with the “why don’t you do/build X thing!”  And always the answer is that I simply don’t have time.  It would be great, but then what would I NOT be teaching.

I definitely understand!


I do, however, want to know how this ends up working out.  If you are interested, I can give you some background information about Viking exploration.



Eric

Nancy,

Not a true compass but a magnetic needle!  That’s an excellent suggestion!

And absolutely correct—no civilization in history ever sent more than about 10% of its population off to war—who else would tend to fields, manage funds, and take care of general day-to-day stuff?

Absolutely correct,  relatively few Vikings went off on raids, but those long boats certainly look pretty fascinating!  And I am a huge fan of Lefse, it’s always a holiday treat!


Little fun fact.  It’s easy for people today to look at Scandinavia and think Norway, Sweden, what’s the difference?

The difference is huge.

Sweden is the more metropolitan.  It maintains significant trade and cultural ties with the rest of Europe.  It was a European superpower until it overextended and was beaten by Russia which took much of its place (about 400 years ago and I am grossly simplifying).  After that defeat, it adopted strategic neutrality which lasted until recently joining NATO.

Norway was (and kinda still is) the Wild West of the North.  This is where Vikings came from.  They had weaker trade routes which isn’t hard to understand if one just looks at a map.  The fjords did something interesting.  You could have one major landowners on one side of the fjord, and another on the other.  Unlike rivers which connect cities, the fjords were too steep.  Essentially you could have one virtually independent rural on one side and another independent ruler on the other.  This impeded the development of a solidified Norway for centuries.  And the Vikings were partly an outgrowth.  Arable land was at a premium and during cold periods, local harvests couldn’t keep up with hungry mouths—so off they went to find better land.

By late 19th century, Sweden had (and still had) a very conservative monarchy).  Norway has a constitution which was considered the second most democratic in the world, falling right behind the United States constitution.  

My point is that Norway and Sweden are very different.  And they have distinct cultural identities, even when they both immigrated to the United States!

My wife’s family is Swedish.  Christmas is fun and filled with Swedish food and traditions,

But I am Nowegian.  Lefse is a Norwegian food.  My wife never heard of it and her family was confused by it.

My mother in law likes to jokingly say that there is something wrong with me because I am Norwegian.  I like to smile back and say “you are right!”


Eric

Hi Ned,

Real estate is almost always a negotiation.  I have purchased one house and then the acreage that I now live upon.

I paid less than asking for each.

My first house I offered about 5k lower than asking (asking was about $98k) and it was accepted on the first offer.

My second was more of a negotiation and there were a couple of offers and counter offers before settling on a deal.  I paid less asking, but not a huge amount—the land was at a premium location.

The old rule of thumb was to settle at a final price that was 10% under asking, but I would round that up today.

Maybe a good place to start is offer 10% under and see how the seller responds.  I would guess that they make a counter offer.


But whatever you do, don’t make an offer that so low that it insults them.  At that point they won’t budge and might refuse to sell outright just out of spite.  This almost happened to us when we went to sell our first house.
 

So good luck with your negotiations!!!




Eric

Csaba,

I really hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I just did a quick search and unfortunately, it needs to be treated as toxic waste.  This is a sort of medium level tragedy because all the oak in that pile certainly is tempting.  And sadly, burning is a bad idea because of those same ingredients in the glue.  

About the only thing I can think of is to use the shavings as a material to compress into some type of brick—which probably requires more glue so the original problem compounds—and using those bricks as a structural material.  

I really wish I had better news.



Eric

In the cooler months, or any time I happen to be in really cold weather, I always dress in layers.  Simply having a base layer on the skin which keeps my skin both warm and dry does wonders to keep the chill off.


I love the responses here so far!


Eric

Hi Connie,

My very first thought is to take care of that bare soil and get just about anything growing so wind and water doesn’t tear it apart.  There are contractor bags of grass seed that are not designed for supper high-quality lawn grass, but rather just something to grow to hold soil in place.  That’s my #1 concern

But as for actual gardens, I guess you need some type of terrace.  I would start up top and make a pathway and a bed on the upslope section. It will be easier to reach it you reach up.  But this bed is likely only 1-2 feet.  I wouldn’t want to cut i. Too deep.

Also, you don’t have to make the bed the whole length of the slope all at once.  Start at the edge and work in.

As for material, you said stony clay, could you get some stones to make a 6 inch retaining wall?  Maybe a 12 inch?  Old cement blocks could work.

If you took old lumber a char the outside, that charged lumber becomes practically impervious to rot and decay.  It’s called Sou Shi Ban (my spell Checker is fighting with me so look that up and see what you can find.

You said that you cleared brush—does any of the cleared brush remain?  If so, you could make a wattle fence which is just wooden stakes (branches and twigs) pushed into the ground and other branches woven in between.  It won’t last long, but it’s free.


So there are just a couple of starting points.  If you have a picture, it could help.



Good luck, and if you have any other questions, fire away!




Eric

Nicole, I just came up with another one that is much easier to build and easier on the wallet.

It’s not exactly Viking, but it’s an old traditional Norwegian food—more like a pastry—called Lefse.  And for pronunciation, it’s Lef-Sa.

It takes potatoes, boils them, double mashes them until they are completely smooth and creamy.  From there they are placed on a Lefse griddle (it’s an actual thing you can get on Amazon.).  If you don’t want to get the Lefse griddle, a large flat surface griddle will probably work.  They are cooked into what is essentially a potato tortilla.  It is thinner and sweeter than a flour tortilla.  Once it is cooked, remove and place on a plate.  One batch will make a lot of Lefse.

When eating, traditionally the Lefse is buttered and then sugar is added.  My personal adaptation was to add cinnamon with the sugar—YUM!  Then roll into a little tube.  And finally EAT!! Yay!  You have yummy Lefse!!


Eric

It would be a big project, but how about a longboat?  Maybe 1/0 to 1/4 scale.

If you thought you could get some scrap metal, maybe a Viking Axe (not functional) or a replica of a Viking shield.


Eric

Ok, so I didn’t have the surgery—yet.  But neither did I get my garden beds started.  In fact, the field grass grew right up and I could barely see where I planned to put my garden in the first place.  So yesterday I got my tractor out, put the bush hog on and bush hogged the approximate borders of the planned garden area.  

I found two of my three beds that had been prepared with cardboard and branches, but the third blew away in a storm. I will see about re-establishing that bed soon.

But I have enough of a start now that the grass shouldn’t be able to swallow the garden again.  I will attach picture in a little bit.



Eric