hytte
Overview
Table of Contents
Hytte layout
Note: floor plan created in slides.
Opening and Closing Up
These are, of course, ~equal but opposite.
- Unlock / Lock doors and padlocks (see keys)
- Open / Close all doors and the hatch to the attic
- Open / Close all the shades and curtains - be careful, they’re old!
- Plug / Unplug everything - in particular
- Unplug the fridge and leave the door open so it doesn’t get mouldy
- Unplug the space heater (as marked on floor plan)
- Make sure the light in Stabur is turned off (light switch just inside door)
- Sprinkle bark / Empty the toilet (see toilet)
- Fill up / Dump all water buckets and jugs (see water)
- Bring out / Put away the boat (see boat)
- Hoist / Lower the flag (see flag)
- Lay down / Prop up the mattresses
- Make the beds / Wash (see laundry), dry, and store (or take home) sheets and towels
- Put away / Bring out the outdoor furniture to the porch
Tasks specific to closing up:
- Refill the mouse poison
- Deal with the rubbish (see rubbish)
Keys
- Spare key to the kitchen door kept on top of the concrete brick underneath the southeast corner of Hytte - you will need to reach under the southern wall
- All keys are kept on the hooks next to the door between the kitchen and living room
- Highly recommend keeping your rental car keys here too - it is a right bugger to lose them!
- The toilet key (labelled Dass)
- The boat shed key (labelled Boat House)
- The well padlock (labelled Well)
- Stabur
- Padlock key (labelled Stabur Padlock, back of Marmot tag)
- Door key (big key on leather thong, unlabelled) - store in Stabbur door while there
- The paint shed key
- Many more mystery keys
Important keys. - Unlock living room door from the inside
- Store all padlock keys in Hytte while you’re there!
Hygiene
Toilet
Highly recommended
- Sprinkle a layer of bark into the bucket when you first arrive to avoid later stickiness
- Don’t be stingy with the bark!
- Pee elsewhere - if you don’t want to use the woods, use the Loo with a View!
The toilet is equipped with
- A red bucket with ~clean water (easiest to refill at boat launch)
- A basin & soap for washing your hands (toss grey water into woods)
- Spare toilet paper in the blue cupboard under the basin
- Bark and trowel - always sprinkle over waste to minimise smells
- All of this can be left there when closing up
To empty the bucket:
- Dig the pit
- Choose a patch of ~flat ground, reasonably far from any buildings - and the well! - preferably by the fence
- Mark out a ~3’ square
- Remove the sod - this may be easier in 1’ x 1’ (x ~4” thick) chunks
- Dig to ~18” depth
- Bring secateurs to help cut through roots
- Grab the bucket via the flap on the western wall, and empty it into the pit
- Helpful to prop up the flap with a useful stick
- If enough bark has been used, it shouldn’t be too wet or smelly!
- Fill in the pit, and replace the sod
- Rinse out the bucket in the lake (preferably east of Hytte given the prevailing longshore drift)
- Put in a few handfuls of pebbles and swirl around to get rid of anything tough
Rubbish
There are a few big bins at Hyllbrua (7718 Steinkjer, Norway) - both rubbish and recycling. Any bottles or cans can be returned at any supermarket to redeem the deposit.
Laundry
- Twin-tub washing machine is stored in Stabur
- Before use, place on the porch east of kitchen door
- Hose plugs into lower left side of machine, drain into a tub on the steps to the porch
- For power, plug in via extension cord (stored XXX)
- To wash:
- Fill left tub with clothes, warm (not hot!) water, and detergent
- Turn leftmost timer to run washing tub for however many minutes you want
- Drain water (middle knob)
- Move clothes to right tub for spin cycle (rightmost timer)
- There’s a little plastic topper that goes directly on top of your clothes within the spinner
- We ran the spin cycle in a few batches of ~3 minutes
- It should spin smoothly and fairly quietly - if it is thumping around, open the lid, press out some of the water, and rearrange the load
- Move clothes back to washing tub and fill with clean water to rinse
- Repeat spin cycle to dry
- Washing line and clothes pegs are stored behind the door between the kitchen and living room
- If raining, there are some bent nails placed around the southwestern corner of the living room around ~6’ high to hang the line from
Shower
- Portable shower is stored in the NW corner of the living room
- Charges via USB-A: make sure to properly replace waterproof cap onto charge port
- Fill the black bucket with the string attached to the handle with water (1 kettle hot water + 2/3 cold water)
- Hang bucket on the nail on the southeast corner of Hytte (eastern wall)
- Hang plastic holder and shower head on the plastic suction cup nailed to the southern edge of that corner
- Put pump into bucket, and press power button (under cap)
Food and Drink
Water
Typically, reserve the metal buckets for drinking (well) water, and the plastic buckets for washing (lake) water.
To get drinking water:
- Bring out the large plastic water jug (rectangular) - stored on the southern end of the kitchen counter
- Bring out a funnel (top part of a Solo bottle) - stored in a bucket under the stairs
- Bring out a metal bucket - stored under the stairs
- Unhook the pole with carabiners on the end from the metal hook on the vertical pole; clip the metal bucket on
- Open the well door and take the lid off the well
- Lower the bucket on the pole down to the well water - to fill the bucket, you may have to swish it back and forth
- Bring up the bucket, and pour into the water jug - it takes ~4 buckets to fill
- Replace the lid, close the door, and rehook the pole with carabiners onto the vertical pole
Hack for washing water: if its rainy, place buckets under roof drips in front of the porch - they fill up quickly!
Cooking
Mum’s oven thing
???
BBQ and Smoker
Misc
- Cooking outside
- BBQ, charcoal chimney, charcoal are stored in Stabur
- There’s also a smoker - but it’s a bit shit.
- There’s a flippable grill-pan, useful for cooking fish over open fires
- Coffee-making
- Aeropress, cafetiere
- Manual coffee grinder (big wooden ones)
Flag
There’s some tradition of flying a different flag on the day you arrive, and on Sundays, but that’s a pain - especially if its raining. There’s a penant kept rolled up on top of the medicine cabinet on the south wall of the living room.
To hoist the flag
- Untie the two ends of the halyard, and retie to the flag using a sheet bend or similar
- Be careful not to lose hold of an untied end!
- Hoist the flag
- If you are a proper boy scout, there is a way to do this to make it unfurl gloriously
- Secure the end with a cleat hitch
When lowering the flag, tie the two ends together with an overhand bend and secure to the pole with the cleat hitch
Tools (Incomplete!) Inventory
- Wet weather clothes
- Wellies mostly in living room
- Emily-sized wellies (from 2024) are in a box in the attic
- Spare waterproofs (inc. trousers) are hanging in the back bedroom
- Power tools (?Stabur)
- Chainsaw
- There are also steelies somewhere, I think
- Chainsaw
- Gardening tools (?Stabur)
- Secateurs (inc very long ones)
- Scythe
- Bicycles (Stabur)
- Various, all XXL
- Fishing gear (Stabur, upstairs)
- Oters x 2
- Fly fishing rod
- Normal rod