* HUT IN THE FOREST*

Peasant life in the North of our country is difficult to imagine without the forest. A plowman often combined hunting, fishing and forestry skills (collection of resin, extraction of tar, the procurement of coal, willow and birch bark, berries, mushrooms, etc.). Haymaking in the forest also forced not only to stay overnight but to live in the woods for weeks.

 Therefore, the cabin was simply indispensable. Not everybody would build it but it was used by all, from vagrants and beggars to merchants, and ending with the police officer if the cabin was standing near the road connecting the townships. Apparently, the hut in the forest is the most primitive, preserved in its original form, the oldest human habitation. A square cage with a single-window, with a ceiling of tightly finished spruce loges, with a flat or not very steep gable roof. The ceiling was insulated with moss pressed by a layer of earth. The door was made a small but tight, with the wood hinges made from birch brackets on the wooden hooks in the wall. Wide bunk beds made out of wooden planks were awaiting the weary workers. In small huts instead of bunks were arranged ordinary benches. In the middle or even in the corner was a dark, pleasant smelling with heat and smoke the trivet - hearth, built of large stones.

 Even now, an experienced hunter sets up a place overnight in the woods in an ancient way: after collecting rocks lines the bed of them on the damp, and even on frozen ground and starts on it the campfire. Heated, cleaned with the broom stones retain heat till the morning, it makes easier to beguile even the longest and cold night directly under the stars. Using this way a man created the hearth.

 Initially, the campfire was just surrounded by stones, then people learned how to build the walls, and that they would not fall apart, willy-nilly they had to bring the walls together. The cracks in the stone arch created an excellent draft. The bigger the stove, the less firewood was required and warmer was in the cabin. CO gas disappeared along with the extinction of coals. The chimney in the wall was closed and until the morning there was a warm and pleasant smell. The noise of wind in the frosty night forest forced to appreciate the warmth and comfort and to thank the person who built the cabin. A traveller quietly fell asleep with such feeling. In the summer, at the time of midges and mosquitoes, the smoke easily drove away from the cabin that numerous creatures.

No wonder about the good carpenter is said: "He hones the frame so that a mosquito cannot put his nose in." The cabin often had a parking space for the horse, sometimes it just was fenced, not cut, put the logs close to each other. A resemblance of the roof was arranged from light poles, pine needles and bark. Forest sheds on the banks of rivers and lakes were complemented with a boat mooring and lines for drying nets.