Female complications, day 9

Work-out.

I remember that I have a lot backpack stuff in the cupboard that I mostly ignored unless I remembered something, but much of it is just stuff like the kitchenware and freeze-dried food. I'm likely to never get more, but I have six meals left so I'll use one to just show my sambos and bodyguards what it is and how practical it can be. I will also open and offer them some from my Pepsi can, but both of those will happen after Kari returns from visiting her properties.

The titanium knife-fork-spoon is nice but quite wasted just being stored away, so I'm considering turning it into something else. Above all, it can be valuable as medical aid, as bone tissue can grow on titanium and the body does not reject it, but even trying to operate and insert-attach it will be a nightmare I'm frankly unlikely to want to do, so it will probably never be used. I could easily replace the titanium bracelet on my one wristwatch with leather if necessary, but titanium has a very high melting point to be able to process it, more than 100C higher than iron, and I assume it might be tricky. I should look into trying to mine titanium ore in southwest Norway, but I reckon it's going to be a hell of a hassle to even try to mine it, if I ever succeed in actually produce a usable metal. Considering when it started being used and made things from it in Midgård, which I think is the 1950s, and it only became common in the 1980s, and from what I remember reading-seeing in documentaries, I assume it's not just smelting the right kind of ore. It is probably some advanced multi-step chemical process. Titanium had been useful for a lot of stuff, and frankly I would like 'just' giving Jane titanium oxide to paint with so she'd didn't have to use lead white. Talk about a ridiculously expensive paint if I need to make a mine and develop a special industrial process and smelter to produce it.

Still, I should really try to buy the land where there are large known mines in Midgård. Especially the iron mines in Kiruna, Malmberget in Gällivare, Taberg and Storforshei northeast of Mo-i-rana. Iron ore will be incredibly important, and there's plenty of money in it. If no one lives there, it's actually just a matter of building a house and having someone live there for the land to count as mine, with all the rights included. But all are huge projects, and most likely the workers in the northernmost mines like Kiruna will have to work in the summer months when there is light and the temperature is above freezing, and then leave with the cargo when the ground and lakes start to frozen in October, or do the transportation next spring via rivers and lakes. Sweden is known for its really good ore, and the Kiruna ore and Malmberget ore is damn good magnetite. From Kiruna the easiest way is northwest via Torne träsk to Narvik and should be something like 160km where most of the distance can go over lakes and the river, and following those lakes and the river is also the easiest way to find the right place and the right mountain. Kiruna is relatively easy to find, with good ore originally mined in open pits, if it's the same here. There are known mines inland closer than those far north, but I have no idea if they are here, or if someone is already extracting ore from them. The annoying thing is I actually have maps with mine symbols, but those maps doesn't say what kind of ore was mined or when. I do know about Taberg which is about 10-15km south of lake Vättern. In modern times it is a nice nature reserve, but Taberg is a distinctive mountain that really sticks out from the surroundings with a stream running in the valley below, and it should be very easy to find since it seems to be the same nature-geology here. And if the mountain isn't there, it will be obvious. I have to guesstimate about a 4-5 day journey into the country. Ugh! And now I'm annoyed that I saw a week or two as a chore, which is pathetic time and effort considering the enormous wealth it could bring me. Although a lot of costs and work before any possible iron production starts.

I should send an expedition to find the right place and try it come summer, and try to make some kind of agreement with potential residents nearby. If there are people living nearby. At Taberg and the coast by Mo-i-Rana there may be people and settlements, and according to Ovdhon there are scattered settlements very far north, far above the arctic circle, and at least some larger villages. There is two Jarls up there, but both ruling over a vast low population area. The Midgård Vikings had settlements all along that coast and considerably further north in Lofoten and even further north. Here in Alfheimr, the largest settlement and only real town is called Skorraey, but it takes a couple of weeks to sail there non-stop, and I honestly don't know where that town is. The description 'in a fjord on the coast a few weeks sailing north' covers a very large area, and the description match almost all of Norway's coast line. The culture here seems to have a lot of respect for those who live in the far north and the so-called 'Reindeer People' in the interior, and their sejd. Of course I want to stay friends with them, especially if I make mines in 'their' country. It's just smart to get the locals help, since they know the area and can survive there.

Alith is sleeping so Gunhild accompanies me to the villages workshop and the topic of conversation quickly becomes the role playing game. Gunhild and the other guards want to try it too, but they have to wait a bit so I can play a few times with my sambos. They are welcome to start playing by themselves with another game master. After a while, Gunhild changes the conversation topic to my sambo's new weaving project. I know myself, and discrete clothes are good, and I've realised that tartan can be look nice and work reasonably well as camouflage if the colours and patterns are done right. Hopefully I can get something that looks good and help blend in if I need to hide. Colours have been selected to match grass, pine, dead leaves and trees. If it works and looks good, it might be something our bodyguards also wear as a 'prettier' uniform. Jane is all for us getting a 'clan tartan', even if the colours are boring.

The new simple filing machine is ready and works. It is a very simple machine that is based on the scroll saw, but in this machine a file blade is clamped, and it makes vertical up-down movements and you just have to hold the part against the file instead of actually having to do the filing movement by hand. With the adjustable table as support, it becomes easier to make precise flat filings. I still have hope for a belt sander, but making the sandpaper itself is not easy. We will simply need to test whether fabric or leather is good enough, and what kind of glue and sanding material works best and how durable it is, but doing all those tests is something I leave to the craftsmen in the metal shop and carpentry. If something works for wood but not metal, that is still damn useful. But a future project and for now there will be copies made of the filing machine, with two in the metal workshop and at least one in the carpentry, because wood will of course be completely different from filing different types of metal. I will have one in my workshop in Thrymheim as well. I want to make a machine that makes files too.

