Well, the mother sheep has been pretty uncaring - she doesn't let her lambs to get milk. I enclosed her in a small stall, and visit there four - five times a day, to firmly hold her on place so that I see the lambs drinking milk. That is the last thing I do before going to bed. And when I wake up, I cook coffee and take it with me into the stall, so that I can have my morning coffee while holding the sheep. I enjoy this kind of life, altough it makes me slightly sleep deprivated at the moment. But I know it will soon get easier, as the young ones grow up.

First of May is a public holiday in Finland, and I had no customers. In the morning the weather was fine; sunny and warm. Seemed like a good day for pikes to spawn. I filled water containers in sauna, and put firewood in sauna stove. Then I packed sausages and coffee and took a ten minutes walk to the lake. Nearest to my home there is a long, shallow bay - an ideal place for spike spawning. I went to check my "katiska" fish trap, and there was a small young pike in it. It was barely big enough to be a legal catch, and for a moment I thought what to do with it. I decided to keep it, as it was my first catch for this season, so it had a symbolical value. And, after all, it was worth a meal for me.

While cleaning the fish, I heard some splashing sounds from the lake - a clear sign of pike spawning. I went to take a look, and saw a bigger pike. Wading in the water I managed to get pretty close to it, and tried to catch it with a hand net. But the pike was alert, and made a quick escape. Well, I replaced the fish trap to a better location. As I was already hungry, I made a small camp-fire. I enjoyed two roasted sausages, and just when the coffee was ready I heard a lot of splashing. I took the hand net and sneaked closer - and was delighted to see that actually the splashing took place inside my trap. There were two pikes inside, a decent sized female, and a smaller one (a male, maybe. Sorry for interrupting...) I let the smaller one go free and killed the bigger one. Now that one was a nice catch.

Relaxing by the camp-fire I drank coffee and watched gulls circling over the lake. It was windy, but the gulls maneuvered skilffully. A couple of mallards flew by, and later on a lone swan came to visit the bay. Every now and then I heard pikes splashing. I wanted to try it once more, and with the hand net I waded slowly in the cold water - this time I was able to get pretty close to two big pikes resting next to each other. But again they darted away just the instant before being catched.

Later on in the evening I returned home. I brielfy boiled the smaller pike, so that it makes a nice food for the cats. Then I went to feed all the animals, again taking care that the lambs get their milk. After that I cut meat from the bigger pike, salted them and put them in the fridge. Bones and fins make a nice soup, so I put them simmering in a big kettle. When I was done with everything, I just went to the sauna, lit a match and put it into the stove. Pretty soon the sauna was warm enough for me.