Mika Lappalainen | Friday, 17 March 2023
Weekend it was warmer again. That means that instead -20 celsius (-4 Fahrenheit), it was -10 celsius (14 Fahrenheit). Saturday I was still busy with guests at farm. Sunday I had planned day off, only Satu need some help with background work in the morning. And afternoon we had planned husky sleigh ride with our winter team.
So after helping Satu, I decided to do some casting training. I realized from very beginning that it will be cold training. It was sunshine, what I didn't realize earlier was that there was cold breeze. So basically it felt more like -18 C(0F).
I started with warm up casting, short line with loop control and then getting line shortly longer and back to shorter line. Before starting planned accuracy training, I tried that 3 pulls competition which Paul introduced couple of weeks ago.
Some of the guests where walking by and they probably thought that I have lost my mind when casting on that weather in middle of winter. Anyway it was time for my planned accuracy casting.
Instead placing ring on the ground, I put ring to stand in the snow. I got this idea one night when thinking about how to train casting to under trees.
Idea was that I will cast thru and get "fly" landing just behind hoop. This one is easy basically, of course you need to have accuracy, same as placing hoops on the ground. You could say it is same which it is pretty much.
Other exercises I did on the standing hoop was practicing casting under a tree or into a hole in the bush. In this my goal was to have meter or two flyline thru the hoop and of course leader and fly also without hitting the hoop.
I was really getting into this. I forgot cold breeze, and I found myself standing by the river. I did training about 15 min when I saw that our staff where moving reindeer sleigh from driving place to yard. I knew that there is something wrong and my casting was interrupted.
I went to check what was wrong, hoping it was something simple that they could fix once, I told them how. I was told that the shaft (not right word, it is basically pole, aisa in Finnish) broke when the sled fell over in a corner at speed. It was not fixable so I had to re-built new. It was urgent work, if I wouldn't find new pole for replacement, I had to go and cut a tree and make one. Luckily I still had two spare poles and luckily one was exactly same length than original one.
I just had to replace the pole, rewire and it was ready to go. Anyway, it took a while, even though it was an easy task, so the practice time ran out. We were supposed to go on a husky tour. In any case, I found the exercise interesting and useful, and I will continue it next week when it is quieter on the farm. Now the hoop is standing still in the snow and the guests ask what its purpose is.
My family already knows I'm losing my mind and now probably strangers too
Have a nice weekend!
