We took a walk in the forest this morning - in the pouring rain.  I don't remember ever walking in the rain in February in Finland.  Very strange.  In some places the forest is so green you find yourself bending down to look for mushrooms! But there are none.  Not at this time of the year!   In other places the snow comes past your knees and there are tracks clearly visible: raccoon dogs, rabbits, deer.  An elk crossed the path in front of us just as we were nearing the back field. He wasn't in a hurry. 

Meantime, on the back field...

Peter and Fredrik spent several hours clearing felled alder from the back field hampered by about 30 cm of fresh powdery snow that even the Land Rover struggled to deal with.  In the end Peter ploughed a road to the logs and left it to freeze overnight.  Then on Monday he managed to get the Avant up there and pulled to logs out of the field and onto the trailer. This time of year the ground should be as frozen and solid as a rock but that hasn't happened so manoeuvring the machinery in the soggy bits is pretty difficult. 

We talked a bit about the visakoivu.  The plantations are now 15 years old so we should be thinking about spacing out the trees which involves felling some of them.  We will probably call in an expert to give us some advice.

Lots and lots of small birds - the nesting boxes looked fully occupied.