Amerikasläktingar från Skog, Mark och Djupdal möttes i Malung, Minnesota, USA. Stanley Almqvist gav en kort direktrapport om livet här nu. Ingen nostalgi den här gången.
Här är ett sammandrag:
Here we’ve had a good summer — Lots of turists from all of Europe with campers pass by on their way to the mountains and the Wilderness Road where they can see reindeers and make snowballs all summer. It’s an escape from the hot weather and forest fires in mainland Europe.
Talking about weather — This winter the snow was extremely heavy — it crushed several porches in the village. The original Grahn house is still standing but the porch roof broke in in half.
The hunters är gravely disapointed — They didn’t shoot a single moose last autumn. The village feast celebrating the hunt with moose casserole was cancelled.
The Population in Skog is declining — We are now 27 people living in Skog, 7 in Mark.
Our cosy café on the Grahn homested Kafé Skogsblommorna isn’t open this summer.
But there are gleams of hope. A younger couple — younger than us — moved in to Alfhild Grahns house in Mark with 2 horses and 25 dogs!
And a single woman have moved back to her grandparents house in Skog.
The energy drain —A Canadian mining company seek permission to test drill in our valley including Skog, Mark. They hope to find rare metals like uranium.
The wind turbines are not here yet for now we give our lakes and rivers to the green conversion.
Trailer trucks are shipping timber day and night on the dirt roads thru the village.
On the plus side — A mobile phone tower is being built on the hill in Mark and the asphalt road by the lake have been improved. Maybe for the good of the people — maybe for making the exploitation easier?
The villages where we all have our roots — Skog, Mark, Djupdal — all homesteads and villages were built on saami land.
But be cool — we are all, part settlers, and part native. All Grahn-relatives have some saami descendents. Lapp-Lisa relatives like wise.
I’m not that sure about Elias Isaksson’s saami roots but he had probably saami relatives to.
Me and Jonathan Grahn saw remnents of the sami settlement in Djupdal but they were reacently destroyed by heavy machines.