We had spent the night with Maria's Grandma in Sieppijärvi and after a good breakfast, it was time for some chores. We had to clear the snow from the steps, the paths, the driveway and the garage roof. Yep, even the garage roof. Roofs in Finland are generally built stronger to cope with the weight of snow in the winter but there are limits and when it gets over knee deep, it's probably time to clear it. It's an interesting exercise for those not used to it - standing on the snow helps you not to slip, the snow you have stood on is harder to clear and the cleared areas are slippy as hell. Being the first clearing of the winter there wasn't a big enough pile of snow surrounding the garage to fall off 'comfortably' either so it was slow and steady but we got there in the end.

Chores complete, it was time to go and pick up Maria's other Grandma from Kolari and take her to the house in the forest at Venejärvi. Nobody had been at the house for a few days so first job was to get a fire going. While the house was heating up, it is back out in the snow to do more clearing.