To ready for the ritual of greeting Tuukka forces himself to do chores in the night. This lets him sleep in the day to be awake at night.
Day 1 of the 2nd week before summer season
In the dark of night Tuukka returns to an ant nest he had marked on an earlier day. He shaves off silver as instructed. Its strange to see the silver fleck into the nest. He stays up until the small hours of dawn. He never saw the gray man. Tuukka wonders if he should try again once on the mainland.
For now he has his own punt to replace. The snows have receded from his thighs to his knees.
First he makes a fresh batch of pine tar glue. The good amount he will need for mixing for the steaming and later sealing. A mix of roasted fish and rye baking sustain him. The “sacred” log from across the waters is cleared of its bark into a log shape. That took a day the next day he’s studying the log. There are defects in this tree he’s not sure about cutting through.
Frustration is settled with fishing sessions. Getting off his stool for a walk he checks a birch. Finally the birch bark is in condition to be pulled off. Frustration grows again as two trees are felled then converted to logs to find defects making them inappropriate to continue. Tuukka made one already. Perhaps the Gray Man of the forest didn’t appear because of some imbalance in the spirit realm with tendrils around Tuukka. Tuukka decides to head to the village to hire one of the woodsmen.
Speaking to Olaus its learned old man Teppo needs chores done. It simple work done in a few hours. While doing it a hare ran by very close. Perhaps a sign the woods are calming to Tuukka.
Day 2 of the last week before summer season.
Today green greets Tuukka. The snows have melted in blotches. The sea ice seems to be weakening.
Tuukka hasn’t yet found a viable tree for his second punt. He made one before so it is a little confusing to him. Now he will either have to use the raft or just keep trying. With the bark of the various trees harvestable he gathers quite a bit of birch and rowan. Rowan bark is worked into a set of tassets decorated with elk bones, the bones of the first animal he found in the ice here at the landing camp.
Tuukka takes a break by working on other projects, making fish glue for a bow. He fells a possible birch and sections it up. Nothing really looks too god for bow making.
Coming back fresh minded to the punt Tuukka gets started on the punt again. He tries on one of the partially worked trees. It really is looking full of knots and parts that might crack. Struggling for days Tuukka comes to appreciate the value of skilled woodsman like Kyotsi. Was it one of the trees he had worked on?
Day 5 of the 13th week before midsummer.
Tuukka has three pointed logs all with concerns and one unpointed log around the fishing camp. Its time to just get going on one of them. He chooses the original intended “spirit” log from the other island.
There are many steps where he can clean out problems so long as the material that is left is the good. He turns the log to a slight angle to aim the worst at the top. Hacking the start of the opening and starting the burn Tuukka starts getting around the worst parts. He reshapes the bow and stern to compensate. It might turn out okay after all.
The next day he continues digging deeper with the adze. New fires started inside. Tuukka smiles then laughs. Its coming together decently after all. Maybe he was too nervous. Still a better start is always good. One must do with what can find, or something like that. After that days hard work he works the traps at the landing and logging camp. The landing camp traps he leaves the section he has to walk a ways to check down so as not to accidental leave caught animals suffering.
A few days later Tuuka has done the deep digging then pitch-steamed the walls to expand the boat shape. He finishes it off producing a decent Finnish punt. Its not as magnificent in his mind as the first one but it will do well on the seas.
Day 3 of the 12th week before midsummer
Skillfully Tuukka paddles in his new Finnish punt. A testing is done fishing between the two islands. To honor the boat the first fish caught is thrown back. Probing along the ice packs Tuukka does a few yards of dragging overland to slip around a sheet of ice. Then he paddles along finding a narrow path where the punt just squeezes by. A pleasant sea battle on a sunny day finds him sailing onto the beach at the landing camp!
Checking stores he’ll have to leave wood and other stockpiles behind.
<Tuukka sailed to landing camp>>>
(OOC: a bit confused over why he couldn't make the pointed logs when he did it before. Has the same tools and his skill is better. Did tweak the recipe to shorten the time slightly. Its supposed to be doable with stone tools.)
IF you wish to learn more of this type of punt there are links in the BAC text which is as follows:
// >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
// Finnish dug out punt
// uses 6 steps
//
// Brygun's inspiraton based on discussions at
//
https://www.unrealworld.fi/forums/index.php?topic=4661.0// espicially Erkka (co-dev of UrW) sharing a youtube
//
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kW7BdhOZZ_c&t=4s//
// Requires a Stone adze axe or Iron adze axe
//