Saunas

[Cooper Registered Find all posts View Profile Close Cooper]

Medical use of tar.

Thanks for the post, Jaska,

I have a visitor here from Jacksonville, Florida, and we have just discussed with her the medical use of tar (I quoted your proverb, my question) and she happened to know what it was about and gave me nearly the same explanations.

Thanks again.

Yours for sauna, tar treatment and many other things,

[kpaavola Registered Find all posts View Profile Close kpaavola]

Medical use of tar

Cooper, another medical use of tar is for ezcema. My sister-in-law had a bad case many years ago and received a tar treatment at the Mayo Clinic. It helped the condition but it wasn't a cure.

It amazes me how ingenious our ancestors were. It kind of makes you wonder about the 1st guy who thought of using tar: "I wonder what this thick, smelly black stuff will do if I put it here?" .........

[Skip Sunnell Registered Find all posts View Profile Close Skip Sunnell]

As a child, I had relatives in Poulsbo who had a sauna. It was wood fired and always on when we were to Sunday dinners there. The cooling option was either a hose off the pump or a jump in the bay.

I had a sauna in the last home I owned in Eugene, Oregon. It was the family 'meeting place' every Friday evening after work. It was a time to re-center as a family. The sauna experience seemed to allow the kids to talk more freely about what was going on in their lives. I made an electric heater out of an old dryer, and built a cooling room (with shower) outside the heat room.

Last year I put a 12 x 20 foot shed out back. I plan to construct a wood fires sauna in one end of it next Spring. Mentally and physically, I've found its always good for whatever 'ails' me.

When we lived in Alaska, we found there were many creative ways to build a sauna. We enjoyed many an experience there with primitive models that really worked well.

[Cooper Registered Find all posts View Profile Close Cooper]

Re: Medical use of tar

Originally posted by kpaavola
Cooper, another medical use of tar is for ezcema. My sister-in-law had a bad case many years ago and received a tar treatment at the Mayo Clinic. It helped the condition but it wasn't a cure.

It amazes me how ingenious our ancestors were. It kind of makes you wonder about the 1st guy who thought of using tar: "I wonder what this thick, smelly black stuff will do if I put it here?" .........

Right you are,

Sometimes it really makes me wonder if we acqire knew knowledge in the course of life or lose what we already had on the subconscious level.

[Cooper Registered Find all posts View Profile Close Cooper]

Sauna as a therapy means.

Originally posted by Skip Sunnell
As a child, I had relatives in Poulsbo who had a sauna. It was wood fired and always on when we were to Sunday dinners there. The cooling option was either a hose off the pump or a jump in the bay...

Good thoughts, Skip,

The sauna can easily become an excellent means of treatment both physically and/or mentally and/or spiritually.

Thank you!

[Cooper Registered Find all posts View Profile Close Cooper]

Re: Saunas in US

Originally posted by June Pelo
Here is a sauna my cousin Roger Johnson built on his property in Ely, MN. They use it all the time. I have another picture somewhere of the sauna my father's cousin built in Detroit, MI many years ago.

June

I promised to send a picture what a sauna here in Russia looks like.

Here is one, a detached one.

[June Pelo Senior Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close June Pelo]

Saunas

Cooper,

Thanks. It looks like some that my relatives in Finland have - although it seems that most of theirs are painted red and white.

June

[sune Registered Find all posts View Profile Close sune]

Re: Saunas

Originally posted by June Pelo
... t most of theirs are painted red and white.

During the 19th century there was reportedly a regulation that the houses of the peasants in the country side should be painted red with white corners and the gentry's and the vicarages should be painted yellow with white corners.

Therefore yellow and red are still popular house colours in Finland.

The Finn's idea of paradise is said to be "a red cottage and a potato field".

Sune

[June Pelo Senior Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close June Pelo]

Saunas

I agree about red and yellow houses. I saw many of them in Finland. And I know they love potatoes. When I stayed with some cousins in Faboda, they cooked a huge pot of potatoes for our meal. I noticed everyone filled their plates with potatoes, while I took about 2-3 pieces. They asked me if we don't like potatoes in America! And they said that even their 2-year-old baby ate more potatoes than I did! My father loved potatoes and we had to have them on the table every day.

June

[Skip Sunnell Registered Find all posts View Profile Close Skip Sunnell]

Not to be out-done re: outdoor sauna's, I've attached a picture of my "future" sauna when I get the heat in it, framed, and appropriately lined with cedar walls and benching. It will be wood fired.

Re: potatoes: When a youngster, my dad purchased an acre of land out River Road (which was then country) in the suburbs of Eugene, Oregon. He planted the entire acre in potatoes. We ate potatoes VERY regularly. He gave the access to our family relatives. Somehow it was good meditation for him to till the land, dig the potatoes, sack them, and dispurse. I guess you can take the farmer off the land, but you can't get the farm out of the farmer. I purchased just under two acres on our property here that I'm busy "re-arranging" with my tractor.

[June Pelo Senior Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close June Pelo]

Sauna

Skip,

What a beautiful location for your sauna. Do you have a lake nearby to jump into after a sauna??

June

[Skip Sunnell Registered Find all posts View Profile Close Skip Sunnell]

The flower bed in front is a dahlia bed. My aunt Aina (Finnish) got me into dahlias when I was in my early 20's. I've started growing them again.

There is a 3/4" underground pipe coming up at the back of the shed (directly from the pump). I will put an L shaped wind/screen break outdoors and install a large overhead shower head with a pull string for cooling off. In the winter when we drain all the outside piping, we will use snow to scrub with and shower inside the house last.

[Cooper Registered Find all posts View Profile Close Cooper]

Saunas and would-be saunas.

Dear Skip,

Your sauna looks great (though not red and white).

Good luck finishing it and getting the best of what sauna gives us all!

Attached I am posting a picture of a typical country cottage in Russia, used mostly in summer, with an in-built sauna.
I bought the one you see here for my in-laws.

[Paivi T Registered Find all posts View Profile Close Paivi T]

Yes, the sauna tradition is very much alive and thriving in Finland.

For example, both our daughters started taking a saunabath once a week at a very early age, around 6 to 8 weeks of age... When they were three months old, they started baby swimming. Each half-hour-long "swim" session was followed by a nice warm shower and a not-too-hot saunabath.

Our daughters are now aged 3,5 and 1,5, and both love the sauna. It's the best fun: at the merest hint that the sauna is now ready and waiting, they run to the bathroom and start taking their clothes off. Each girl has a tub full of warm water. They sit in their tubs and play joyously with their toys. That's the only "concession", as the temperature is quite normal for a saunabath, around 80 degrees Centigrade or higher.

For a good measure, our two Australian Terriers sometimes join us in the sauna and sit panting on the benches.

[sune Registered Find all posts View Profile Close sune]

My sister had an Australian terrier. It loved hot places. In our sommer cottage she (the terrier) always lied under the gas oven when our mother baked a cake.

Sune