Summer
Three rounds, and the long half hour between them
The shape of an ordinary evening in the pirtis: how long each round runs, why the second one is the good one, and how to tell when to stop adding rounds.
Every note · Ignalina
Steam notes
Newest at the top. The first note that survived being typed up is from 18 June 2024; before that there are cards in a tin by the door, written in pencil that steam has mostly taken back.
Winter
Into the lake in February: the hole, the ladder, the walk back
Keeping an ice hole open through a Lithuanian winter: measuring the ice, the ladder and rope, how long anybody stays in, and the round that follows.
Spring
The bench: what is actually rude in a shared pirtis
Who runs the steam, where to sit, when to talk and when not to, and how to bring somebody new into a small lakeside sauna without spoiling the evening.
Autumn
Three hours to first steam: heating a cold lakeside pirtis
How a wood-fired stove in a log pirtis really warms up: what to burn, what the stones do while the room is still cold, and when to stop feeding the fire.
Summer
Cutting and drying birch vantos in the ten good days of June
When to cut a birch whisk in eastern Lithuania, which branches to take, how to bind it, and how to dry it so it still smells of the clearing in March.
Timings and temperatures belong to one stove in one log room and travel badly. Where a later note contradicts an earlier one, both stay up and the later one says which it replaces — the reasoning is in the notes on how these pages are kept.