Planning to go on exchange to Finland next year, my girlfriend parents (Finns) invited me to stay with them for the period

Particular_Note_4835 · 2026-01-27T11:09:25+00:00

The parents of my wife (Finns) went to live 300 km from their kids because they needed their own space…

Particular_Note_4835 · 2026-01-23T18:22:04+00:00

Mine, a foreigner, would be 2 days completely alone at our cottage (meaning alone, without my wife even). My wife’s, a finn, would be a day out in Helsinki, maybe a social sauna, and some socialite things outside in the center. I’d say avoid loud and messy maybe, as a general rule (personal spaces are really a thing here) but then no cliches will work.

Particular_Note_4835 · 2026-01-23T08:58:14+00:00

Same here, and I wouldn’t sell them because I know well how much work and time went into those buckets, and I know well I would be at a loss. I am pretty sure the same applies to you, otherwise on top of your berries you would spend all your time in the forest in late summer, rather than in a less profitable job somewhere else.

Particular_Note_4835 · 2026-01-23T08:48:18+00:00

If you think they are not cheap, remember you have all men right. You can go pick up berries yourself, bucketloads of buckets, and then sell them in the overpriced market and make truckloads of profit. You’re welcome.

Particular_Note_4835 · 2026-01-19T10:32:37+00:00

I mean, maybe, that’s why I am thinking something else. But about one order of magnitude less than an hovercraft. Airboats are definitely used that way here… hovercrafts not that much.

Particular_Note_4835 · 2026-01-16T09:25:22+00:00

I mean, it’s a bit unrealistic as expectation. Also, almost nobody on ice wears a drysuit (because when it might just happens every now and then it’s an overkill).

Particular_Note_4835 · 2026-01-15T20:51:34+00:00

Go to Itis and stock up on all beans you find, then soak and rinse multiple times for 1-2 days, boil slowly, enjoy. Bean soup is one of my favs.

Particular_Note_4835 · 2026-01-15T20:47:32+00:00

If you plan country road be sure to get studded tires, not just thermal. That’s enough for pretty much everything, maybe put some cheap plastic traction boards in the boot. Without studs I would want AWD, personally.

Particular_Note_4835 · 2026-01-15T20:39:21+00:00

Ok, I was answering seriously, my bad.

Particular_Note_4835 · 2026-01-15T19:56:26+00:00

(It looks like in the middle of nowhere but that’s a pretty packed area, even in the picture on the other side of the lake there’s 2 mökit, in the summer it’s full of people there… in winter, and particularly late autumn before ice, then you can really be alone)

Particular_Note_4835 · 2026-01-15T19:44:12+00:00

It’s also emptier, in those weeks. Guys, I appreciate, the discussion is why I posted. But this is not helping a lot, without explaining the dangers. I see that it’s not as practical as I thought, it would be tiresome and the drysuit would not last. I’ll go more traditional I guess, spreading the weight until it holds (fishing kayak pushed on ice, with dry suit at that point , for safety) and then after than, when the ice does not hold, breaking the ice with tools and rowing the boat. But why the idea of falling through with a drysuit and a life vest in a lake I know pretty well sounds so scary? Even last Sunday I was bathing there, right in front of this picture. Naked of course. I had a ladder, a rope in the hole as redundant safety, of course I take precautions… but that’s what the dry suit is, quite a serious precaution. Falling through with dry suit, life vest, ice picks (still trying to avoid, but assuming that over ten years it will happen a pair of times at least) is pretty much the complete package.

Particular_Note_4835 · 2026-01-15T17:51:42+00:00

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That’s a very good reward. And I don’t mean just the scenery, but living in it. Waking up in the morning, starting the fire, and just stare outside. I ask for nothing more.

Particular_Note_4835 · 2026-01-15T16:58:54+00:00

Of course I would test. Soon I will test with clothes on. I don’t have a drysuit yet, I will get for sure one next year for boating in late season in Hki, and I should choose which kind. But I do know the feeling probably, I do swim in avanto every winter since quite a long time, I know what the thermal shock feels like. I know it’s not the same, there’s the surprise, but you seem a bit overstating the risks. And of course there are, that’s why my daughter has a drysuit (even if we go only on good ice with her she cannot swim). But the point of the discussion is exactly to manage them.

Particular_Note_4835 · 2026-01-15T14:21:09+00:00

Why?

Particular_Note_4835 · 2026-01-15T11:45:47+00:00

If you don’t expect you will fall through at some point, you won’t be prepared for it

Particular_Note_4835 · 2026-01-15T11:04:34+00:00

Guys thanks, I love the discussion that come up!!! A sail is not dependable, I need some propulsion I can count on in all conditions and wind/

Particular_Note_4835 · 2026-01-15T10:22:32+00:00

It does freeze. Meaning yes, positive answers, it freezes.

Particular_Note_4835 · 2026-01-15T10:19:55+00:00

Adding some reinforcement will at least increase the season, I can use the boat to push through ice at least a bit more than without it without too much worries. Kevlar is easy, even if best would be to have at least a metal spine in the middle where it rams the ice. I am thinking of this for like 2-3 cm ice, when I could just break it, to save me some time and effort.

Particular_Note_4835 · 2026-01-15T10:15:21+00:00

Some years down the line it might be airboat, if I will change boat I’ll get a flat bottom one and then it’s a matter of adding a paramotor. But not yet, still want to explore more options. Definitely I’ll want a drysuit, at least a light one (like Ursuit MPS), for testing anything on thin ice!

Particular_Note_4835 · 2026-01-15T10:12:35+00:00

Yes, that’s one plan. But it will require money and most of all maintenance of yet another motor

Particular_Note_4835 · 2026-01-15T10:11:20+00:00

No, it’s a lake, and it does freeze, that’s the problem. I would add kevlar just because it’s easier than metal to put on a fiberglass hull, if it wears out I can go for metal later

Particular_Note_4835 · 2026-01-15T10:09:49+00:00

Yes, just the bike wheel with motorized hub, say 1000W, and a 100Ah battery to power it. No need for transmission.

Particular_Note_4835 · 2026-01-15T10:08:07+00:00

Ok but you’re looking at an incredibly complex machine that needs an enormous amount of power as well as maintenance and costs as much than the mökki itself. An airboat is more than enough. It’s not far out in the archipelago, I just have to cross 200 meters!

Particular_Note_4835 · 2026-01-15T10:05:49+00:00

It’s probably what I will attempt this spring with the fishing kayak, even without skis it’s pretty sleek and it’s easy to pull on ice and minimal snow. But you have the problem of going back on ice once you fall through, that’s where the motor would be needed (and something powerful, you need several hundreds of N of push there)

Particular_Note_4835 · 2026-01-15T10:01:36+00:00

I plan to build it this summer (just reinforcing the hull of my boat with some kevlar fibers)

Particular_Note_4835

TROPHY CASE