Giant sled for horses to drag fallen tree logs
Barrels not for wine or beer, but for preserving herring.
To begin with, let's review, this blog is about moving from San Francisco to Munich, and what has happened since. In case you haven't been to SF, we don't exactly have forests in the city. We pretend that we have some forests in small regional parks in the suburbs, but those are nothing like in Norway. A best I can tell from have been in Norway for a week now, the whole country seems to be covered in forest as thick as you would have to drive a few hours away from SF to find on the way to Tahoe.
Sample dragon carving from front of a Viking ship
Bag woven from birch bark peelings and sample folded peels
I give this preface to help make clear, I'm a city girl. I have been to mountains, and enjoy them, but I never really gave a ton of thought about all that goes into forestry. I now stand (well, ok sit on an outside deck) far better educated than I was before the forestry museum. There were multiple floors covering everything starting with the types of trees and wood and what it was all used for during Norwegian history; that much I roughly expected, because trees are the first thing I think of when I think forest. I learned how lumber was split before automatic saws, how major of an export lumber was especially after the London fire in 1666, and what items wood goes into today (including some processed food products that I eat!)
If I'm called on now after the museum tour for forest trivia, my next thought after trees is going to be about the animals in the forest or the fish in the rivers, which each comprised entire floors.
The animal floor had quite a few stuffed animals as models, exhibits on hunting and trapping, including the history and controversies therein, as well as information about non-native species taking over the forest. I found some of this area a bit too graphic for my taste, but see above - I'm a city girl. When I saw this critter above, I just kept thinking of the honey badger viral video.
There have been floods in Elverum over the last few hundred years that nearly reached the museum, and there is a stone marker indicating river lines showing the flood levels; Bjorn is pointing to the level from 1995.
Across from the museum is a bridge that leads to an island with an outdoor exhibit on the types of grass-covered cabins, including loads of samples of them. There were one-story cabins, two-story cabins, cabins with an opening over the central fire pit, cabins with two sides: one for people and one for animals, cabins with sod roofs, cabins with metal roofs, cabins with different types of corner joints, etc., but no cabins that looked very plush inside.
This was inside one of the more fully furnished cabins, complete with bunk beds and a table. It would definitely not be my first choice in living accommodations; I'd rather central heating and plumbing at the very least!
This was showing where tar comes from, and in case you are wondering, should there actually be a zombie attack that wipes out most civilization, the Norwegians will be just fine. They know how to live off the land in a way that I have never seen, unless watching a nature survivalist show. I mean, did you know where tar comes from?! This knowledge goes way beyond that acquired on any multi-day camping trip like many scouts in the US do.
There were also random extra boats from I'm not quite sure what, but I liked this one since it says SF on it.
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