This oak, some of the farthest north growing in the world, is of such slow-grown, dense quality that every time we tried to lower branches, our steel wires just broke. The second week's mission was rough-cutting the keel. To do this we pulled the keel with a tractor on log rollers so that the keel shouldn't touch the ground and get grit in it which would make later chain saw and then hand axe work impossible. Our third week was spent in gathering juniper from deep in the reserve. Juniper is necessary for making the wooden rivets used in the boat's construction to fasten in the frames, knees and so on.
Juniper trees grow very slowly and make a very resilient wood.
Where we worked deep in the reserve, it would not even have been possible to take in a tractor to help. At least we had three days of blistering hot weather this time before the predictable down-pour began. Our keel is safely in the river Klar lven now near our building site at Ola Ekblom's. The barn itself is very old and lends a pleasant atmosphere to the project. Just beside this is an old house which we have use of as accommodation, office and dining space for the duration of the construction.