finnish summer week 1

we'll iäm back in finland if you havent heard; and just like last time if i failed to connect with you while i was in so.cal i apologize. so to recap i'm still living this GAP year to the fullest (wikipedia it if you dont know what it is. my GAP started by leaving a good career in social work for the last 6 years to travel and be the good samitan with an organization called Youth With A Mission. i did this cuz i was quite sick and dissatisfied with many things (much like supertramp in the movie 'into the wild' which ya'll should watch if you havent); really i suppose i was craving life change and since i can now be found in the Finnish country side dating a beautiful scandanavian woman and working the forest and the birds, i realize i have really obtained that (although received would be the most adequate description).
my story goes something slightly similar to that of a biblical one. if you might recall, jacob worked years to marry his wife and then was tricked into marrying two women and working twice as long (dont know which is worse). fortunately leena's older sister is about to be married and i only need to work one summer. leena's dad agreed to have me work on the farm for him for the summer and leena agreed to continue what seems to be a promising relationship. not too shabby of a deal: shoveling bird shit for smelling the roses.
since youre caught up and knowing that i am currently half way around the world i'll fill you in on week 1 (and if i havent mentioned i'll be here to sometime in mid-august so look for any catching up in so.cal to happen then...yes, just in time for usc football baby):
so the first day i actualy spent with leena's older sister. we planned a surprise party for leena so my presence was kept a secret and leena thought i was arriving a day later. elina and i went to helsinki for a concert of finnish ska (nothing like so.cal ska, it was quite horrible, sorry United Beat or whatever their name was. finland is way too cold of a place to be able to play, understand or listen true reggae ska) then we went to get supplies for the party. party was great leena, i think, is still in shock. everyone had a great time.
rest of the week has been great. my back is sore but my body feels strong from all the work (which really hasnt been that bad). i have always believed in the mind-body connection and there's something truly to be said about good sweaty work that brings peace to the soul. if you dont know, her dad owns ands operates roughly 250 acres of land (one american football field is about 1.3 acre if you were curious). its a lot of property, some of it is farmable and what is not is used to forest trees. hannu plants and harvests his forests every few decades and the past summers harvest partly went to leena's dts funds that helped us meet (random fact). usually he farms various grains (including wheat) but lucky me-this year is a rest year for the fields, so the majoritiy of the work i'll be doing is in the forest, with the birds and on the cabins.
since leena and i hadnät seen eachother in 5 weeks we spent our first day at the beach; very beautiful, reminded me of the oregon coast. the next day we planted some birch and pine trees. the next few days it rained and maintained about 40-45 degrees F (cold and wet) with me shoveling bird shit. really it was kind of cool and having leena doing virtually the same thing right beside me made it almost enjoyable (ok, i loved it). birds? yes, pheasant actually; he's been raising pheasant for about 15 years and during the summer the bird runs must be cleaned, and thatäs mostly my job.
one of the days we spent staining the wood on one of the many vacation cabins hannu has on the property and rents out every summer.
typically everyday i tend to the baby birds and make sure they have food and water and the correct temp intheir coop. then its off to do whatever hannu wants. after dinner i check the baby birds again and pick the eggs the adults have laid. its quite a good routine and you think they'd be used to me by now, but i still piss the momma birds off when i take their eggs (as you can imagine), but they're all cluck no claw.
this weekend we tended the eggs and the eggs about to be hatchlings so check out the link for pics below.
this week's self discovery: i think kittens are amazing to watch and adorable and iäm not ashamed to say; a sever allergy that iäve seemed to grow out has kept me from this secret. the second is that i believe stevie ray vaughn's voice was reincarnated into john maher...who knew he could sing and play liket that? really.

photo link