I'm moving!

When I started writing this blog — A Voyageur’s Life — I knew it would find a different home, much like the character André in my to-be-published-in-September book, “Good for Nothing.” (He left his comfortable home to spend the winter in the wilds of Lake Superior country.)

I’ve moved — and will continue posting at my new website www.NikkiRajala.com (giving you the website is like pointing out the “lob tree” that marks which portage trail voyageurs should take). 

Please visit the new site, subscribe to the blog, “like” me on Facebook...

For astute readers who found this site, thank you.

Nikki 

Buy a copy of Some Like It Hot: The Sauna, Its Lore and Stories from the publisher, North Star Press of St. Cloud, Minnesota, Inc., or from local booksellers. 

For a signed copy, send $20 (which includes tax and shipping costs) to: Nikki Rajala, P.O. Box 372, Rockville, Minnesota 56369.

And they’re off…

In April, the fur companies in or near Montreal, Canada, were busy organizing the spring brigades — ordering new canoes, repacking trade goods, selecting canoemen, signing contracts.

In May, as soon as the fur companies received word that the ice was gone from the waters their voyageurs were to traverse, a thousand men and more, mostly French Canadians, surged out of Lachine, Canada, to begin their trek. In their two-month trip to Grand Portage, they would cross wild rivers and two of the Great Lakes in canoes laden with up to three tons of trade goods. 

After meeting at the annual Rendez-vous, most of those voyageurs would head back, their trade goods exchanged for an equal weight of furs — beaver, if possible, but also fox, marten, fisher, wolf and many others.

Nikki

Coming soon...

In the next few months, Voyageur Life will feature snippets relating to Good for Nothing, a book about a boy, André, who canoes with an experienced fur brigade from French Canada to the wilds of Lake Superior country in the early 1800s.

This new book will be published in September. It’s a joint venture of my mom, the late Agnes (Peloquin) Rajala, and me. We made up this cover to give an idea of what it might look like.

The blog — Voyageur Life — is for responding to your questions about the world André lived in. Use the “Contact” section of this site to ask your questions. If I can’t find the complete answer after researching, I’ll update the post when I learn more.

Nikki