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- Jan 7, 2003
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When my grandmother was an old woman she developed green cataract. That made her eyesight almost disapear and she only got low vision left. She had always worked her farm and during the summer she held her cows loose in the forest daytime. This was the old traditional way here in northern Sweden during the times up untill the early and mid 1900ds. Farmers made fences around their crops and the animals were allowed to pasturage in the forest. In the old times the farmers needed young boys following the cattle around the nature to help with protection from wolf and bear attacks.
When I was a kid around seven years old my grandmothers eyes was so bad that she couldnt wander around the forest by herself as the risk to get lost or to injure herself was to big. I then began to live with her for several weeks every summer. I followed her into the forests to help her find the way. I had the eyes to se where we were and as I told her the looks of the nature She new how to guide us further into the forest and home again. I did this for several years and after hand I learned to find my own ways and my grandmother could stay at home.
This was the free life for a young boy. No hurry to get home again and an endless (for a boy anyway) forest to explore. I didnt need to stay with the cows all day as the days of wolfes were gone by. I followed them into the forest in the morning and sometimes in the afternoon they came back by themselves and sometimes I had to go finding them. The leader cow had a bell around her neck so they could be found by listening.
In the duty of cowboying a knife were needed. I had my small frosts mora to carry. My unkle gifted it to me when I was a kid and it was in my childhood and early youth my only knife. It had a brown birch handle of more shaped form than an average reed handle mora and it han a real leather cheat. It was an simple knife without fingerguard.
My grandmother had chowed me how to cut a whip out of osier for help to drive the cows the right direktion. A boy is small and sometimes has to be resolute to gain the respect of the big cows. She had also showed me how to use the knife to peel birch barque from the trees to make a ear trumpet to listen for the cowbells over distance.
Sometimes out of schear pleasure I made myself pipes of sallow to play on. My grandfather spent some of his evenings making foihingpoles and go fishing with me and during those trips we wittled and made stuff if the fishing was tardy. He had showed me how to sort out a good branch and gut it into a pipe with the knife and genty tapping the pipe with the handle of the knife to get the bark to loosen and come off.
I also used my knife to cut myself woodknifes, swords, spears and arrows.
Making arrows to my homemade juniper bow was a often recurrent occupation. I mosly carried it with me for amusement and I also remember a feeling of protection carrying it al by myself in the wast forest. B(een hearing a lot of storys about bears and souch from older ages.) Often the arrows got broke or lost so it was always a hunt for new material. During those days my knife and my juniper bow was my most treasured items and I took good care of the things. I still keep the knife but the bow is lost. it lost its walue for a time when it was the airgun that was my main weapon but I think it would have been nice to have it now. It was a strong bow for a young boy.
During this times my grandfather thought me the first lessons about sharpening the knife and I belief it was fairly but not very sharp. Can remember only one time I cut myself and that was during fishing.
Bosse
When I was a kid around seven years old my grandmothers eyes was so bad that she couldnt wander around the forest by herself as the risk to get lost or to injure herself was to big. I then began to live with her for several weeks every summer. I followed her into the forests to help her find the way. I had the eyes to se where we were and as I told her the looks of the nature She new how to guide us further into the forest and home again. I did this for several years and after hand I learned to find my own ways and my grandmother could stay at home.
This was the free life for a young boy. No hurry to get home again and an endless (for a boy anyway) forest to explore. I didnt need to stay with the cows all day as the days of wolfes were gone by. I followed them into the forest in the morning and sometimes in the afternoon they came back by themselves and sometimes I had to go finding them. The leader cow had a bell around her neck so they could be found by listening.
In the duty of cowboying a knife were needed. I had my small frosts mora to carry. My unkle gifted it to me when I was a kid and it was in my childhood and early youth my only knife. It had a brown birch handle of more shaped form than an average reed handle mora and it han a real leather cheat. It was an simple knife without fingerguard.
My grandmother had chowed me how to cut a whip out of osier for help to drive the cows the right direktion. A boy is small and sometimes has to be resolute to gain the respect of the big cows. She had also showed me how to use the knife to peel birch barque from the trees to make a ear trumpet to listen for the cowbells over distance.
Sometimes out of schear pleasure I made myself pipes of sallow to play on. My grandfather spent some of his evenings making foihingpoles and go fishing with me and during those trips we wittled and made stuff if the fishing was tardy. He had showed me how to sort out a good branch and gut it into a pipe with the knife and genty tapping the pipe with the handle of the knife to get the bark to loosen and come off.
I also used my knife to cut myself woodknifes, swords, spears and arrows.
Making arrows to my homemade juniper bow was a often recurrent occupation. I mosly carried it with me for amusement and I also remember a feeling of protection carrying it al by myself in the wast forest. B(een hearing a lot of storys about bears and souch from older ages.) Often the arrows got broke or lost so it was always a hunt for new material. During those days my knife and my juniper bow was my most treasured items and I took good care of the things. I still keep the knife but the bow is lost. it lost its walue for a time when it was the airgun that was my main weapon but I think it would have been nice to have it now. It was a strong bow for a young boy.
During this times my grandfather thought me the first lessons about sharpening the knife and I belief it was fairly but not very sharp. Can remember only one time I cut myself and that was during fishing.
Bosse
