Family Forest and Folk Museum

After the big family gathering, the next day started rather quietly, which was a nice change. After breakfast we went to see the cabin in the forest. Sissel and Terje actually have three cabins, one in Sweden which they use in the winter for skiing, a larger one near their place which they use for family get-aways, and this little one that was built by Terje’s grandfather many years ago as a place to sleep while working in the forest. In Norway much of the forest is owned by individuals, often connected with a farm. Terje’s grandfather would spend the week in the forest harvesting trees (or sometimes hunting) and come home on the weekend. This cabin was not large (even though in the early years it would often be home to 8 men who were all cutting trees (think of that smell!). It over-looked a little lake, and was perfectly secluded from civilization (at least that’s how it felt). Now it is a place that Sissel and Terje will go to for the afternoon, just to get some peace and quiet (it’s about 20 minutes by car from their farm). Both Beth and I thought it would be a lovely place to spend a couple of days. In some ways it reminded us of the Hedlin cabin at Christopher Lake, but much more secluded (see the picture).

After visiting the cabin we drove to the school where Terje worked for many years, and right around the corner was Oddlaut’s newly finished house. It too over-looked a lake and was built with a traditional look and layout. It has kept Oddlaut and her husband Thor busy for the past couple of years, and they were proud to show it off now that it is completed (and rightly so, it was a lovely place).

Here we picked up Oddlaut’s twin sister Marit, who would catch a ride into Oslo with us. However, before heading into the city we stopped at a nearby Folk Museum. This community effort featured a number of old buildings restored to their original condition, and showed how people in the area lived a century or two ago. We saw many interesting features of these houses, but the most interesting were the short beds (not only because people were shorter in those days, but also because the practice was to sleep sitting up in bed). There was also a cute device in the one kitchen which was a pole that extended from the floor to the ceiling and had a hoop attached near the base. This device allowed a mother to put her toddler in the hoop allowing the child to walk in circles (and yet stay safely away from the fire - sort of like a early version of a Jolly Jumper).

We didn’t have time to look at everything in this Folk Museum, but we saw lots, and gained a deeper appreciation for the way our ancestors would have lived in Norway… it was not an easy existence, though they figured out many clever ways to make life a little bit easier.

Before we reached Oslo we dropped Marit off at her home in Lillestrom. It is an apartment which we only saw from the street, as we needed to get into Oslo in order to attend a family supper at Kari Grande’s place. Once in Oslo it took a little time trying to find the house (if streets were laid out in a nice grid like prairie towns it wouldn’t be a problem!). After a few inquires we arrived at the right house, which is partway up a mountainside, thus giving the occupants a nice view of part of the city.