#22 Silent

New Year - New Samuel. From today I will write all reports in English. I think it is important to learn not only to speak English, but also to write.

No, of course it was just a joke, but I can already imagine the surprised faces... especially from my siblings :D

But how was the New Year's Eve for me?

On Saturday (31.12) it was my turn to inaugurate the sauna as the first person in winter. The problem was: on one hand, I was afraid that the big window would burst, as it has already happened once and that was not even in winter, which meant that the danger was even more likely due to the greater temperature difference. The other problem was that the sauna also had to "thaw" (my theory) and therefore it took ages for it to even start warming up. And while you were saying "Happy New Year" in Germany (3pm in my time zone), I was enjoying the sunset. However, it was only 45 °C and therefore not even close to the temperature I wanted, so I was a little disappointed with this first sauna session. But even though I was able to relax a bit, it was time to start getting ready for the "Big Party". We were invited to our neighbor Peter's place. In addition to us, all the other neighbors were also invited, so I assumed we would be celebrating New Year's Eve with six people. After all, apart from Jenny, Fatih, Dave (who is currently in Argentina) and myself, there are only three more men living here by the lake. Furthermore, I was told that the New Year's Eve party would start at 8 pm and last at most until 10 pm. So we went to Peter's place at 8 pm. On the way there (it's only about 50 meters. I have never had such a close neighbor in Canada :D), I saw a beautiful starry sky and I was already looking forward to seeing it at midnight. But first, the party: you can't imagine how surprised I was..... there were other people there too. In total, there were 15 (!) people. They were probably neighbors from the third side street, 31 kilometers away or something. On top of that, the average age was not 70+, as I initially thought, but thanks to Fatih's and my presence + two teenagers, it was around 40+. It was also so weird, you greeted each other and then already wished Happy New Year and I was always thinking....uhm no, we still have to wait a bit. Apart from the average age, the "party" was rather quiet. We drank a glass of champagne to toast and ate sweets. Surprisingly, we were home by half past ten. I don't think a New Year's Eve party has ever lasted this short here. Since everyone went to bed, Fatih and I decided to start a fire and welcome the new year together. Unfortunately, a huge layer of clouds appeared during that time and we couldn't see anything......until shortly before midnight, when a hole in the clouds formed right above us and I could admire the beauty of the stars for the last time in 2022. It was so cool, everywhere else it was heavily cloudy, only above us the stars sparkled - a dreamy ending. I really wanted to go down to the lake at midnight, so in the last minutes of 2022, I had to fight through deep snow. On top of that, it was snowing super fine snow + fog, so I felt like I couldn't see anything. Then it was time, while you might still have been sleeping or already having breakfast (9am German time), the last ten seconds were running down for me and I think Fatih felt a bit out of place. For him, New Year's Eve is nothing special, so he just stood there while I counted down loudly from ten and then at exactly midnight shouted "HAPPY NEW YEAR" into the mountains and thanks to the echo, I was wished a happy new year seven times :D Then we stood there and heard nothing, I mean really nothing. It was the quietest New Year's Eve of my life. I've never experienced anything like it. So you stand there, at or on the lake at midnight and it's just silence....I suspected that thanks to the echo of the mountains, you might at least hear something from the distance, but no....it was just silent. This place is probably a paradise for every animal, as they can escape the stress of noise. I then used up all my New Year's Eve ammunition. That meant I stood on the lake with my two sparklers and enjoyed myself. Then we went back to the fire, sat there for a while and around half past one I went to bed. It was a completely different experience to have such a New Year's Eve without a big party and without noise. Interesting, but I prefer at least a small New Year's Eve party.

I started the new year the way I ended the last one - with a sauna. This time I also reached 70 °C and thus almost reached my home sauna temperature of 90 °C. I thought about the fact that if I had used the sauna at minus 45 °C, then when I went out I would have had a difference of simply 115 °C - I would probably have died from a temperature shock. :D I'm already dying here, when I rub snow on myself. It's even worse than a bucket of water.

Otherwise, the focus in January is on the preparations for the workshops, so on Monday we started our first hike. We only walked twelve minutes into the forest, but I was completely exhausted and drenched in sweat. Of course, we are looking for places here where no one else goes, which means that the snow there has been there for a bit longer and that in turn means that we had to wade through knee-high snow - by the way, I just measured, my knees are at about 18-19 inches (about 45-48 cm) height. It's a real torture. But just going deep into the forest is not enough. You have to find a suitable place that is very open and not covered by too many trees, plus the sun has to shine there ideally for several hours and it must be absolutely quiet. We found a first place and then looked where to set up the "shelter". The distance between the animals and me is then a maximum of 20 meters. Jenny also told me that many cougar tracks were seen nearby on a private property. However, according to her, the probability of encountering a cougar is only one in a million, as they are extremely shy and that's a good thing, because I absolutely do not want to encounter a cougar. My ranking is: coyote, wolf, bear (probably hibernating), cougar... simply because a cougar can become even more dangerous than a bear and these animals feel like they consist only of muscles. I also have to say that I am very curious about how I will react when I see coyotes, wolves or lynxes up close for the first time, because I have to be calm... after all, there is a person sitting next to me who is also seeing these animals up close for the very first time (all customers* this year are here for the first time) and I may have to reassure him/her, not the other way around. It will definitely be a very interesting (and cold) time for me. So far we have found four places that are suitable for the workshops. On Thursday, Fatih and I had to go out again. This time we had to clear the paths of ice so that we could get in with the truck. By the way, it is absolutely no fun to hack and shovel through about 30 centimeters of snow and ice. After we have cleared all the access roads more or less, now it was also time to lay out the first baits. We will do this several times a week from now on to maximize the chances of wildlife sightings. In addition, we will also set up wildlife cameras to verify if the places are really suitable, because nothing is worse than dissatisfied customers due to a lack of wildlife sightings.

In addition to all the hikes, the focus this week was also on sawing and chopping wood, because the wood stock in all the wood storage areas has to be filled as much as possible, as we won't have time to chop wood during the workshops. So these weeks will be stressful anyway, Jenny has been telling me that for weeks now. Fatih and I will have three jobs at the same time over several weeks. We will be the guides, waiters, and cleaning staff all in one. On top of that, we only have a short period of time for cleaning all the cabins, as the customers* from the first workshop have to be taken to the airport and the next ones have to be picked up directly. Maybe I should already start going to the sauna several times a week to maximize my level of relaxation :D

Today we received the bad news that Dave has contracted Corona at his current workshop. Unfortunately, this is increasing the stress level here faster and higher. I hope he returns in time, because he is supposed to train Fatih and me in photography.... well, we will see. Then today Jenny and I heard noises while building and unfortunately Jenny suspects that it was a dying coyote. I told you about the guy who kills the animals here for fun. It is possible that a coyote got caught in his trap today and is dying there in agony, because these traps are bear traps that you may remember from old movies or pictures. I seriously wonder what kind of asshole you have to be to torture animals like that. I have nothing against hunting, I would like to try it myself, but this idiot kills and tortures the animals for one reason only - fun. I just hope it wasn't a coyote in a trap.

Well, now it's time for dinner and then the next sauna awaits me.

Until then.

Samuel