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The carpenter Engdrid is given the task of making another horizontal loom to Kari who also wants her own. She has mentioned that her room is big enough for one, so that was an obvious clue, and she will get an improved loom as part of her future wedding 'morning gift'. It's a bit ridiculous how I keep the best carpenter busy with special work instead of him working on the buildings he's supposed to work on, but Pedr doesn't complain because it's work for me, and Engdrid doesn't complain either. I clearly need my own carpenter sooner or later, so I might just offer Engdrid the job officially.

Engdrid has finished the exercise machine so that is brought back to Thrymheim and put it in the gym. Ciara and Caecilia will make a couple of pads for sitting and the back for the exercise machine. The custom lead plates with a drilled hole for the shackle are finished, we just need to weigh them and hammer weights into the lead so that the resistance or work load can be varied. Sure, after making the design and drawings, I know how it's suppose to be used, but I gladly let Jane demonstrate how the machine can be used for various exercises, and officially I appoint Jane as Thrymheim's training expert, and everyone should go to her when they start using the machine and so on, so she can give them tips and advice for the right training and stretching. Frankly, many already ask her about stuff like that. Since the punching bag and medicine ball are also finished, the gym is now completely finished. It feels nice that a project is completed, and even though I didn't want the gym in the room it is, I might just motivate me to work out.

Preparing to test shoot the newest weapons goes pretty much on routine now, but we've had a lot of practice trying new weapons, even if the cold and snow make it a little more difficult this time. The new rifle with its new screw-on scope works just as well as the other two if not slightly better, and soon there are okay groups at 200 meters, but we continue to mark its sight to 600 meters. The double barrel shotgun works really damn well, and the two-shots feels good given how long time muzzle-loading flintlocks takes to reload. It just feels so right to stand on the shooting range, stock against shoulder with barrel pointed slightly down and wait for the moving target to start moving, and I let Olafr and my group try it. The biggest mechanical issue is obviously lubrication of moving parts, which I really should have expected. Modern firearms have problems when it gets cold and icy, and winterizing guns is a lot about what lubricant works and adjusting gas pressure and such. Alfheimr has incredibly limited options when it comes to lubricants.

Gunhild is so fascinated by the double shotgun, both for hunting and defence. A couple of blasts from one of these will probably break most smaller groups because the shock effect is not to be trifled with, and pellet size makes a whole lot of difference. Gunhild likes shotguns more than rifles, and truly loves to stand on the moving target range and wait for the target to start moving, and she have done that a lot with a bow. Alith likes all firearms. She loves all firearms, period, but seems to prefer the rifle and both the challenge of being a good long range marksmanship, but most of all the opportunity in hunting elk and other large game, and she has wondered if a bear could be shot with such a rifle, making me slightly worried. Had Alith been born in the right time and place, she would probably have loved to go on big game hunts on the African savannah with British nobility, with a Holland & Holland rifle in her hands.

Who knows? In ten years or so there might be a trip to the desert and savannah, but I'm guessing that Alith will have a family and children somewhere by then.

Ciara likes the recoil, loud noise, smoke and how dangerous it is, while Iselin just likes that it's powerful technology she understands and wants to use it, but it's just different kinds of fun for them. Jane seems to see firearms and hunting as something she should do, a bit like classic British fox hunting with hounds and riding in fancy clothes, and she thinks we should do just that sometime, just because it would be fun. Considering cloth sketches and other things, Jane seems to be trying to get my sambos to wear more modern clothes mixed with what she likes from history, which is a lot of corsets, plunging necklines, form-fitting clothes or ridiculously wide skirts, accessorized with big hats, hand fans and silly lace umbrellas. My pointing out that we live in Scandinavia and it generally doesn't get that hot, and shorts are better for keeping cool, only made Jane complain about my terrible Fashion Sense. She likes the 'Southern Belle' and 'Victorian Lady' style, and considering my projects, we could make a cool steampunk variant. Right now, there have been a lot of sketches of elegant furs. An animal rights advocate, she is not, but I really don't complain about that, especially with Alfheimr options. However, I have rejected her sketches of school girl uniforms. The academy will have some kind of uniform, just not that kind. And no damn ties for the boys.

Iselin is an enthusiastic ally to Jane, but I'm guessing that's partly because she wants to see Caecilia and Ciara in clothes and dresses that highlight their bodies and busts. She tries with Alith as well, much to Bodil's amusement. Iselin was obviously honest that night when they were playing Anna and Elsa, and she dreamily admitted that she loves seeing a beautiful bust with a nice neckline, and loves how uplifting bras and corsets can be. When she sees a nice big breast cleavage, she just wants to bury her face and enjoy and play with them. She likes to play with her own breasts or someone else's. Surprised me, because I thought it was mostly a stereotypical male thing, but Jane isn't surprised and knows straight women who have been even more breast-focused than Iselin.

Bodil and Gunhild show us how they started to do tactical exercises, especially with a bow, and Bodil show her favourite, where you start by waiting for the moving target to trigger, shoot that, then immediately run to an improvised short range and hit three different targets there from 15 meters to 30 meters, and finally runs to the long distance range and shoots at 60 meters. Points and time decide winner and score, and not surprisingly, Bodil is the best at this even in snow. Gunhild shows her favourite. Just throw a 10kg weight to the side of the short range, and run there and shoot at the target 30 meters away until a good enough hit is made and a point earned. Then throw the weight back, run over there and shoot, and repeat until the time runs out two minutes later. Most points win.

There will definitely be a real dedicated timing clock here in the future, preferably with 1/10th of a second timing, and probably a clock that counts down from a settable time between 2 to 5 minutes and rings a bell. We will also try to do similar exercises with firearms, which means that reloading done correctly and safely under stress will be important. Just not now in the snow and ice.